self-portrait at Louvre
Every month, the Louvre chooses a “painting of the month”, which is displayed in Salle 18.
From June through September, the Louvre has chosen a self-portrait by Elisabeth-Sophie Chéron. Summer visitors to Paris: rejoice! This is a rare chance to become acquainted with a remarkable artist.
I must have dozed off in art history class when Chéron was discussed, because I became acquainted with her work years after my college days.
An introduction to Chéron:
- born 1648, died 1711
- protestant father, catholic mother; brother Louis, also an artist, settled in England after the revocation on Nantes made life difficult for protestants in France
- won acclaim as a painter for portraits, including the two self-portraits in this post, done while Chéron was in her 20s
- admitted into the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1672, when Chéron was in her 30s
- also a celebrated writer and poet; most of her work had religious or Biblical themes
- good with languages : French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew
- for her writings, was inducted into the Accademia dei Ricovrati in Padua, which seems to have had a practice of admitting French women because they would not attend Academy proceedings in person
- also an accomplished musician
- married after her childbearing years were over
self-portrait at musée condé, chantilly
199 bis, bd St-Germain
Compared to the exuberance of Lavriotte’s apartment house on the avenue Rapp, Pasquier’s building at 199 bis boulevard Saint-Germain looks sedate.
The city of Paris awarded prizes for the facades of both buildings in 1901. What is it about Pasquier’s stately and low-key building that pleased the jury?
I have a couple of hypotheses; right or wrong, they underscore what makes this building special:
- Pasquier’s boulevard Saint-Germain building has a door. A real door, made of heavy ironwork, framed by stonework. As the century wore on, Paris architects seem to have forgotten about doors. Post-war buildings are especially egregious offenders in this respect, as they often have swinging glass panes as doors.
There’s glass in the entry to Pasquier’s building, but it separates the entry from the courtyard. It features an art nouveau vegetal motif; it’s visible from the street but contributes to separating what’s in the building from the street outside.
- Pasquier respects the alignment, style of adjacent buildings, and a limited ornamental palette, while showing an extraordinary attention to detail. I’m especially taken by how the architect treated a north-facing, first-floor window. The window practically invites light in, and its canopy segues into a different treatment reserved to the second-floor balcony.
29 av Rapp (Paris)
“It’s not likely that Paris will witness a proliferation of this kind of construction.”
These were some of the selection jury’s comments when it awarded a prize in 1901 to Jules Lavriotte for the façade of the apartment house at 29 avenue Rapp, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris.
Years ago, I had the good fortune to study art history, and the greater fortune to study this building. (Thank you, Martha Ward.) Befitting American students prone to afternoon somnolence, examination of the building focused on its entrance, most aptly described as labial, and at its sculpted door, with a phallic motif.
When I return to look at the building today, I see all of that, but I notice a lot more:
- Lavriotte plays with symmetry, or rather an absence of symmetry: the entry is off-center. A balcony on the third floor is centered, but the structure on either side of it is not; and examined vertically, one side of the facade has continuity, while the other has an interruption.
- Inside or outside? Lavriotte toys with facade viewers by alternating projections and indentations to the facade. The second, third, and fourth floors take flights of fancy, while floors above and below adhere to strict conventions.
- Rich art nouveau ornamentation is everywhere! As a repeat spectator, I’m especially drawn to the balcony on the third floor. There’s great attention to detail in the stonework, the iron grillings, ornamentation (with vegetal art nouveau themes) on the facade surface, and on the underside of the balcony, where there are colored ceremics, including a pair of cows.
entry
facade
balcony detail
“Enjoy a positive mental attitude in a time faced with darkness.”
David Malek wrote that. He’s an American artist, whose work is now on display in Paris, at the southwestern corner of the place de la Madeleine.
Malek’s work isn’t in a gallery; it’s outdoors, where it camouflages a construction site.
The Cerruti boutique is renovating the premises, and chose Malek’s work to cover up what’s going on indoors.
For this moment of art in the heart of the city: thank you Cerruti, and thank you David Malek.
