Eurojournal - 17 August 2006 (A day at the Musee d'Orsay)

“Mom, I need to bring my Claude Monet book!!!! Do you have it? I must carry it.” Liam exclaimed as we left the flat venturing out to the Musee D’Orsay today. This is the home of Liam and Luna’s favorite artists, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. We tried not to make a beeline for the Monet and Degas pieces but ended up there anyway. We saw Monet first and Liam and I sat down and talked about it. Luna joined in. They were interested in what was happening in the picture. I had a great time asking them questions and having them compare in their books. It was not the same picture in the book but Liam remembered that Monet painted the same things over and over with changes. This was a scene of a picnic. When Liam first saw it, he shouted and magically got in front of the other people, “It’s Claude Monet’s picnic picture! Let’s look in my book!” We talked about the similarities and differences. Next to it was another painting with the same characters. The children decided it was in fact the same person in both paintings because of her polka dotted dress. Great observations! We found more.

The kids were thrilled when there were ones that matched those in their books. Luna told me the story of Vincent Van Gogh when we wandered into the Van Gogh room. She immediately knew who he was and went straight for the self portrait. “Where is the picture where he cut off his ear?”

We saw more Monet. We saw the cathedral. We closed our eyes and got really close to the painting. The kids saw sloppy paints then stepped back and saw the cathedral. “wow! How cool” they said. Liam saw in the next room over, Degas’ Marie sculpture, the ballerina. That has been Luna’s favorite. She knows the story of both the artist and Marie well. Liam was so excited for her that he no longer cared about Monet’s work. He grabbed Luna’s hand and rushed her into the next room, “Luna, Luna! It’s Marie! Look!” Luna took it all in. There were several other pieces in the glass case but Marie stood out. “She is so small, Mom.” We looked in her book and then she figured it out. She gazed at it for a few minutes.

We finished looking at other works and talked about the lives of the Impressionists. We saw several Toulouse-Latrec paintings. The kids asked what he painted. “Oh he likes to paint about the parties and the Moulin-Rouge.” I told them and moved on. They were not as into Cezanne and I am. Oh well.

After we finished, we went back. The little ones chose a favorite and sketched with crayons. Luna chose, Marie of course. Luna and Liam first looked at the piece and decided which colors they would need. They had a good eye for this. Liam went into the next room and sketched Monet’s turkey picture (Les Dindons). He was very serious about this. He got comfortable and studied the picture for a few minutes. He told me all the things he saw in the picture, the house, turkeys and grass. He sketched and sketched. I looked up and there was a group of people smiling taking his picture. Quite the photo shoot! People were looking over his shoulder in amazement. He told them that he was working on the house right now and pointed at his version and Monet’s version. He finished and signed his sketch. We went over and Luna was finishing hers. She has a lot of detail and the colors were right on. Both were very proud of their work.

At lunch Byron and I discussed the history of art. He felt that art went downhill since 200 years ago. I asked him to elaborate. He felt that modern art wasn’t art at all. He can not see why an exhibit of actual garbage counts as art. We talked about what is behind the art, at least my thoughts around it. The artist who sells a painting with a slash through the canvas for millions gets that because s/he did it before you did and others like it. Many pieces have meaning behind it which is the art in itself. He does like MC Escher though. Maybe that will be enough to get him to the Pompidou!

After the d’Orsay,we walked over to the Ferris wheel and got on. That was amazing. It was sunny and we could see all of Paris. Byron enjoyed spinning our car.

Liam sketching;Luna and Marie; Luna admiring Monet;Liam found his favorite