Jacquemart-Andre 1-5-26

Last week Deb was able to buy tickets for a visit to the Musee Jacquemart-Andre over in the 8th arrondissement, for today.  There was a forecast for snow today but not until later in the day. So we boarded a bus for the ride over. When we arrived we had about 15 minutes until we were at the appointed time, so we waited out on the sidewalk until our turn. When they let us enter we walked through the carriage entrance and then up the drive to the front of the house where they collect tickets. Our strategy today was to see the Georges de la Tour exhibit first, then have lunch in the restaurant. Following lunch we would see the rest of the museum. When we got in we went directly to the ticket control. Deb had the tickets on her phone and

showing on her screen. Yet as soon as she presented it the screen went black!! Everything she tried to bring them back up failed. We immediately got out of the line and went to the side to see what was going on. Finally after a couple minutes we were able to get the tickets showing again but the power level dropped from 75% to 4% as she looked at it. To say we were rattled slightly understates the situation. So we rushed to the front of the line and cut a few people off.  Then before the phone died again they were able to scan the tickets and let us enter. We spent a couple minutes calming down and then went up and entered the de la Tour exhibit. Georges de la Tour was a French painter during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He was was popular during his lifetime but almost unknown after his life and only rediscovered in the 20th century. Up until the early 20th century less than 5 of his works were known but as time and 

research progressed there are now 40 works identified as his works. He is not known to have travelled outside of France but he has an affinity with Tenebrism. His works look very much in the style of Carravagio, but no known relationship exists. Many of his works feature darkly shadowed backgrounds with the existing light sources provided by candlelight. He seems also to have painted in two basic veins; the first religious subjects, and the second are non-noble secular figures.  The show has been so popular that it has been extended for an additional month. If the numbers of patrons we saw today is any gauge, they could run it for another 6 months.

At the time we entered the museum the line waiting to enter the restaurant snaked back into the museum, so we prepared ourselves for a wait. But when we got there we were the second group in line, so that worked out very well. We are real fans of this restaurant, and not just for the food. The food has been very good every time we’ve dined. It also had a ceiling mural executed by Tiepolo. It was imported by Eouard Andre and Nellie Jacquemart from an Italian villa that was being demolished.  They rescued it and had installed in their breakfast room, which is now the restaurant. When we had guests in 2015 this was place where we brought every one of them. Today it was a warm and inviting space to have lunch.  They had a special menu honoring de la Tour, however we couldn’t understand the significance of the choices. But Deb did order their special menu cocktail, based on Mirabelle plum brandy, very tasty but potent. Deb ordered the lobster bisque and I ordered a lamb stew. Once again we thoroughly enjoyed our food, and passed a leisurely hour eating.

For dessert I had a Black Forest cherry cake and Deb had a French version of lemon meringue pie. As we sat there I looked outside and saw the snow beginning to fall. We finished our lunch and then made our way back to the main part of the museum. But at the ticket check station they stopped us and asked for tickets. Luckily the woman remembered our problem with the phone and very nicely told us to go on through and enjoy the rest of our visit.

The museum is set up with the ground floor dedicated to displaying the wealth and taste of the Jacquemart and Andre, while the upper floor is separated into an area for temporary exhibits and the other space displaying more of the couple’s acquisitions. Edouard Andre was a wealthy banker in the latter part of the 19th century. He was so wealthy that his personal budget for art acquisition was higher than that of the

Louvre. In fact frequently when he determined that the Louvre should have a particularly important piece he would refrain from competing with them. In some cases he even donated funds to help them with their acquisitions. After he died his widow, Nellie Jacquemart, continued with the acquisitions and building the collection we see today.  A great deal of their collection came from Italy and it is really apparent in the art. As far as I know with possible exceptions of Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael, they collected most of the major Italian artists of the Renaissance.  There is even a 10 foot long winged lion sculpture from Venice up on a ledge near the ceiling. Yesterday I talked about a favorite room in the modern art museum of Paris, today again i have a leading candidate. It is a room dedicated to art of the Venetian Renaissance and it has my favorite ceiling in the entire world.  It’s my contention that this ceiling was a conceptual basis for some of the work of Fernand Leger.  Created around 1525 -1530 Girolamo Santacroce created a series of grisaille panels with blue backgrounds.  But with the likes

Botticelli, Bellini, Bernini, and Uccello on the walls I think the ceiling gets overlooked.  We enjoyed ourselves going through the permanent collection and then went downstairs to view their private bedrooms and bathroom. One amazing feature of the house are the walls in the music and parlor rooms. They were all built with hydraulic controls which allowed them to be raised and lowered. In normal day to day living the walls were raised. But when the Jacquemart Andre’s held a ball or public event the walls could be lowered into the floor and create a single large ballroom. That’s what having almost unlimited funds can do. 

We had to leave because the snow was beginning to accumulate and we were concerned with getting back to the apartment. We waited for a long time before a bus appeared and then tried to decide  

whether to ride all the way to Gare du Nord and perhaps walk from there or if we would get off and take the bus which would get us to within two blocks. However the driver solved the problem for us. When we arrived at Gare St. Lazare he announced that the route was terminated as of that moment. So we walked over to where we could catch the other bus.  But after several minutes the monitor could not give us any reliable information on when it might arrive. So we quickly changed our approach and caught the Metro back to within a block of the apartment. We had more snow today than we did during the entire year of  our residence in 2015. Despite the inconvenience Paris is still a beautiful city in the snow.