A day with Monet

Yesterday, we were headed off to a museum, as usual.  In the Metro station, we saw a poster for a Monet Exhibit that just opened this past weekend and goes through the end of December.  Being big fans of Monet, we decided to go there instead of any other place for the day.   The exhibt is at the Grand Palais (above), an exhibit space used only for special exhibits.  The other exhibit at the same time is art of the Moyen Age (middle ages).  I'm not a big fan of art from that time period, so we did not get a double ticket.

Here's Larry at the entrance:

We spend the entire afternoon there.  First, there was a two-hour waiting line (which turned out to be only 1 1/2 hours).  We didn't mind so much because we were delightfully entertained by a classical guitarist at the steps to the museum.  How could one possibly get tired of standing in line when one could hear Vivaldi guitar pieces?  Lovely.  I felt like I should be in Venice instead, and when I closed my eyes for a moment, I was.

The grounds around the Grand Palais contain an array of flowers that are still in bloom, even though this is the end of September.  They entertained the eye as the musician entertained the ear.

The exhibit itself was a wonder. It was well curated to start with his early work and explain the influences on his early style.  At that time, the current school of thought in painting was all dark colors, regardless of the time of day or subject matter and whether inside or out.  it was called the Barbizon school.  Lord only knows why they chose to use such a very dark palette.

No wonder Claude and the boys were considered to be "outsiders". 

It didn't take long before Monet began experimenting with sunlight.  The others at the time followed, and voila', a new school developed.  Thank goodness.  Otherwise, we would all still be looking at very dark still life paintings.  That's my idea of dull.

Here's the line as we were leaving at 5:00.  I was still a 2 hour wait.  Originally, we thought that we would just leave and go back later when the line died down.  When we came out, we realized that we would have still been waiting.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.  Just marvelous.  We were enthralled.