"Before its airy makeover with the glass pyramid, the Louvre felt like the worst kind of museum–punishingly vast, the walls of its interminable corridors lined with dukes with beards like spades and spoilt, mean-mouthed women in poodle wigs. After some hours, footsore and deafened by culture, we got to the “Mona Lisa”. I remember thinking how small she was. And how podgy. The famous smile hinted at embarrassment that all these people would bother coming so far to see her, when really she was nothing special."For the complete article, actually about the Rodin Museum not about the Louvre, see RODIN'S SONNETS IN STONE by Allison Pearson. I have mixed feelings about the Rodin museum as we lived quite near it for a year and took so many visitors there that I was maxed out on Rodin.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
An Embarrassed Smile? What!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Fran and I were at the Rodin museum in Fall of 1955-- they were selling off some of their sculptures and we could have bought a 4-foot high bronze of the walking man for $1800. Unfortunately that was a good bit more than we had - an entire year in Europe for the two of us being budgeted for about $4000.
just a few months ago we went to the Stanford Art Gallery where they have a very rich collection of Rodin, and though I do admire his work, I agree with you that a little bit of him goes a long way,
Post a Comment