Floral flashback

Giverny, home and inspiration to Claude Monet.

 Claude Monet's Giverny

A day trip from Paris 

 

Throwback Thursday

 

 

Twilight mingling in the Renoir Gardens.

 

From Opening

 École de Paris (Marek Roefler Collection)

 

 Musée de Montmartre

12 rue Cortot 75018

 

Reminder:

Ends February 15, 2026

 

   

White Wednesday

 

Paris wakes up to an Impressionist dreamscape.

Thoughtful Thursday

 Toulouse-Lautrec watches thoughtfully from his Montmartre perch.

 

Letting Luce

 

MAXIMILIEN LUCE

l'Instinct du Paysage

 

Musée de Montmartre

12 rue Cortot 75018

 

 

Ends September 14, 2025

 

*** 

Maximilien Luce (1858–1941) was a trailblazer of Neo-Impressionism and key figure in anarchist and libertarian communities. Leaving an indelible legacy through his deep artistic and political passions, his paintings of urban and rural scenes as well as the human experience reflect the social and industrial shifts of his time. Although his stunning landscapes take center stage in this exhibition, he also portrays subjects that were unexplored by his fellow Pointillists, such as workers in motion.
 
The humanistic spirit at the core of his work defines its essence, yet landscape remains a central theme that energized his art throughout his career. With a distinctive sensitivity, Luce masterfully portrays light and color. This exhibition showcases his artistry and brings his frequently underappreciated work to a wider audience.

Luce lived on rue Cortot from 1887 until 1899, just steps from where this exhibition, the first Paris retrospective since 1983, is now being held. — BPJ

Sunset Sunday

 

The blush of sunset from the Renoir Gardens of the Musée de Montmartre.

 

Throwback Thursday

 

Taking in views of the distant Montmartre hill at the Orsay Museum where rooms overflow with works of many of the Impressionists who lived there.

 

Museum Monday

 

 

Further to yesterday's post -

 

The Montmartre Museum merits a visit for its location, architecture and Renoir Gardens alone.

 

Above: restored atelier of Suzanne Valadon, painters' model / artist who lived there with Impressionist André Utter and her son, Maurice Utrillo, starting in 1912, part of the permanent exhibition

 

 Below: Valadon's studio seen from the Renoir Gardens

 

 

Musée de Montmartre

12 rue Cortot 75018

 

Current:

Théophile Steinlen (1859 - 1923)

The Centenary Exhibition

 

Ends February 11, 2024

 

Chez Vincent

Passersby at #54 rue Lepic where Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh lived for two years with his brother Théo, an art dealer, usually have to be satisfied with the small plaque on the wall outside.

Above: a peek inside

 

Making an impression

 

A sign inside a Montmartre real estate agency reads, "The street artists are the new Impressionists."

***

In the late 1800s, the official Paris Salon dominated the French art world, enforcing rigid academic standards for what qualified as acceptable "art." Works that didn't conform were often rejected, but in 1863, Emperor Napoleon III established the Salon des Refusés - an exhibition for these “rejects" - following widespread complaints about the Salon's overly strict jury. This alternative showcase highlighted innovative painters, including early figures like Édouard Manet, and helped legitimize avant-garde styles. It paved the way for independent exhibitions, weakening the Salon's monopoly. By 1874, a group of rebellious artists - including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and others - organized their own show outside the traditional system. Art critic Louis Leroy reviewed it mockingly in the newspaper Le Charivari, deriding Monet's painting Impression, Sunrise, as a mere “impression" - unfinished and sketchy, like wallpaper in its early stages. Intended as an insult, the term "Impressionists" stuck. The artists embraced it proudly, and their independent exhibitions continued, ultimately revolutionizing modern art as the once-dominant Paris Salon faded into obsolescence, much like the horse and buggy, in an era of change. - BPJ

A Montmartre garden #2

Studio of Suzanne Valadon overlooks the garden.

Below: view from interior of the tea room

A Montmartre garden

Renoir's garden as part of the Montmartre Museum, once a stately home.

Below: a view from the pond

Rue Rustique

Impressionist Maurice Utrillo set up his easel and painted from this vantage more than once.

 

An atelier d'artiste

Artist studios in Paris are recognizable by their large vertical windows.

Above: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec lived and worked on the spacious two upper floors of this building

La maison rose

Former home and atelier of artiste-peintre Maurice Utrillo, Montmartre.

Day trip: At home with Monet #2

Interior of Impressionist icon Claude Monet's Giverny home with partial view of gardens from a window.

***

Un Jour avec Claude Monet à Giverny by Adrien Goetz (Flammarion)

 

Day trip: At home with Monet #1

On the occasion of the publication of Un Jour avec Claude Monet à Giverny by Adrien Goetz (Flammarion), I was invited on a press trip to what was once Claude Monet's home in Giverny, complete with a private lunch arranged for us in the Impressionist painter's former atelier.

Above: photos don't do justice to the gardens at Giverny, a pleasant hour and a half drive from Paris

Time out

Taking in views of the distant Montmartre hill at the Orsay Museum where rooms overflow with the works of many of the Impressionists who lived and died there.

Tonight October 1st til Oct 2nd

NUIT BLANCHE 

Stay up all night and enjoy the festivities: art, music, museums, more, til dawn