Midnight in Paris Film Sites

Posted on April 18, 2013 by americangirlsartclubinparis

How many times have you seen Midnight in Paris? At least three? Me too. Whenever I talk to American book clubs about my literary tours of Paris, they’re always interested in Midnight in Paris sites too. So I’ve put together a list and some photos. Not exactly a tour, but a good place to start.

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This list is organized according their appearance in the film, not according to a convenient walking tour. The sites are pretty widely scattered throughout Paris, so the best thing to do would be to pick one arrondissement, stumble around until you find a site or two, and then stop for a glass of wine. Repeat the next day when you’re in another arrondissement. By then you’ll have a good taste of Paris.

Opening Montage
Midnight in Paris opens with iconic Paris postcard scenes like Pont Alexandre III, Place de la Concorde, Tuilleries, Arc de Triomphe, the Seine, the Louvre, the lock bridge, Fouquets, L’Opera, Place de Trocadéro and Métro line 6 which goes over the Seine. It took me nearly a year to discover Fontaine de la Place Françoise the First, featured so beautifully in the opening montage. My husband and I stumbled into the fountain (well, not literally, although we did have a bottle or two of wine) as we were walking home from my birthday dinner one night. I can’t imagine a better way to make a discovery in Paris.

Here’s my own opening montage:

L’Arc de Triomphe

Pont Alexandre III

Fontaine de la place Françoise 1er

Fountain of River and Commerce in the Place de la Concorde

One of the Fontaines de la Concorde

The Seine at Pont Michel

Metro Line 6 over the Seine from the 16th to the 7th

The Lock Bridge (Pont de l’Archevêché) and Notre Dame

Sites In Order of Appearance in the Film

1. Opening scene – Monet’s Garden, Giverny (outside Paris)

2. Hotel scene – Le Bristol, 112 rue de Faubourg St. Honoré (8th)

3. Restaurant scene- Le Grand Vefour, 17 rue de Beaujolais, Palais Royale (1st)

4. Versailles gardens (outside Paris)

5. Jewelry store scene- Chopard, 1 Place Vendome (2nd)

6. Carla Bruni scene in garden – Hotel Biron, Musée Rodin, 79 rue Varenne (7th)

7. Rooftop winetasting scene – Hotel Le Meurice, 224 rue de Rivoli (2nd)

8. Church steps scene – St. Etienne du Mont, rue de Montagne Genevieve (5th)

9. Party with F. Scott Fitzgerald– Quai de Bourbon, Isle St. Louis, west side (1st)

10. Bricktop’s w/Josephine Baker– (imaginary location) 17 rue Malebranche (5th)

11. Hemingway’s Bar – (imaginary) Le Polidor, 41 rue Monsieur le Prince (6th)

12. Antique store – Philippe de Beauvais, 112 Boulevard De Courcelle (17th)

13. Church near antique store – Cathedral of Saint-Alexandre-Nevsky, Rue Daru (8th)

14. Back to steps at St. Etienne du Mont (5th)

15. Gertrude Stein’s – 27 rue de Fleurus (6th)

16. Flea market – Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen, Le Marché Paul Bert, 96-110 rue des Rosiers (18th)

17. Monet Water Lillies – Musée de l’Orangerie, Place de la Concorde (8th)

18. Bristol Hotel dining room, Le Bristol, 112 rue de Faubourg St. Honoré (8th)

19. Fairground – Musée des Arts Forains, Pavillons de Bercy, 53 avenue des Terroirs de France (12th)

20. Zelda suicide scene – along the Seine below Le Pont de la Carrousel (1st)

21. Montmartre Steps – rue du Chevalier de la Barre (18th)

22. Various Montmartre bars, back to Bristol hotel, Rodin Museum, Gertrude Stein’s, flea market

23. Bouquinistes along the Seine (5th)

24. Carla Bruni scene behind of Notre Dame – Parc Jean XXIII, Ile de la Cite (1st)

25. Taxidermy cocktail party – Maison Deyrolle, 46 rue du Bac (6th)

26. Restaurant Paul, Place Dauphine, rue Henri Robert, Isle de la Cité (1st)

27. Maxim’s – Maxim’s, 3 rue Royale (8th)

28. Moulin Rouge, 82 boulevard de Clichy (18th)

29. Shakespeare and Company, 37 rue de la Bucherie (5th)

30. Pont Alexandre III (8th)

Japanese bridge in Monet’s Gardens, Giverny

Le Grand Vefour, 17 rue de Beaujolais, Palais Royale

Musée Rodin gardens

Steps of St. Etienne du Mont

Cathedral of Saint-Alexandre-Nevsky

Plaque at 27 rue de Fleurus, Gertrude Stein’s apartment

Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen (Clingancourt)

Stairway on rue du Chevalier de la Barre

Bouquinistes

Behind Notre Dame looking toward Square Jean XXIII

Maison Deyrolle, 46 rue du Bac

Moulin Rouge

Shakespeare & Company

Bronze sculpture adorning Pont Alexandre III

If you’re heading to Paris, I hope you have fun creating your own individual Midnight in Paris tour. Have some wine, stumble into some fountains. . . . and enjoy.

Claude and Camille Along the Seine

Posted on April 5, 2013 by americangirlsartclubinparis

On the Banks of the Seine, Bennecourt, oil on canvas by Claude Monet, Art Institute of Chicago, Potter Palmer Collection

On the Banks of the Seine, Bennecourt (1868), oil on canvas by Claude Monet, Art Institute of Chicago, Potter Palmer Collection

This Monet painting has been a favorite of mine ever since my first bus trip to the Art Institute of Chicago as a young art student from Wisconsin. When I finally settled in Chicago as a young professional, I went back to the Art Institute again and again, always taking the time to stop in front of this Monet the longest. I even bought a poster reproduction and framed it in a bluish metal frame for my first Lincoln Park apartment.

So when I had a year to spend in Paris, I knew I wanted to try to track down the place this scene was painted. All I had to go on was “Bennecourt on the Seine.” Believe it or not, that was enough.

Bennecourt is about 16 miles from Giverny on some beautiful little back roads, and yes, it’s right on the river. So little remains the same along the banks of an old river like the Seine, I really didn’t expect to be able to recognize the exact spot where Monet painted. I just wanted to get out of the car and say I was there, that I was close.

In the painting, Claude’s first wife Camille is sitting on the Bennecourt side of the river, looking across at the inn they were staying at in Bonnieres-sur-Siene. The two-story inn is clearly reflected in the water, right in front of Camille’s face. The couple stayed here in 1868 when their first son Jean was only one or two. They weren’t yet married, and Monet was very much the struggling artist. He had not yet painted a single haystack or water lily.

My husband and I were driving along the Bennecourt side of the river, and I could sense the town was near. I was looking toward Bonnieres while my husband was talking away on an important international conference call. I practically screamed in his ear when to my sheer delight, I saw this sign, a part of the French government’s Path of the Impressionists:

A roadside sign on the banks of the Seine in Bennecourt, France.

Along D100 in Bennecourt

Once we found our way to Bennecourt, it wasn’t much further to get to Vétheuil, the town where Claude and Camille lived toward the end of Camille’s short life. You just follow the little D913 road along the river from Bennecourt to Roche de Guyon and on to Vétheuil. There, in the old cemetery behind the church lies the sad and lonely grave of Camille Doncieux.

Camille Doncieux grave in Venteuil, France

Camille Doncieux grave in Véteuil, France

The new grave marker installed by a group of donors, Friends of Camille

The new grave marker installed by a group of donors, Friends of Véteuil

The old grave marker. There is no mention of her married name.

Vetheuil is a sad place to visit, knowing that Camille’s years here weren’t happy or healthy. By this time, Claude had already met his likely mistress and future wife, Alice Hoschedé, and their two families were living together in a strange mélange. Camille grew increasingly ill, suffering from an unknown ailment. Claude painted his last portrait of Camille on her deathbed in Venteuil.

Camille on her Deathbed by Claude Monet (187) Musée d’Orsay

If you haven’t already read Stephanie Cowell’s novel, Claude and Camille, I highly recommend it. Check out some of my other posts about Claude Monet in France, including Monet in Honfleur, A Guest Post by Stephanie Cowell, An Artist’s Weekend in Honfleur, and Say Yes To The Dress: Claude and Camille and Fashion.

Claude and Camille in paperback by Stephanie Cowell

Musée Bourdelle and its American Connection

Posted on March 28, 2013 by americangirlsartclubinparis

Musée Bourdelle Courtyard

The Musée Bourdelle in Montparnasse is one of Paris’ secret little jewels. Set on a short street a few blocks behind the Montparnasse train station, this museum is a quiet place far away from the long lines at the Musée D’Orsay, the Louvre, or even the Musée Rodin.

Antoine Bourdelle was a prominent French sculptor (1860-1929) who studied with Rodin and Falguiere. He donated his studio and extensive sculpture collection when he died.

I stumbled in by accident one day when I was wandering through Montparnasse. I was searching out some of the homes and studios of the artists associated with the American Girl’s Art Club in Paris. I was on the heels of the American painter Mary Fairchild MacMonnies (Low) (1858-1946), a St. Louis native who had gone to Paris in the late 1880s and who later (along with Mary Cassatt) painted one of the murals for the Woman’s building at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893.

Fairchild studied at the Academie Julian for women, and later in the women’s portrait class of Carolus-Duran. She was living in a small apartment on rue Bonaparte when she met fellow American art student Frederick MacMonnies (1863-1937) at a dinner party. The pair quickly fell in love but the terms of Fairchild’s scholarship prevented her from marrying. Fairchild and MacMonnies decided to share an apartment and art studio, and moved in together at 16 Impasse du Maine (paid for by the money from Mary’s scholarship). Their friend Augustus St. Gaudens referred to it as “l’atelier common Fairchild-MacMonnies.” While they lived there, the MacMonnies shared a ground floor workroom, and a across the cobblestone courtyard, a two-room apartment with a kitchen. (Flight With Fame: The Life and Art of Frederick MacMonnies by Mary Smart (Sound View Press, 1996).

When I went in search of the address for MacMonnies’ atelier, I found myself standing right in front of the Musée Bourdelle. It turns out that MacMonnies had met and befriended Bourdelle while they were both students in the atelier of the famous French sculptor Falguiere. They had found art studios in the same courtyard building on Impasse du Maine. After Bourdelle’s death, The Impasse du Maine had been renamed rue Antoine Bourdelle.

So as I walked though the museum and the Bourdelle’s well-preserved studio, I knew that somewhere nearby, Mary Fairchild MacMonnies had worked on the mural Primitive Woman. Somewhere across the courtyard, she had met with Bertha Palmer and Sarah Hallowell, who had come from Chicago in 1892 to meet her, look at her work, and award her the commission for the mural for the Chicago World’s Fair.

You know that feeling you get when you connect the dots? I felt a connection that ran all the way from my home in Chicago to this lesser known museum in Paris; all the way from the White City to the City of Lights.

That connection might not mean the same to you, but I hope you can still enjoy some of these photographs of the Musée Bourdelle. It’s an incredible place with or without its Chicago connection.

Inside the atelier of Antoine Bourdelle

The inner courtyard at the Musée Bourdelle

Bourdelle’s atelier

MacMonnies apartment could have been this building across the courtyard from the studios.

Another view of the possible MacMonnies apartment.

Zelda and Scott in Paris

Posted on March 25, 2013 by americangirlsartclubinparis

Therese Fowler’s new novel Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald (St. Martin’s Press 2013) is a welcome reboot in the field of Lost Generation literature. This is the turbulent story of Zelda Sayre, a young handful of a southern girl, the daughter of a prominent Montgomery, Alabama judge, who married the not-yet-successful F. Scott Fitzgerald after meeting him at a country club dance in 1918.

Z presents a refreshing and much needed counterpoint to Hemingway’s Moveable Feast and Scott’s Fitgerald’s Tender is the Night. It might cause you to reconsider nearly everything you thought was true about Scott and Zelda’s marriage, about their relationship with Ernest Hemingway, and about the cause of Zelda’s mental illness. It’s finally Zelda’s turn, and she doesn’t hold back.

Have you noticed that I’ve completely fallen for the illusion that Zelda is the one who is talking in Z, and not Fowler? That’s how well this book seems to capture Zelda’s voice.

Z brought me back to my own year in Paris, when I walked the same streets as Zelda and Scott, hung out at the same cafés and brasseries, enjoyed the exhilerating (but thankfully much tamer) life of an American expat. I took every literary tour I could, so of course I have some photos of the places and scenes mentioned in the book Z.

Just a caveat: all of the stories I tell in the captions below about what happened at the sites are a mixture of the truth and myth that circulates through literary circles in Paris. I can’t vouch for the stories, except to say this is what somebody told me and I believed them.

14 rue de Tilsitt, Zelda and Scott's first apartment in Paris in about 1925. It's located on the right bank in the 8th arrondissement, which is still home to some of the most expensive real estate in Paris. Hemingway used to claim that he felt uncomfortable going to the Fitzgerald's apartment, that he much preferred his slummier surroundings on the Left Bank.

14 rue de Tilsitt, Zelda and Scott’s first apartment in Paris in about 1925. It’s located on the right bank in the 8th arrondissement, just a block away from the Arc de Triomphe. It’s a lovely area within a block or two of Champs Elysées. Hemingway used to claim that he felt uncomfortable going to the Fitzgerald’s apartment, that he much preferred his slummier surroundings on the Left Bank.

Another view of 14 rue de Tilsitt, which currently houses a street level café. Rue de Tilsitt is a small little street which forms the first circle around L’Etoile.

Zelda and Scott’s view of the Arc de Triomphe from the corner of L’Etoile closest to their apartment. Not bad. Supposedly, Scott once rode a tricycle down the Champs Elysées after he’d had too much to drink, hitting passerby with a baguette.

L’Auberge de Venise at 10 rue Delambre in Monparnasse. Formerly The Dingo, where Scott Fitzgerald met Ernest Hemingway in 1925.

In the window of L’Auberge de Venise is an article from La Monde titled “Remembering the Epoque of the Dingo Bar.” It’s hard for me to translate, but it says something like: this is where two of my favorite authors used to get blasted (“drunk mouth”), blurry and reconciled. A place to make you thirsty, for sure.

The view inside the former Dingo Bar. I’ve heard two different versions of how Fitzgerald and Ernest met, but in both versions, serious drinking was indeed involved.

The doorway to Zelda and Scott's other Paris apartment (1928-ish?) on the corner of Luxembourg Gardens. The Fitzgeralds knew how to spend money - this is some of the best and most expensive real estate in Paris.

The doorway to Zelda and Scott’s other Paris apartment where they lived in 1928 at 58 rue Vaugirard on the corner of Luxembourg Gardens. The Fitzgeralds knew how to spend money – this is some of the most expensive real estate in Paris.

Another view of the Fitzgerald’s apartment at 58 rue de Vaugirard. They lived here on their third trip to Paris in 1928. Their daughter Scottie enjoyed playing in the nearby gardens. This building would be subsequently damaged by gunfire during the liberation of Paris in 1944.

Picture little Scottie playing with the sailboats in Luxembourg Gardens. Then picture Zelda nursing a horrible hangover in one of the low-slung “Luxembourg chairs.”

My friends and I enjoying a fall day in my favorite Luxembourg chairs. For my fellow Francophiles: did you know you can order these chairs and have them shipped to the United States? Check out the website of Deyrolle at 46 rue de Bac in Paris. (Which just happens to be the same taxidermy shop filmed in Midnight in Paris.) If you can’t find the chairs on their website, you can always try to email them. I came **this close** to ordering one for my husband last Christmas. We loved them that much.

La Closerie des Lilas, the restaurant where Scott and Ernest met to plan their drive to Lyons together – a trip that would cement their friendship.

Café de Flore, another St. Germain café where the Fitzgeralds hung out with the rest of the Lost Generation.

This is the site of Michaud’s, a fashionable restaurant in St. Germain where the Fitzgeralds often dined. It is now Le Comptoir des Saints Pere, located on the corner of rue Jacob and rue des Saints Pere. It is the place where Hemingway’s infamous “show me your penis” story takes place. In Moveable Feast, Fitzgerald supposedly confessed to Hemingway his insecurities about the size of his penis, thanks to a nasty comment fron Zelda. Hemingway is supposed to have invited Scott downstairs to the bathroom, where Hemingway took a look for himself and told Scott that he was perfectly normal, and that Scott shouldn’t listen to Zelda. “Zelda’s crazy,” Hemingway said. In Z, Zelda gets her long-awaited revenge against her “frenemy” Hem. Zelda has a deliciously alternative story comparing Scott and Hem’s measurements. I’m not sure which version I believe, but I am definitely leaning toward Team Zelda. (If your book club is anything like mine, this is going to be a hot discussion topic after a few bottles of vin rouge!)

Z by Therese Fowler: Highly, highly, highly recommended.

I hope you pick up your own copy of Z very soon. And by “pick up” I mean “buy.” And by “buy” I really mean that you should rush down to your local independent bookstore to grab a copy as soon as you can. If you don’t have a local indie of your own, feel free to buy it in ebook form from the bookstore I work for in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. All you have to do is create a Kobo account on the website. We’d appreciate your support. Then come back here to the comments and tell me what you think!

The folks at The Bookstore in Glen Ellyn, Illinois love Z so much we’ve decorated our front window in honor of Zelda.

Crossing the Borders of Time

Posted on January 28, 2013 by americangirlsartclubinparis

Crossing the borders 2

Crossing the Borders of Time by Leslie Maitland (Other Press, 2013) is a memoir with so much terror, romance and suspense that you might be tempted to think it’s the makes of fiction. But it’s not.

It’s the true story of one Jewish woman’s escape from Nazi Germany and Occupied France from 1938-1942. At the same time, it’s the present-day story of the woman’s daughter, an investigative journalist for the New York Times, who was on a mission to trace her mother’s lost history, which included a long lost French sweetheart.

As Good Housekeeping said, it’s like a cross between Schindler’s List and Casablanca. I would probably also add The Man Without A Country, given the family’s desperate search for a safe place to call home.

The story begins in 1920s Germany, where Matiland’s grandparents, Sigmar and Alice Günzberger, were prominent German citizens who had both served their country in World War I. After they married, the Günzbergers thought they would join relatives in nearby Mulhouse, not far from the Rhine in the Alsace region of France. However, anti-German sentiment was running high in post-war Alsace, which Germany had just ceded back to France in the Treaty of Versailles. “Feeling even less welcome as Germans in France than as Jews in Germany,” the Günzbergers changed their minds and returned to Freiburg in 1920.

The Günzburgers had three children, including Maitland’s mother Hanna, and together they lived relative wealth and comfort in Freiburg, a religiously tolerant college town in the southwest corner of Germany. The rise of Nazism is a well-known story, but Hannah’s memory, as told to her daughter, is so detailed and personal that if feels as if you’re hearing about it for the first time.

The Günsberger children had an innocent life in Freiburg, but by 1933 they could no longer swim in the neighborhood pool or attend regular schools. At first they didn’t understand the implication of all of the anti-Jewish laws; the children were actually thrilled when their overly strict German governess left, unwilling to be associated with a Jewish family. When Hannah’s own friends and classmates joined the Hitler Youth Movement, Hannah begged her mother to buy a white blouse and kick-pleated skirt that would match the uniform for the Nazi’s League of German Girls. By 1937, with the economic laws restricting their safety and livelihood, the Günzbergers began to plan their escape from Germany.

They pressed ahead with the bribes and paperwork necessary to obtain French visas, as well as the “flight taxes,” bank fees and harsh fines required to sell their business and property in Germany. When the Günzbergers arrived in Mulhouse they were surrounded by relatives and a strong Jewish community, but their life savings was gone. It was in Mulhouse that Hannah (now a pretty teen-age Janine) met a handsome Frenchman named Roland whom she would never forget.

The new romance wouldn’t last long. The Günzburgers weren’t safe in Alsace, which Hitler threatened to recapture for the glory of the new Germany. Maitland describes her grandfather’s dilemma in Alsace:

To the French, he was German – mistrusted as an enemy, with no way to hide his name or accent. To the Germans, he was a Jew – a stateless pariah and fair game in any territory he might be found. While prudence left him no other choice, moving from Alsace meant leaving the one part of France where he felt somewhat at home, where a Germanic name and dual national heritage were well understood and Jews well established.

The Günzbergers sought refuge in Gray, a quiet country village in the middle of Burgundy, but their German background presented new problems. They had become stateless, homeless people whom no one trusted.

They were only safe for a short while, and were forced to flee when the German army advanced through France in 1940. Their narrow, harrowing escapes (in the back of French ambulances, or in the trucks of German soldiers, happy to trade favors with pretty French girls) seem like scenes from a movie. The Günzbergers fled to Lyon in the Unoccupied Zone, where Janine and her French sweetheart Roland were reunited and where Janine would have been happy to stay.

When it became clear that the Vichy government would also enforce anti-Jewish laws, Janine’s father knew he had to find a way out of France. He succeeded in getting the necessary permits for the last refugee ship to Cuba in 1942. Janine would reluctantly board the ship with her family, and eventually settle in New York, leaving Roland far behind. Janine and Roland would be separated for nearly fifty years.

There is much more to the story, as the author traces her mother’s life and unhappy marriage in New York and New Jersey. Through it all, Janine secretly pines for the French sweetheart of her past. Finally, her grown daughter takes on the challenge of searching for long lost Roland. The story of her search and the truth of her mother’s past makes for a fabulous read.

Crossing the Borders of Time is a hair-raising tale of escape and survival, where crossing a border means everything. But sometimes, in this complicated world of loss, change and missed opportunities, it is just as amazing that love can make it across the biggest border of all: the border of time.

Highly recommended.

The Painted Girls: Degas and the Dancers

Posted on January 12, 2013 by americangirlsartclubinparis

painted girls

If you like historical art fiction, it doesn’t get much better than The Painted Girls, Cathy Buchanan’s new novel about the young ballerinas Degas used to paint and sculpt. Set in the seedy side streets of Belle Epoque Paris, this book tells the desperate story of three sisters who must find their way to survive in the dark world of the Paris demimonde.

The Painted Girls is based on the true story of the van Goethem sisters who danced at the Paris Opéra in the late 1870s and early 1880s. They lived on the slopes of Montmartre on rue de Douai, and after their father died, they had to scrounge for a living as best they could.

Although they were not classic beauties, the van Goethem sisters were talented enough to earn a place among the other novices, the “Petit-Rats” of the Paris ballet. But they still had to supplement their meager earnings with grueling jobs as laundry women or early morning bread makers. Soon, the younger sister Marie had a better opportunity.

The Opéra Garnier

Inside the Opéra Garnier

A regular at the opéra, Edgar Degas noticed skinny young Marie, the middle van Goethem sister, and asked her to model for him. She was honored to accept and relieved to earn extra money for the family. She was thrilled at the prospect of seeing her likeness at the Fifth and Sixth Impressionist Exhibits in 1880 and 1881.

Little Dancer Age 14, NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON, D.C., COLLECTION OF MR. AND MRS. PAUL MELLON

Little Dancer Age 14, Wax sculpture by Edgar Degas.
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON, D.C., COLLECTION OF MR. AND MRS. PAUL MELLON. Bronze copies were made after Degas’ death, including the one at the Musé d’Orsay in Paris.

The modeling scenes are some of my favorites in the book. Degas’ studio on rue Fontaine was just around the corner from Marie’s home in the 9th arrondissement. It is in that studio, overflowing with canvases, paints and pastels, that Degas began the sketches for Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, as well as numerous charcoal and pastel sketches of young Marie.

Cathy Buchanan’s website contains images of all of the artwork mentioned in the book. You can click on an image and read a related quote from the book. It’s just wonderful.

But there’s so much more to The Painted Girls than pleasant little scenes in Degas’ art studio. In fact, there is very a dark side to the van Goethem sisters’ lives. The oldest sister Antoinette gets involved with a violent young man of the streets, and Marie is singled out by one of the wealthy older patrons of the Opéra known as abonnées. The reader knows exactly where Marie’s relationship with Monsiuer Lefebvre is heading, that such gifts and favors are never bestowed without a price.

The sisters’ fall from innocence is tragic but not utterly without hope. In one particularly moving scene, young Marie is in despair, and raises a timeless question:

I want to put my face in my hands, to howl, for me, for Antoinette, for all the women of Paris, for the burden of having what men desire, for the heaviness of knowing it is ours to give, that with our flesh we make our way in the world. For there is a cost. . . . Would they say there is no cost, not so long as a girl takes no more than what a man decides her flesh is worth?

Both sisters make troubling choices, and find themselves even more deeply involved in the demimonde of Paris. When Antoinette’s love interest is arrested and accused of murder, the sisters’ conflicting loyalties nearly tear them apart. Can their family repair the damage and find a way to survive the poor, dangerous streets of Paris, without having to trade what men desire?

It’s an excellent read, although some might find the story drags a little during the criminal trials of Antoinette’s love interest, which could have been condensed down to one trial instead of two. However, that minor flaw still shouldn’t discourage you from seeking out and thoroughly enjoying this otherwise riveting book.

And when you’re done with the book, go back and enjoy more Cathy Buchanan’s website where she has also posted photos from her Paris research trip. I couldn’t create a better literary tour myself!

The Read: The Painted Girls, Highly recommended.

The Paris Tour: Take the Palais Garnier tour, a must-see in Paris. You can make an Unaccompanied Visit nearly every day, or an English Guided Tour available three days per week. If you’re really lucky, you might be able to catch a ballet performance. Check out their 2012-13 schedule here. Then follow up with a visit to the Musée d’Orsay, where you can see one of the copies of Young Dancer, Age Fourteen, as well as one of my favorites, The Ballet Class. If you have the time to stroll through lower Montmartre, catch the Métro line 2 to the Blanche stop or line 12 to the Pigalle stop and browse through the van Goetham sisters’ old neighborhood.

van Goetham Home: 35 rue de Douai

Degas studio: rue Pierre Fontaine

Degas home: 6 boulevard Clichy

The plaque at the last home of Degas, 6 boulevard Clichy, Paris

The last home of Edgard Degas from 1912-1917.

Visiting Rosa’s Studio

Posted on December 6, 2012 by americangirlsartclubinparis

There’s just something about standing in another artist’s art studio. The north-facing windows, the easels, the containers full of brushes. If you’re lucky, there might be a painting in progress, a smock or two hanging nearby, or other signs of the artist’s work and passion.

You can see all this and much, much more at Rosa Bonheur’s studio in Thoméry, France, just an hour’s drive south of Paris near Fountainbleu. Rosa Bonheur was a famous 19th century French painter known for her realistic portrayal of horses and animals, particularly Horse Fair (1853-55), Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rosa Bonheur, The Horse Fair (1853-55)

Not surprisingly, Rosa had an unusual and fascinating life. She was born in Bordeaux in 1822 but was raised in Paris. Her father was a painter and her mother was a piano teacher who died at a young age. Rosa was “a spirited child” who had trouble sitting still in school. The only way her mother could teach her how to read was by having her draw an animal that matched each letter of the alphabet. Rosa’s father allowed her to drop out of school at the age of twelve to focus on her independent art studies. She copied at the Louvre, but also studied animal science with veterinarians and drew animals from life in the pastures of the Bois de Boulogne. She often visited the slaughterhouses on the outskirts of Paris.

Rosa’s father belonged to an unusual religious sect called Saint-Simonianism, a kind of utopian-pre-feminist socialism that believed in a female Messiah. Can you imagine what it would be like growing up with a father like that in the middle of the 19th century? (For that matter, can you imagine having a father like that now? Pretty cool.) Anyway, Rosa lived freely and equally, often wearing pants, which wasn’t allowed at the time in France unless you obtained a permit from the prefect of police. She had two female partners the majority of her life: first, her friend from childhood, Nathalie Micas, and then in her last ten years, the American artist Anna Klumpke.

Rosa Bonheur in the garden of Chateau de By

In 1859, after Rosa was already enjoying success as an internationally celebrated painter, she purchased a Gothic-looking chateau near the Fountainbleu Forest and built her own art studio on the second floor. Rosa lived and worked there for 40 years, surrounded by basset hounds and her beloved St. Bernard until her death in 1899. She left her entire estate to Anna Klumpke.

Anna Klumke's Study of Rosa Bonheur (1898)

Anna Klumke’s Portrait of Rosa Bonheur (1898)

Anna Klumpke was a California-born artist who had admired Rosa Bonheur ever since she was given a “Rosa doll” as a little girl (such was Rosa’s Bonheur’s fame). Anna came to Paris to study art at the Académie Julian in 1883, and was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salon. Anna sought out Rosa at Chateau de By in order to paint her portrait, and the two fell in love and lived together for the rest of Rosa’s life. After Rosa died, Anna auctioned off many of her paintings and then divided her time between France, San Francisco and Boston.

Barbara Remond (fellow artist and founder of A Woman’s Paris) and I toured Rosa Bonheur’s home on a rainy Saturday in October. The home and studio are open to the public between 2-5pm on Wednesdays to Saturdays from April 1 through November 30th. A guided tour is included with the price of admission, although the tour guide may not speak English. Our tour guide was a very good sport, and managed to share the spirit and history of the place despite our bad French.

Chateau de By, Thomery, France (showing north-facing studio window)

The courtyard of Chateau de By

Rosa Bonheur’s Studio from 1859-1899

That would be me. The tour guide was so charmed by my enthusiastic Franglais that he let me pick up one of Rosa’s brushes and pose for this photo with this unfinished painting.

Rosa Bonheur’s own brushes and palettes.

Rosa Bonheur’s art studio

Sorry for the bad quality of this photo. I still wanted to share this scene of Rosa’s jacket, hat and boots.

Rosa Bonheur’s Exhibitor’s Card for the Paris Salon

The guest room/office next to Rosa’s art studio.

Inside Rosa Bonheur’s closet. Her clothes still remain stacked on the shelves – check out her distinctive jackets!

My friend Barbara Redmond (founder of A Woman’s Paris) in one of Rosa’s hats, with full and cheerful permission from our tour guide!

Rosa’s Legion of Honor Medal is still pinned to one of her jackets draped over the back of a chair. Empress Eugenie came to Chateau de By to present the medal to Rosa.

The view of Chateau de By from the garden at nightfall

The view of Chateau de By from the street

Rosa Bonheur’s studio is a remarkable sight. There is dusty memorabilia and the simple remains of a real life, but there are also unique treasures, like her Legion of Honor Medal she received from Empress Eugenie and the Indian costume from Buffalo Bill Cody. It’s all testimony to a life well lived and a talent well used. A must see for art lovers, and only an hour’s drive from Paris.

Atelier de Rosa Bonheur, Château de By, 12 rue Rosa Bonheur, Thomery, France

Tel.:01 64 70 80 14

Sources and Recommended Reads:

Rosa Bonheur: The Artist’s (Auto)biography by Anna Klumpke

Rosa Bonheur: A Life and a Legend by Dore Ashton and Denise Browne Hare

rosa bonheur a life and a legend

Cézanne A Life

Posted on November 29, 2012 by americangirlsartclubinparis

I just finished Cézanne A Life by Alex Danchev (Pantheon Books 2012). I shouldn’t have bought this book for myself so close to the holidays. I could have hinted and received it as a perfect artist gift. But I succumbed when I saw the cover in person – it literally shines. And so does the inside.

The book tells the story of the artist and the person. Cézanne had a troubled, complicated life which began in Aix-en-Provence in 1839, where he was close friends with fellow student Emile Zola. He talked his difficult father into letting him abandon law school in favor of art, and moved to Paris in 1862, where he began his art studies at the Académie Suisse on the Ile de la Cité. It was there that he met and formed a deep, lasting fellow-artist friendship with Camille Pissaro. He also met one of the Académie Suisse models, Hortense Fiquet, who became his long-term mistress (they would have a son and finally marry after 17 years).

One of my favorite parts of the book was its treatment of Cézanne’s complicated relationship with Hortense, whom he called “La Boulle” (“the dumpling”). Cézanne’s father disapproved of the match, so Cézanne kept it secret for many years, even after the birth of their son. The couple lived separately for much of their lives, and it’s really hard to tell how close they were. Cézanne painted 27 portraits of Hortense over the years, and most of them are absolutely haunting. Cézanne didn’t aim to achieve a “likeness” in his portraits as much as a “thereness.” So, there is Hortense: always a bit inscrutable, sometime sad, angry, distant or intense – more of a presence (here I am, as I am) than a lover eager to please, or a muse conscious of her ability to inspire. But there she is, looking back at Cézanne. What do you think she’s thinking?

Madame Cézanne with a Fan (1886-88). Stiftung Sammlung Buhrle, Zurich. Once owned by Gertrude Stein.

Madame Cézanne (1885). Nationalgalerie, Museum Berggruen, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

Madame Cézanne With Her Hair Down (1890-92). Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Madame Cézanne in Striped Skirt (1877). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Portrait of Madame Cézanne (1888-90) Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

Madame Cézanne with Hortensias (1885). Private collection.

And then, just when you think you are coming to understand who Hortense might have been, and who she might have been to Cézanne, you get to see this tender and emotional pencil and watercolor sketch on paper (above), which is in a private collection but is beautifully reproduced in Danchev’s book. And it is so intimate and beautiful, you can’t help but see that Cézanne did love her, and that they were indeed happy. At least for a time.

Cézanne would often return to his hometown of Aix-en-Provence, with or without Hortense. In the end, he bought a studio up on a hill, where he painted until his death. Today, it has been restored and is open as a museum, a must-see for an art lover’s trip in Provence. For more information and images, click on the link to the website below.

Cézanne’s Studio in Aix-en-Provence from 1901-1906 (currently a museum). The apples!

The door to Cézanne’s last studio in Aix-en-Provence. Guided tours are available in French and English.

Cézanne A Life by Alex Danchev: Highly recommended

Atelier Cézanne in Aix-en-Provence, 9 avenue Paul Cézanne, 13090 Aix-en-Provence: HIghly recommended

Say Yes To The Dress: Claude and Camille and Fashion

Posted on November 28, 2012 by americangirlsartclubinparis

So, I have to admit I’m a little nuts about the Impressionism and Fashion Exhibit at the Musée d’Orsay. In my last months in Paris, I went four times. I had a lot of American visitors who wanted to go, but I truly did want to keep going back. Each time I found something new.

One of my favorite rooms of the exhibit was the last room, decorated to look like a park. That’s where you could find Monet’s oversized plein air paintings with Camille in her huge, fabulous dresses. I grabbed my visitors, and said, that’s Camille! Like I knew her.

But I kind of do. A couple of years ago, I read Claude and Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell, and I even hosted Stephanie at a literary luncheon at the Downtown Glen Ellyn BookFest, an annual event sponsored by my local library and bookstore. The book is all about Claude Monet and his first wife Camille. How they met, how she posed, where he painted.

So when I saw this painting (below) at the exhibit, a study of Bazille and Camille (1865), on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C., I stopped and gaped. It was Camille and Bazille, shortly after she’d met Claude. I’d read about their summer trip to Fountainbleu in Claude and Camille. How the 18 year-old Camille had snuck out of the house without her parents’ permission, bringing along her older sister as a chaperone.

Claude Monet, Camille and Bazille (Study for Luncheon on the Grass) 1865. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

This painting was just a study, painted quickly en plein air in the Fountainbleu Forest, but I think it’s almost better than the final painting, Luncheon on the Grass (1865-66), shown below. It feels fresh and immediate, as if you’re standing right there spying on this couple from the dappled shade behind the bushes. According to the article Fashion En Plein Air by Birgit Haase in the Exhibit Catalog, the dress that Camille is wearing would have been a highly fashionable outfit for women on trips to the countryside that year. Camille, who left her corset at home, is the perfect model for modern leisure wear in 1865. Monet obviously said yes to this dress – the embroidery, the cut and draping of the back of the dress and jacket seems to be the focus of the whole painting.

After the summer in Fountainbleu, Monet went back to Paris with the plan of turning his small plein air studies into a bold large canvas suitable for the Paris Salon. He made all kinds of changes to the dresses and the poses, but was so dissatisfied that he abandoned the project. What is left of the final painting appears in two giant panels at the Musée d’Orsay.

The story of how this celebrated painting got divided into separate panels is a good one. In Stephanie Cowell’s novel, Monet struggled all winter trying to paint Luncheon on the Grass, but he was so disappointed with the result that he decides not to enter it in the next Salon:

What he had seen so clearly on a summer’s day in the forest was not on the canvas before him. People were clumsily placed; the brushstrokes were all wrong. It had been repainted many times and he had never found the balance of human form and light, It was not a masterpiece at all. How could he not have seen it before? How could he have made such a mess of it?

In the novel Claude and Camille, Monet rips the canvas off the frame, rolls it up and moves on to the next painting. Thanks to the Musée d’Orsay, we have Monet’s own explanation for what happened next:

I had to pay my rent, I gave [Luncheon on the Grass] to the landlord as security and he rolled it up and put in the cellar. When I finally had enough money to get it back, as you can see, it had gone mouldy.

Monet retrieved the painting in 1884 and cut it into separate panels. Two of the three panels have survived and are included in the Impressionism and Fashion Exhibit.

After abandoning Luncheon of the Grass, Monet decided to ask Camille into pose again, this time in a green and black striped taffeta silk dress with an enormous train. Art historians don’t know exactly where this dress came from. They speculate that because of its sumptuous fabric and fur, it would have been beyond the financial means of either Monet or Camille. Stephanie Cowell imagines that Monet’s friend Bazille rented it for a painting of his own, and was willing to loan it to Monet. In fact, there is evidence to support Stephanie’s theory. In an 1866 letter to his mother, Bazille mentions a green satin dress that he had rented.

Wherever it came from, it was a dress that inspired a painting. In the novel, Claude whispers to Camille: “I could make an unforgettable picture of you in that dress.”

Claude Monet. Camille (1866). Kunsthalle Bremen, on loan to the Impressionism and Fashion Exhibit in New York and Chicago.

Camille said yes to the dress. She added with a fur-trimmed jacket and empire hat, and posed as if she was heading out the door. Once again, she appeared to lack a corset, a sign of independence and modernity.

Stephanie Cowell’s book goes on to describe the days that Monet spent in his studio, painting Camille in the green dress, the attraction between them building each day. Claude and Camille would later marry over the strong objections of her parents. Camille died in 1879 at the age of 32.

The painting would become known as Camille, The Green Dress (1866). It was accepted at the 1866 Salon.

This painting did not appear in Paris, but it will travel to New York and Chicago as part of the Impressionism and Fashion Exhibit, along with a real green tafetta dress from 1865, thanks to the costume collection of the Manchester Gallery of Art in England.

I can’t imagine a better book club pick than Claude and Camille, paired with a field trip to see the Impressionism and Fashion Exhibit at the Musée d’Orsay (September 25, 2012 – January 20, 2013), the Metropolitan Museum of New York (February 26- May 27, 2013) or the Art Institute of Chicago (June 26- September 22, 2013).

Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity: Highly recommended

Claude and Camille by Stephanie Cowell: Highly recommended

Visit an Art Colony in France: Grez-sur-Loing

Posted on November 6, 2012 by americangirlsartclubinparis

Interested in a different day trip from Paris? Try visiting some scenic old art colonies in France. There is so much more to see besides Giverny. And these off-the-beaten-track places are much less crowded.

Venturing south of Paris you will find the old art colonies of the Fountainbleu Forest, including Barbizon, Grez-sur-Loing, Moret-sur-Loing, Montigny-sur-Loing and Thomery. Here they are, mapped out on Google Maps. These villages make for a wonderful weekend or day trip from Paris. All you need is a good map, but for really easy travel, I prefer a rental car with GPS. (My own GPS travel tip: use the postal code of the city to which you’re traveling.) It is possible to visit all of these colonies in one day, but if you prefer not to rush and to perhaps leave some time to sketch or visit the nearby Chateau de Fountainbleu, I would set aside a whole weekend.

On a recent visit with Barbara Redmond, fellow artist and founder of A Woman’s Paris, I began in Grez-sur-Loing (postal code 77880) at the southern edge of Fountainbleu.

Grez became a popular summer travel destination for American artists in Paris after a train station and new hotel were built In 1860. Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot‘s painting View of the Loing At Grez (1850-60) may have worked like a Grez travel poster, inducing many art students to come and try to paint it themselves. Word about Grez circulated through the Academie Julian in Paris as well as Carolus-Duran’s studio.

The Bridge at Grez-sur-Loing by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1850-60). currier Art Gallery, New Hamshire.

The Bridge at Grez by American Robert Vonnoh (1907-11). Metropolitan Museum of New York.

Standing in front of the bridge at Grez-sur-Loing in 2012. Just when we were thinking of getting out our sketchbooks, it started to rain.

Athough Grez was gray and quiet the day we visited, it was once hopping with artists and writers, both male and female. Its notable visitors included Robert Louis Stevenson, his cousin, painter Robert Allen Stevenson, Louisa May Alcott’s little sister Abigail May Alcott (an artist like Amy in Little Women), American painters Kenyon Cox, John Singer Sargent, Theodore Robinson, Robert Vonnoh and Will Low, as well as a mother-daughter team of painters from California, Fanny and Nellie Osbourne. In fact, it was at Grez that Fanny Osbourne and Robert Louis Stevenson would meet and fall in love, although Fanny was ten years older and technically still married to her first husband at the time. (A hint of the bohemian pleasures of a nineteenth century art colony!)

These artists enjoyed the picturesque setting of the village as well as the open spaces nearby. The older French artists such as Corot, Millet and Rousseau had settled in nearby Barbizon a few decades earlier, but there was a new generation of artists looking for their own scenes and style. As Robert Allen Stevenson explained:

At Barbizon it was especially difficult to get away from the old men who had made it their own, and yet do anything like art. Forest interior composes with difficulty otherwise than as Rousseau, Diaz and Courbet imagined it. . . . Shut in, full of forms, lit in one way, deprived of sky of space of air of the effect of large simple planes, it was no fitting nursery for the new school of painters (“Grez” The Magazine of Art, 1894).

It wasn’t just lofty artistic motives that brought this generation of artists to Grez. It was also a place for youthful exhuberance and bohemian camaraderie. The artists enjoyed the casual hospitality of two inns in Grez: Hotel Chevillon and Pension Laurent. Hotel Chevillon was the place of much bohemian merriment, including singing and dancing in the hotel dining room as well as a masquerade ball in sheets and togas. The hotel guests often took canoe rides on the river together, playing such games as tip the canoe and shoot the chute. For a somewhat more reserved and respectable environment, the women would often stay at Pension Laurent just down the street.

A postcard image of the old Hotel Chevillon from the website of the Foundation Grez-sur-Loing.

Both hotels are still standing in downtown Grez. The Hotel Chevillon is now owned by Foundation Grez-sur-Loing, a Scandinanvian art organization that offers grants to visiting artists, authors, composers and scientists. According to their website, tours may be arranged with advance notice.

Hotel Chevillon in 2012, home of Foundation Grez-sur-Loing, a Scandinavian art organization. A popular hang-out for the artists who came to Grez. Robert Louis Stevenson met his future wife here.

Hotel Chevillon is located on rue Carl Larsson, which is named after the Swedish painter who lived and met his wife in Grez.

The present day site of the former Pension Laurent in Grez, just a few doors down from Hotel Chevillon. Abigail May Alcott may have stayed here during her visit the summer of 1877.

The plaque at the former Pension Laurent in Grez

The artists came to Grez in several different waves. In the 1870s, it was mostly Americans and British; in the 1880s it was mostly Scandinavians, and by the 1890s, there were many Japanese artists. The Scandinavians have had the most lasting influence – one of the streets is named after Swedish artist Carl Larsson.

Robert Vonnoh might be the American artist most closely associated with Grez. Boston-born Vonnoh first came to Grez on his honeymoon with his first wife Grace in 1887. He continued to visit throughout the years 1887-1891 and then again from 1907-1911, returning with his second wife Bessie Potter Vonnoh, a sculptor from Chicago. He returned for some part of each year until the outbreak of World War I. His last paintings set in Grez are dated after the war from 1922-1925.

Vonnoh has often been called one of America’s first-rate Impressionists. It would have been in Grez that he truly developed his plein air style. Here are some of Vonnoh’s paintings set in Grez:

Beside the River – Grez by Robert Vonnoh (1890)

Grez-sur-Loing by Robert Vonnoh

Poppies (also known as In a Flanders Field) by Robert Vonnoh (1890)

Grez remains an artistic community today. On the day we visited, we met a French painter near the ruins of the old Tour de Ganne. She was clipping dried hydrangeas from the churchyard to use at her own art exhibition later that afternoon. She handed us a flyer and invited us to stop by.

Follow along on my tour of other French art colonies in future posts. Coming soon: a visit to Rosa Bonheur’s Atelier in Thomery, France.

Sources and Recommended Reads:

Grez Days: Robert Vonnoh in France (Essay and Catalogue by May Brawley Hill for Berry-Hill Galleries 1987)

The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson by Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez (Gutenberg Project ebook, 2008)

May Alcott: A Memoir by Caroline Ticknor (1928), available at the Library of Congress Internet Archive

A Chronicle of Friendships 1873-1900 by Will H. Low (1908), available at Open Library

The Blue Lantern: The Violet Complexion of Grez-sur-Loing a blog by Jane Librizzi

American Girls Art Club In Paris. . . and Beyond

Exploring The World In The Footsteps of The Artists and Writers Who Came Before

Midnight in Paris Film Sites

Claude and Camille Along the Seine

Musée Bourdelle and its American Connection

Zelda and Scott in Paris

Crossing the Borders of Time

The Painted Girls: Degas and the Dancers

Visiting Rosa’s Studio

Cézanne A Life

Say Yes To The Dress: Claude and Camille and Fashion

Visit an Art Colony in France: Grez-sur-Loing

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