Musée du Luxembourg and Lots of Sunshine

Monday April 11 was a beautiful, sunny day in Paris with a high of 21C!  Yay! 🌞

Passed this "Poutine" cover

We headed out to the Musée du Luxembourg, about a 30 minute walk from our apartment.

The Luxembourg Gardens were busy

Our destination was the Musée du Luxembourg to see the exhibit entitled: Pionnières: Artists dans le Paris des Années Folies (Pioneers: Women Artists in the Paris of the Roaring Twenties).  It was a fantastic exhibit.

Poster for the exhibit

After entering the exhibit, there was a video showing the increased role of women during WWI in Paris.

At the factories

Driving trolleys

The exhibit featured women artists who helped redefine women's role in modern life.  Many did not receive proper recognition during their lifetime.  The exhibit featured French-born women as well as foreign-born women who came to Paris from around the world, either staying for good or returning home. The exhibit featured painters, sculptors, and film-makers.

The first painting, Death and the Woman, showed Death with a hook for an arm and a prosthetic leg with a woman wearing a gas mask.  Marie Vorobieff  (known as Marevna) was born in Russia and moved to Paris in 1912 where she continued her art studies and began to exhibit her work.  She was friends with many of the great artists in Paris at the time.  She later moved to London.

Marie Vorobieff (1892-1984, dite Marevna, La Mort et la Femme, 1917

Irène Codréano was born in Bucharest and studied art there, before moving to Paris in 1919.  From 1919-1924, she was a student of Antoine Bourdelle and an assistant to Constatin Brancusi.  She had her first exhibit in Paris in 1926.

Irina Cordeau (1896-1985, dite Irène Codréano, Portrait de Daria Gamsaragan, 1926

Marcelle Cahn was born in Strasburg and moved with her family to Berlin in 1915.  She left in 1920, to study in Paris and was a student of Fernand Léger. 

Marcelle Cahn (1895-1981), Composition Abstraite, 1925

Franciska Clausen (1899-1986), was a Danish painter who worked for Lászlo Moholy-Nagy and Alexander Archipenko in Berlin before enrolling in the l'Académie moderne in Paris in 1924. 

Franciska Clausen, Éléments Mécaniques, 1926

Anna Beöthy-Steiner (1902-1985) was born in Hungary but moved to Paris in 1927 where she lived the rest of her life.  She married another artist, István Beöthy, and they were both founding members of the group "Abstraction-Création", created in 1931.  She interrupted her artistic work in 1934 and only resumed her work in the 1960s after her husband's death.  Her works from 1927-34 are regarded as her main work.

Anna Beöthy-Steiner, Composition Concentrique, 1927

Anna Prinner (1902-1983), dite Anton Prinner was born in Budapest in 1902.  She took a masculine name and identify at age 25 when she arrived in France.  Between 1932-37, he was a constructivist.

Anton Prinner, Construction En Cuivre, 1935

Marjorie Jewell Moss (1889-1958), dite Marlow Moss, was a British painter who took a masculine name and dressed as a man.  In 1926, she enrolled at the l'Académie moderne de Fernand Léger in Paris where she discovered the work of Piet Mondrian whom she corresponded with between 1929-1938.  Moss also was a founding member of the Abstraction-Création association.  At the beginning of WWII, she left France to live near Cornwall, England where she lived and worked, frequently visiting Paris.

Marlow Moss, Composition en Blanc, Rouge et Gris, 1935.  These were among the colours used by Mondrian--- also no curves in paintings allowed!

The exhibit had a number of timelines outlining key dates for the rights of women and women in literature and cinema.  The American Sylvia Beach opened Shakespeare and Company in 1919 on Rue de l'Odeon and Adrienne Monnier opened La Maison des Amis des Livres on the same street.  Both became the beacons of literary creation at the time.  

In 1910, Marie Vassilieff found the Académie Russe pour les Jeunes Artistes Non Francophones (Russian Academy for non-French speaking your artists).  Marie Laurencin taught at the Acdémie moderne from 1924 with Fernand Léger.  Abstraction reigned supreme at that school and many women were attracted by abstraction which allowed them to break free from genre-based categories.

A number of photographs by Sophia Gisela Freund (1908-2000), dite Gisèle Freund captured key figures in literary Paris in the 20s and 30s. 

Gisèle Freund, Adrienne Monnier, 1935 and
Sylvia Beach dans Sa Librairie Shakespeare and Company, Paris, 1936

There was also a video interview with Sonia Delaunay, one of my favourite painters.

1968 interview with Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), who was born in Odessa and moved to Paris in 1905.

Marie Laurencin (1883-1956), Portrait de Mademoiselle Chanel, 1923

Suzanne Valadon (1865-1838) Femme aux bas blancs, 1924

Wall of photos and beauty products featuring Josephine Baker (1906-1975)

Aleksandra Belcova (1892-1981), La Joueuse de Tennis, 1927

The exhibit included a section of paintings showing scenes of women as mothers, or women as lovers in new ways.  Motherhood was often portrayed as tiring and women were not seen with just the male gaze.

Maria Blanchard (1881-1932), La Toilette, 1924

Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), Mère et son Enfant, 1932

Chana Orloff (1888-1968), Grande Baigneuse Accroupie, 1925

Tamara de Lempicka, Suzy Solidor, 1935

Suzy Solidor poster

Tamara de Lempicka, Perspective ou Les Deux Amies, 1923

Throughout her life, Gerda Wegener, née Gerda Marie Fredrikke Gottlieb (1886-1940) painted her husband, better known by his trans identify, Lili Elbe.  Wegener was a Danish illustrator and painter who moved to Paris in 1912 where her paintings became more provocative.  She often painted herself with Lili Elbe or Lili alone.  She was exhibited in various Salons in Paris.

Their story was the subject of the 2015 film, The Danish Girl staring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander which Alain and I had seen.   In 1930, Elbe underwent one of the first sex reassignment surgeries.  As Danish law at the time did not recognise marriage between two women, their marriage was annulled in October 1930 by King Christian X.  Elbe died in 1931 of complications from the surgery.

Gerda Wegener, Lily, 1922

Gerda Wagener, Lili déguisée en "Chevalier à la Rose", 1921.

Lucy Scwab (1894-1954) dite Claude Cahun was another gender fluid artist. "Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation.  Neuter is the only gender that always suits me". Claude Cahun, Disavowals or Cancelled Confessions, Paris, Éditions Carrefour, 1930, p.176.

Ensemble d'autoportraits réalisés entre 1927 et 1929

Beatrice Romaine Goddard (1874-1970), dite Romaine Brooks, was an American expatriate artist and lover of Natalie Barney who recreated a lesbian literary salon in Paris. 

Romaine Brooks, Portrait de Natalie Clifford Barney, Femme de Lettres, dit "L'Amazone", 1920.

Romaine Brooks, Au Bord de la Mer, 1914

Juliette Roche (1884-1980) had studied with the Nabis and the Cubists and their influence can be seen in the painting.  The silhouettes also invoke La Danse by Henri Matisse which she would have seen in the 1910 Salon.  

Juliette Roche, Sans titre, dit American Picnic, v. 1918

The last room featured photographs of all the artists in the exhibit.

Artist photos

The remainder of the photos

It was a wonderful visit. While we knew some of the pioneer artists, there were a number of artists that we had not heard of before.  Paris in the 1920s and 1930s has always been a fascinating time for innovative art and culture.  This exhibit shines the light on a number of the women artists of that period, many whom had not received the recognition they deserve.  Now they will receive attention!

We decided to explore the nearby 6th arrondissement for a bit longer and to have lunch in the sun.

Lots of green and blossoms

We stopped at the Agnes b. store--- Alain- b. yourself!

Saint-Sulpice

We had lunch at Cafe de la Mairie, which faced Saint-Sulpice.  Folks in France can still smoke at outdoor tables.  Luckily, someone who had been smoking near us left shortly after we arrived.

Tables facing the Church-- we had the table where the two men on the left are sitting

We shared a classic chèvre and haricot salad

The new section of the café in front of where we sat, but much more crowded

We walked down Rue Bonaparte and stopped at one of my favourite chocolate stores- À la Mère de Famille, which has a number of locations.  We got a few of our favourite dark chocolate bars with orange pieces.  They gave us each a small dark chocolate egg as a treat.  People were buying big chocolate bunnies and chickens.

Chocolates galore

 

Easter display

We then went to Saint Pearl for a coffee and a piece of vegan carrot cake.  We had tried to stop there on the weekend, but there was a lineup.  Mid-afternoon on a Monday was a much better plan, as there was only one other couple in the coffee shop.

Very good coffee--they also have a good brunch menu

More Easter displays in chocolate shops

We decided to cross the Seine, walk through the Tuileries and then take a long walk down Rue Saint Honoré, window shopping and enjoying the sun.  

Crossing the Seine-- one of Alain's favourite things

Far off view of the Grand Palais- closed for renovations

Topiary bushes at the Tuileries

Facing the other way-- everyone enjoying the sun at the Tuileries

Gorgeous tree

We started our walk on Rue Saint- Honoré.  Alain stopped for his favourite treat of a pain au chocolat pistache at Ladouré.  

Yum!

Bunnies in the 'hood

Another one a few blocks away

We walked for quite a while and then headed back to Place du Marché Saint-Honoré  (a few blocks away from Rue Saint-Honoré), where there are a number of cafés and restaurants. We had an apèro at Popeille.

Buzzy Popeille

With my mojito

Alain with his Aperol Spritz (very popular in Paris)

We walked by Samaritane shortly after it closed at 8:00 p.m.

Samaritaine in the evening

We continued the walk back towards our apartment and crossed back to the Left Bank.  We had decided to have a light dinner at 5ème Cru on Rue du Cardinal Lemoine.  It is a wonderful wine bar with a limited charcuterie and tartine menu.  It was very busy on a Monday night- mostly locals.  Lots of bottles and boxes of wine in a few small rooms.

One can buy wine here too

Cosy spot (yes that's the back of Alain in purple)

I had a chorizo with brebis (sheep cheese) tartine and Alain had a small charcuterie plate.  We had asked for a glass of medium bodied wine and the server brought two bottles for us to try.  
We both liked the same one.   

We headed back to the apartment.  It's going to be hard to leave Paris now, as we have hit a spell of warm weather and sun!