 |
|
Delacroix’s 1838 portrait of Chopin. © Roger Viollet |
What better place for an exhibition celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frédéric Chopin than the Musée de la Vie Romantique? Not only …
|
|
|
Delacroix’s 1838 portrait of Chopin. © Roger Viollet |
What better place for an exhibition celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frédéric Chopin than the Musée de la Vie Romantique? Not only did the very life of the quintessential Romantic composer – with his huge talent, good looks (complete with the required flowing locks), torrid love affair with George Sand, fragile health and early death – seem to epitomize the Romantic lifestyle, but he actually spent time in the house and studio the museum is housed in, which belonged to his friend, the painter Ary Scheffer.
How wonderful to steep yourself in the world of Chopin in the artist’s studio, the very room where Chopin once played the piano for Sand, Scheffer and other friends. Delacroix’s famed portrait of the composer hangs there alongside a profusion of other portraits of Chopin’s friends and colleagues. Auguste Charpentier’s handsome portrayal of Sand is here, showing the full force of that strong woman’s character, as well as a lovely picture of singer and pianist Pauline Viardot (posing in the studio it hangs in) by Scheffer, and paintings of Chopin by other artists. In each of the latter, he looks very different, except perhaps for the eyes, but always frail, not as dashing as he does in the Delacroix painting.
Along with dozens of other paintings, some of them by great artists like Gustave Courbet, Camille Corot and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, the exhibition, spread out in several rooms of this little complex of buildings set in a peaceful garden at the end of a long alleyway, also offers a wealth of fascinating memorabilia, among them a Pleyel piano that Chopin played; a plaster cast of his small, fine hand (hard to believe that it could play his music), a beautiful sketch of him on his deathbed by Antar Teofil Kwiatkowski, a death mask, original manuscripts of his music, and much more.
The “blue note” of the exhibition’s title is a phrase used by Sand in Impressions et Souvenirs when describing an evening with Chopin and Delacroix. The painter, talking to Sand’s son, Maurice, had been comparing the tones of colors in painting with the sounds in music when Chopin, inspired by the conversation, began to improvise on the piano, then stopped. Urged to continue by Delacroix, he said, “I’m trying to find the right color, but I can’t even get the form.” Delacroix responded: “You won’t find one without the other, and both will come together.” Chopin returned to the keyboard. Sand describes what comes next: “We begin to see soft colors corresponding to the suave modulations sounding in our ears. Suddenly the note of blue sings out, and the transparent night of azure surrounds us.”
One of the paintings in the exhibition, Charles Cuisin’s moody “Effet de Crepuscule,” which shows leafless trees, the sky and and a lake at dusk, might almost have been an illustration of the blue note Sand describes: that transparent moment when day turns into night.
Chopin lovers and romantics of all stripes must not miss this fitting tribute to the composer.
Musée de la Vie Romantique: Hôtel Scheffer-Renan, 16, rue Chaptal, 75009 Paris. Tel.: 01 55 31 95 67. Open 10am-6pm. Closed Mondays and public holidays. Admission: €7. Through July 11. www.vie-romantique.paris.fr
Support Paris Update by ordering the Frédéric Chopin: La Note Bleue catalogue from Paris Update’s Amazon store at no extra cost. Click on your preferred Amazon location: U.K., France.
Buy CDs of Chopin’s music from the Paris Update store. Click on your preferred Amazon location: U.S. residents, U.K. residents, France residents.
More reviews of Paris art shows.
Reader Reaction: Click here to respond to this article (your response may be published on this page and is subject to editing).
© 2010 Paris Update
Favorite