Elsien's Traveblogue

Today was the end – for the moment – of the Valadon trail. I went to the Pompidou Centre in Beaubourg where they have a wonderful modern art collection. I like to give myself these little themes, otherwise I drown in the volumes of paintings to see. Beaubourg was no exception: Picasso, Bracque, Matisse, to name but a few. I'd come in search of more Suzanne Valadon and found them: a Family Portrait, with a very depressed looking Utrillo and a scary wrinkled granny in it as well. The 'father' I think, is Andre Utter who was a painter himself, friend of Utrillo and Suzanne's final lover. In the next painting, 'Adam and Eve', I think he posed as Adam, without the little beard. There's another woman on a bed with a book, clothed this time, and two fairly naked women 'After the Bath' as well as a number of sketches. The strong black lines and the strong vivid colours are evident in all the paintings, the strong black lines in the sketches.
I also had a look at four little photographs by a woman called Claude Cahun, because I know she features in the third module of my course. She was in a room with photographs by Dora Maar, one of Picasso's women and model of a lot of his sad women paintings. I didn't realise what an accomplished artist she was herself.
There was an exhibition on of women painters, but I gave it a miss as at that moment hundreds of groups and school groups arrived to go and see it. I did have a look through the catalogue though, to make sure I wasn't missing something / someone essential, and I was impressed with how many female artists there were. I had heard of maybe 25% of them.
I was lucky to escape the crowds, good idea to go at lunchtime! After 2.30 it got a lot busier. The weather was lovely again, so I walked. It's more or less straight down from Montmartre: Notre Dame de la Lorette, Faubourg Montmartre, Rue Montmartre all the way to Les Halles, then across. I seem to remember the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre as distinctly grotty – it isn't now. The closer you get to Les Halles, the more expensive the shops and cafes, but that I knew from last time I was here.
From tomorrow I will be back with the Classics: hoping to have a look at the Academie tomorrow and the Louvre on Sunday. The art historian I am studying now, Aby Warburg, the founder of the Warburg Institute, did a big thing on Botticelli. I've more or less finished with Hegel for the moment; I think I have a better idea what he is trying to say now and what the criticisms are. No mean feat, if I say so myself, because the study material was pretty dense!