Tag Archives: Portraits

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

Posted on by
3

Day 12,  Saturday, September 9,  2023

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen is an art museum in Rouen, that was established by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1800. It is just the right size for an afternoon of browsing. These are some of my favourite portraits…

…and some views from just a couple of the 60 rooms in the museum.

Bob noticed that the orange lines on the walls converged to make perfect circles on the mirror.  Look closely and you can see our reflections.

I love Modigliani and was happy to find three of his paintings here as well.

I found this painting rather curious.  It is King Henry III who reigned from 1574 until he was assassinated in 1589. It does not seem typical of paintings of the 16th century.  The artist is unknown.

There are several Monet’s including this famous one of the Rouen Cathedral, which he painted many times.

There is a room full of beautiful intaglio etchings and drawings of Rouen in 1878 by Emile Nicolle.

I wondered if it would be possible to find any of these sites today, so Bob took this photo and later we found pretty much the exact position that Emile Nicolle must have stood to make this. Some of the older buildings have been replaced with larger new ones so part of the view is blocked but it is the spot!

The landing of the grand staircase of the museum had a huge glazed terra cotta sculpture that I quite liked.

We had a rest and our picnic in a little park right beside the museum and watched children at play.  Several times I thought someone was going ot fall off this crazy ‘slide’.  But thank heavens, no one did.  I am pretty sure this would not pass safety standards back home.

The buildings in Rouen are really old, many of the post and beam type are from the 1500’s.  The roofs are crooked, the walls slant and the floors are certainly not always straight although this doesn’t show as well in photos as it does in real life

This one building was really unique.  Notice the specially constructed windows  to accommodate the slanted area on the left…

…and again on the end of the building. The windows here are straight but the building definitely is not so the window frames are built to accommodate this.  It is especially noticeable on the second floor, which is the first floor here.

On the way home we see more gargoyles…

a very cluttered tiny shop…

and walk down a very lovely old street with running water and plants.

Naval Museum, La Spezia, Italy

Posted on by
Reply

Day 59, Thursday November 2, 2017

This is the view from the little balcony at the back of our apartment. Take a look at the long stairway covered with grape vines up to the yellow house. Imagine climbing those stairs every day!The view from the balcony in the front of our apartment looking down the hill and…this is looking up the hill.  The town of La Spezia is built on hills and it is the closest bigger town to Cinque Terre. The trains leave frequently for the short trip to the ‘Five lands.’I stayed home today for some much needed rest after our two days of hiking the trails in Cinque Terre. I didn’t accomplish much, photographed my sketches of people on the bus and metro and did our laundry.

I never know how long I will have to draw before a person leaves. I drew the fellow playing the violin standing in front of me on the Milano metro, and had less than a minute before he moved on.Bob went for a long walk today to the Naval Museum by the harbour. He took these great photos of some mast heads. He knows how much I like dragons.More mast heads.They are also known as figureheads.This model of the Santa Maria, the ship that Columbus sailed to North America is about three feet long.

Yesterday’s photos of the netting in the trees shows how olives are harvested. The trees are shaken and the olives drop onto the netting. The strange little machine is how they move the harvest down the mountains and steep hills. It is loaded with olives, and runs on cogs, kind of like a roller coaster for olives!

2016??

Posted on by
7

I thought I would post every week or so after our Spain and Portugal trip but 2016 just flew by and I must confess I didn’t accomplish what I had anticipated.  It was a year with lots of family and health stuff, so art making and travel was put on the back burner for a while.

I did manage to complete one project that was long overdue.  Eighteen years ago I took some photos of my sister-in-law and nephew with the intention of painting a portrait.   There is quite a long story behind the creation of this portrait, this one is actually version #2, but I won’t get into that today.

Finally, I was able to deliver this portrait much to the surprise and delight of my sister-in-law and her family. It is a pastel painting, 19″x 25″.img_3134