Tuesday, August 9, 2011

A glimpse of Renoir's swing

I'm at a writing retreat, where the internet is verboten. But I'm sneaking out to post this quickly because Renoir has been on my mind.
Renoir lived in Montmartre for awhile and painted La Balençoire - the swing here. On the left you see the tree where the swing hung from, the painting and Suzanne Valadon, Utrillo's mother, studio.
Geographically you can find it below



The bells summon me back to the retreat, more next week

Cara - Tuesday

6 comments:

  1. I went to an Impressionist exhibit in San Francisco in the 80's, and the Renoirs were almost too beautiful to be looked at. The lushness of the colors and the paints were so much more beautiful than the prints I had previously seen. How wonderful to visit Paris with you.

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  2. Thanks lil...right now there's the Gertrude Stein's collection of her 'friends' at the SF MOMA you must come back cara

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  3. I wish I liked Renoir better. I tend to divide things into "wet" and "dry" and to me Renoir is the wettest Impressionist (Cezanne is probably the driest) and over-wet stuff tends to get kind of smooshy for me. That doesn't mean I don't like wet stuff -- I prefer Balzac to Flaubert, and Balzac is much wetter than Flaubert, but in the decorative arts, some inner snob shies away from beauty so thickly applied.

    Does everyone hate me now?

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  4. To each his own, dear Tim. We should feel passionate about art - either one way or the other - which means the artist touched us...but voice out anytime and more the better. Modigliani bored me with his long necks and almond eyes until one day and one painting I saw what I think he expressed. Or maybe I just got it.
    Cara no art critic

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  5. A writer's retreat where the Internet is forbidden Cara? But where does one go to research? Or find distraction? Oh, I see...

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  6. Personally I liked the maps. They have a certain, come hither, Mondrian draw to them.

    Forgive me, I've never been good at foreign languages, especially artuguese.

    Jeff

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