Delacroix paintings restored.

Eugène Delacroix (1798-1865) made three paintings which decorate a chapel in the Saint Sulpice Church. I talked about them in a previous post (see here), but they were then under a heavily needed restoration, which lasted about a year. They are now visible again! 

There are two mural paintings and one ceiling painting on stretched canvas. They were all executed rather late in Delacroix’s life, officially inaugurated in 1861, two years before his death. He spent a few years on preparing and executing these paintings, of course interrupted by other commitments and personal works. To be close to the church, he actually moved to the nearby Place Fürstenberg, where you now can visit his museum (see here).

The paintings go under the names of “Jacob wrestling with the Angel”, “Helodorius driven out of the Temple” and – the ceiling canvas – “Saint Michael slaying the Dragon”.

I could not resist showing some of the other most famous Delacroix paintings… and his by Nadar photographed portrait (which he didn’t like and had asked Nadar to destroy).  

Time for a bit of poetry?

After a little break… I’m happy to resume my blogging activities again. This will be the tenth year of this blog (which was preceded by another one), not far from 1000 posts...

In this one I will be back to Palais Royal, a cold day, no leaves on the trees …  

... but with some roses still struggling.

What was new was a number of chairs, referring to what was popular during Victorian / Second Empire times – then with different names like conversation benches, confidents, tête-à-têtes….in a modernized, simplified way.

There were 10 of these double chairs to be seen, but the real special thing was that they all had something written on their backs – the name of a poet and a poetry quote. The chairs also offer the possibility of listening to some poetry by connecting you earphones…  

So totally there are 20 poets to listen to… when the weather gets warmer. Here is the list of the poets… If you, like me, have until now hardly been a great poetry fan, time to learn something and possibly change your mind?

Guillaume Apollinaire, Ingeborg Bachmann, Charles Baudelaire, Jean Cocteau, Mahmoud Darwich, Emily Dickinson, Paul Eluard, Frederico Garcia Lorca, Anne Hébert, Victor Hugo, Ghérasim Luca, Gaston Miron, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Fernando Pessoa, Arthur Rimbaud, Yannis Ritsos, Tomas Tranströmer, Marina Tsvétaïéva, Paul Verlaine, Walt Whitman.

Holiday break.

Time for a little break. I hope to be back blogging beginning 2017! In the meantime...All the best and sincere thanks for following my blog!

PS  Check the artist names!

Last minute shopping… ?

People were queuing up in front of the very fashionable - and expensive - shoe shop Christian Louboutin – famous for its red-lacquered soles. I was not aware about the fact that they also sell men’s shoes - people were queuing up there also. Most of the shoes are in the price range 500 – 1000 euros or dollars… I did not join the queue, but walked again through the beautiful and now very fashionable Galérie Vero-Dodat. I wrote about it already in 2008. You can find links to different posts I have written about different “passages” and “galéries” from this post.

The Galérie Vero-Dodat dates from 1826. As most galleries it was successful for a few decades, before the arrival of the department stores. Of some 150 Paris galleries existing around 1850 only 18 remain today. This is one of the most fashionable ones with art and antique galleries, fashion shops…

… and places for eating and drinking. (One of them is known for having been a favourite of the writer and poet Gerard de Nerval and this is where he had a last drink before committing suicide in 1855.)

The entrance to the upper floors, “escalier”, is well indicated.   

Less fashionable is the parallel, neighbour narrow street, Rue du Pelican. It’s especially remarkable for its name, deformed from “Rue du Poil-au-Con” (which I by decency may not translate here). During previous centuries it was a street of prostitution, now it's a clean pedestrian street.  

                  

Old buildings.

This pharmacy, at no. 115, Rue Saint Honoré, has been there since 1715. On the wall you can read “Fabrique d’extraits évaporés à la vapeur et dans le vide” (Makes extracts, evaporated, steamed in the void). This is where Axel von Fersen bought the invisible ink he used in his correspondence with Marie Antoinette. (I trust you know about the flight to Varennes and the possible more or less close relationship between Marie Antoinette and Axel - if not, you may read e.g. here, here, here or here.)
The facade of the pharmacy was modified during the 19^th century and the interior much later… There are only a few traces of something old. On a wall you can read that this is the only place where “Digitaline Cristallisé de Nativelle” could be bought. The crystallized digitaline came into use during the 19^th century, obviously a heart stimulator (or poison - see Agatha Christie, Colombo…).

Comparing the maps from the time of Marie Antoinette and Axel, end of 18^th century, with today, we can see the distance between the Tuileries Palace (burnt down in 1871), where Marie Antoinette spent the last years before her imprisonment, and the pharmacy. Rue Saint Honoré was then an important street – the now more or less parallel Rue de Rivoli (the red dotted lines) did not yet exist.

The yellow dotted part of Rue Saint Honoré is on both sides full of 17th, 18^th and a few 19^th centuries’ buildings.

Some special places and buildings: In front of the pharmacy is the place (the building is gone) where Molière was born (see previous post) and later Richard Wagner lived for a while. Not far away you have a gate, which corresponds to an opening in the Philippe Auguste wall which has since disappeared (except... see previous posts). 

There is a completely different type of building from 1776, originally occupied by water supply personnel. The fountain which is incorporated in the building, “La Fontaine du Croix-du-Trahoir”, was in its original form opened in 1529. 

What was a shop with a surprising name, “A la Renommée des Herbes Cuites” (To the reputation of cooked herbs), created in the 19^th century, is now a restaurant.

This building, “Au Bourdon d’Or” (The golden bumblebee) dates from 1825. In a previous building here, with the same name, there was an apothecary shop where King Henry IV obviously received care after being attacked in 1610. Well, he didn’t survive.

You can also find the “Oratoire du Louvre”, originally, in 1611, opened as a French, distinct, branch of the “Oratary of Saint Philip Neri”, later, in 1623, made a royal chapel (where the funerals of Louis XIII and Richelieu were held). It became a protestant church in 1811 (which means that the doors are closed except for masses).

There is a little gallery, “Village St. Honoré”…

… a number of bars and restaurants…

… shops.