I had intended to enter into the world of blogging on a different topic -which in due course i will no doubt get round to doing. but something has been bothering me for the last week - and it all started in the the d'Orsay in Paris.
I had not been there for years. I had originally set aside the afternoon to rediscover the Louvre. but having chosen the only day of the week when the Louvre was closed (tuesdays, for those of you who are planning to visit)I made my way to the d'Orsay (www.musee-orsay.fr)
Now a word of warning. for those of you who, like me, suffer from vertigo, the d'Orsay is not the most practical of galleries to visit. In fact, was it not for the kind help of strangers (a woman and her teenage daughter), I might still be frozen on the upper levels of the building.
But I digress.
Having made it safely down to the ground level (legs still a little wobbly)i found myself in front of Manet's 'Le balcon'. I have to admit that I was drawn to the piece primarily because one of the figures in the painting is Berthe Morisot - one of the few women painters who exhibited with the impressionists. But that is another story for another day. I then found myself in front of Le fifre, a charming painting of the boy in full military uniform playing on his fife. And as you look at the painting you can almost hear the notes he is blowing. And it seems to me that that is what a painting is suppose to do: to make you feel, think, smell, sense, hear something more than.
But finally i found myself in front of one of Manet's most 'popular' paintings - Olympia (if you are not familiar with any of these paintings, do have a look at the d'Orsay's website) So i was standing there absorbed in the painting when a man walked directly in front of me blocking my view. I don't think he'd noticed me as his world view was through a digital video camera. I stood waiting for him to complete recording when another group of visitors joined us, each one of them holding up digital cameras. taking image after image of Olympia. both the man with the video and the group with the digital cameras moved swiftly on, looking for the next work, leaving me alone in front of the painting.
It was only then that i started looking around at the other visitors huddled in groups, chatting or otherwise focussed on taking images of the works that appealed, but more often than not, of the works that were widely recognisable.
The following day I went back to the Louvre to join the thousands of other tourists queue, be inspected, searched and finally to be allowed into the inner sanctuary of the building (and much as i love to complain about this country, one of the most wonderful things about public galleries in the UK, is that they are free.) I was in two minds as to whether I should go in search of the Mona Lisa but overcoming my inverted snobbery, I picked up a plan of the gallery and headed in the general direction of the 'star attraction'. And, let me tell you, what i saw did not disappoint. it was worth the effort.
The Louvre has set aside one entire wall for the painting - a suprisingly small portrait. And from where i stood, it was even smaller for not only is there a cordon that ensures the visitor cannot get too close, there must have been at least eighty people standing in front of the cordon, pushing, shoving just to get a better image on their cameras. arms outstretched, flashes going off constantly, and the glass protecting the painting reflecting every flash. I had never seen anything like it before. As for the painting, I will just have to make do with the digital reproduction on the Louvre's website.
So now I come to the real point I want to raise. why do people visit galleries? Because they are certainly not there to see the original works with their eyes. of course they can take home a digital impression of a work that they stood near to even for one brief moment. but they never really saw the original. because everything they saw was through a lens.
I could also go on about some of the pieces I saw this weekend at part of the open house initiative in London. I could also share a few words about the Damien Hirst auction at Sotheby's. But I will resist.
I will however end on an upbeat note. the Louvre is definitely worth a visit. I spent over three hours in the place and was overcome by the treasures that filled my imagination. But unless you are a social anthropologist or a student of contemporary culture on a mission to collate data, there is little point in searching for the most famous painting in the world; there is so much more to life than the Mona Lisa.
