We took a short trip to the Louvre today, we wanted to catch up on a couple areas that we sort of glossed over this summer. There is an area on the third floor northwest and it turned out that the areas we missed on our first visit contained most of the Northern European paintings and within the rooms were paintings by Hans Holbein the younger and Rembrandt. The problem with most of the maps and the like is that they don't really tell where any but the most popular works are shown on the maps so one is condemned to "wandering around" to find specific things.
A bit frustratingly, paintings like the Holbeins are located in little dead end rooms and unless you really ferret out each corner they are easily missed. Holbein was a court painter for Henry VIII of England and was in my opinion the premier portraitist of the that era.
Finding the Holbein paintings was tremendous but in the same room was a self-portrait by Albrecht Durer that is very famous. It could be noted on a map and never draw any criticism whatsoever, and this is just in a small room off to the side of a main room.
We stopped at this point and decided on a little afternoon break, so we went to a small cafe inside the museum associated with Angelina, a restaurant noted for the most decadent hot chocolate in Paris. Deb ordered a little pastry and San Pellegrino, but I held out and ordered the hot chocolate. It's almost like drinking hot chocolate syrup, so thick and delicious.
That break picked up both up and got us revved up for seeing the rest of the Northern European section where we came across the Rembrandt room. It's so fun to see four Rembrandt self-portraits all in the same room and there are a further 10 or 12 paintings that fill the room with another feast for the eyes.
Both Deb and I were taken by the painting of "Bathsheba bathing in preparation for her meeting with King David", it is really moving to see the pensiveness in her face as she contemplates the coming liaison.
In sum we felt quite elated in finding so many world art treasures within such a compressed area. And the topping on the cake was walking into an extremely large room and find perhaps 20 gargantuan Rubens murals created for the De Medici family celebrating the marriage of Marie De Medici to Henri IV.
We took a short trip to the Louvre today, we wanted to catch up on a couple areas that we sort of glossed over this summer. There is an area on the third floor northwest and it turned out that the areas we missed on our first visit contained most of the Northern European paintings and within the rooms were paintings by Hans Holbein the younger and Rembrandt. The problem with most of the maps and the like is that they don't really tell where any but the most popular works are shown on the maps so one is condemned to "wandering around" to find specific things. 
A bit frustratingly, paintings like the Holbeins are located in little dead end rooms and unless you really ferret out each corner they are easily missed. Holbein was a court painter for Henry VIII of England and was in my opinion the premier portraitist of the that era. 
Finding the Holbein paintings was tremendous but in the same room was a self-portrait by Albrecht Durer that is very famous. It could be noted on a map and never draw any criticism whatsoever, and this is just in a small room off to the side of a main room.
We stopped at this point and decided on a little afternoon break, so we went to a small cafe inside the museum associated with Angelina, a restaurant noted for the most decadent hot chocolate in Paris. Deb ordered a little pastry and San Pellegrino, but I held out and ordered the hot chocolate. It's almost like drinking hot chocolate syrup, so thick and delicious.
That break picked up both up and got us revved up for seeing the rest of the Northern European section where we came across the Rembrandt room. It's so fun to see four Rembrandt self-portraits all in the same room and there are a further 10 or 12 paintings that fill the room with another feast for the eyes. 
Both Deb and I were taken by the painting of "Bathsheba bathing in preparation for her meeting with King David", it is really moving to see the pensiveness in her face as she contemplates the coming liaison.
In sum we felt quite elated in finding so many world art treasures within such a compressed area. And the topping on the cake was walking into an extremely large room and find perhaps 20 gargantuan Rubens murals created for the De Medici family celebrating the marriage of Marie De Medici to Henri IV.
Wow, what a great find!
ReplyDeleteGreat things in small packages, I guess.
ReplyDeleteGreat things in small packages, I guess.
ReplyDelete