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Sep. 25th, 2009 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksBack from a strenuous morning, walking about four miles in total, up to the Matisse Gallery and then back via the Chagall gallery.
I saw quite a bit of "suburban" and "urban" Nice on the way. Prices for food considerably lower than between here and the beach!
Still gets rather hot around 1pm.
The Promenade des Anglais, about 6.30pm. I really ought to get down there in my swimming trunks tonight!
It was a pity that I was so tired from the walk early in the day (to Eze). I also wanted to get to the restaurant before it got too crowded. 7pm is a good time to arrive at a restaurant on your own in Nice without booking a table in advance (because they know that you are likely to be in and out fairly quickly). 8pm is not so good.
The Hotel Regina is high up and about a mile and a half from the sea, but it is a great echo of the old "British" Nice (heavens, I actually saw an English gent emerge from the hotel who was smoking a pipe), right down to the statue of Queen Victoria at the front.
Unlike most French cities (Nice is France's fifth-largest) Nice seems to flaunt its internationalism rather than its Frenchness. Unsurprising, perhaps, considering how recently it was actually incorporated into France. The gardens around the archaeological dig and the Musee Matisse are all named after international jazz musicians. I also saw a Rue Edith Cavell.
The old Roman city of Cemenelum, next to which the Matisse Museum uilding was built (in the 17t century)
The Matisse Museum (Old Part)
The Matisse Museum was free (nice surprise). Not over-large, and with interesting themes (an early painting (1896) of a dead Christ is linked to later more abstract works of reclining nudes, for example). Most interesting was to see how Matisse developed over the years. Also to see how experimental he was in the early part of the century. Highlights were definitely the Death of Christ and the Dancing Creole.
At one point a party of French schoolkids, no more than six years old, were brought in for a tour. They were remarkably well-behaved. Does one see much of this in the UK? I mean, tere's no atempt to "dumb down" or make it "accessible". The assumption is that Matisse (there was also a temporary Rodin exhbition) is accessible in itself.
Sitting on Matisse's Grave
Matisse's grave is tucked away behind the Franciscan monastery, itself quite a walk from the Museum.
Proof
This was my most expensive photograph of the day. I bought a catalogue/guide to the Matisse pictures, but I think that I left it on the pavement after taking this photo. This is the Hotel Regina, btw. Oh, and one plus was that I had read most of the guide while sitting in the museum!
The Chagall Museum (about three-quarters of a mile south of the Matisse Museum) wasn't free. But it was worth the money, if only because they allowed non-flash photography.
It was also a more deeply thought-out art gallery.
What surprised me most about this was the evidence of Chagall's sense of humour. For a deeply religious man, he was surprisingly impish.
Two examples follow:
Charlie Chaplin
This is how the picture appears in the gallery. Notice something odd?
Or perhaps it could be this way up? Houses upside down, but signature right way up.
This is an early self-portrait:
After this light-handedness, the single gallery devoted to religious themes (the aintings are far larger) are something else entirely. I'll just display two of these (there are 12 or 13 in total).
A triptych of Moses, to be read in the Hebrew fashion. The Burning Bush n the centre, the parting of the Red Sea on the left.
God gives the tablets to Moses. Chagall puts echoes of himself in the top left (too small to be seen here) and resonances of the long-term suffering of the Jewish race in the bottom right.
I suspect that Chagall was a bit of a showman and that much of his light-handed stuff was produced to pay the bills so that he could (eventually) come out with these powerful series.
My "free" 24 hours is going to run out soon. Outlook doesn't seem to want to send out my mail at the moment. Not sure what's happened there. I can access via the web site without any problem.
Dentist appointment booked for Monday afternoon. One hour's online play, $200 up. Excellent. Too dangerous, though, given the unpredictability of the connection.
___________
I saw quite a bit of "suburban" and "urban" Nice on the way. Prices for food considerably lower than between here and the beach!
Still gets rather hot around 1pm.
The Promenade des Anglais, about 6.30pm. I really ought to get down there in my swimming trunks tonight!
It was a pity that I was so tired from the walk early in the day (to Eze). I also wanted to get to the restaurant before it got too crowded. 7pm is a good time to arrive at a restaurant on your own in Nice without booking a table in advance (because they know that you are likely to be in and out fairly quickly). 8pm is not so good.
The Hotel Regina is high up and about a mile and a half from the sea, but it is a great echo of the old "British" Nice (heavens, I actually saw an English gent emerge from the hotel who was smoking a pipe), right down to the statue of Queen Victoria at the front.
Unlike most French cities (Nice is France's fifth-largest) Nice seems to flaunt its internationalism rather than its Frenchness. Unsurprising, perhaps, considering how recently it was actually incorporated into France. The gardens around the archaeological dig and the Musee Matisse are all named after international jazz musicians. I also saw a Rue Edith Cavell.
The old Roman city of Cemenelum, next to which the Matisse Museum uilding was built (in the 17t century)
The Matisse Museum (Old Part)
The Matisse Museum was free (nice surprise). Not over-large, and with interesting themes (an early painting (1896) of a dead Christ is linked to later more abstract works of reclining nudes, for example). Most interesting was to see how Matisse developed over the years. Also to see how experimental he was in the early part of the century. Highlights were definitely the Death of Christ and the Dancing Creole.
At one point a party of French schoolkids, no more than six years old, were brought in for a tour. They were remarkably well-behaved. Does one see much of this in the UK? I mean, tere's no atempt to "dumb down" or make it "accessible". The assumption is that Matisse (there was also a temporary Rodin exhbition) is accessible in itself.
Sitting on Matisse's Grave
Matisse's grave is tucked away behind the Franciscan monastery, itself quite a walk from the Museum.
Proof
This was my most expensive photograph of the day. I bought a catalogue/guide to the Matisse pictures, but I think that I left it on the pavement after taking this photo. This is the Hotel Regina, btw. Oh, and one plus was that I had read most of the guide while sitting in the museum!
The Chagall Museum (about three-quarters of a mile south of the Matisse Museum) wasn't free. But it was worth the money, if only because they allowed non-flash photography.
It was also a more deeply thought-out art gallery.
What surprised me most about this was the evidence of Chagall's sense of humour. For a deeply religious man, he was surprisingly impish.
Two examples follow:
Charlie Chaplin
This is how the picture appears in the gallery. Notice something odd?
Or perhaps it could be this way up? Houses upside down, but signature right way up.
This is an early self-portrait:
After this light-handedness, the single gallery devoted to religious themes (the aintings are far larger) are something else entirely. I'll just display two of these (there are 12 or 13 in total).
A triptych of Moses, to be read in the Hebrew fashion. The Burning Bush n the centre, the parting of the Red Sea on the left.
God gives the tablets to Moses. Chagall puts echoes of himself in the top left (too small to be seen here) and resonances of the long-term suffering of the Jewish race in the bottom right.
I suspect that Chagall was a bit of a showman and that much of his light-handed stuff was produced to pay the bills so that he could (eventually) come out with these powerful series.
My "free" 24 hours is going to run out soon. Outlook doesn't seem to want to send out my mail at the moment. Not sure what's happened there. I can access via the web site without any problem.
Dentist appointment booked for Monday afternoon. One hour's online play, $200 up. Excellent. Too dangerous, though, given the unpredictability of the connection.
___________
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Art and 6yo's
Date: 2009-09-25 12:47 pm (UTC)GOM
Date: 2009-09-26 04:59 pm (UTC)Not to mention elitist. God forbid that English youth are actually taught any real skills.