Secret Journeys

WHERE GENIUS LIVED PART TWO 2/4: Chana Orloff Chana Orloff started as a seamstress. Sewing classes were a way to avoid arranged marriage at a time when women's paths to independence were few. In 1905 her Jewish family was driven from their small Ukrainian village by the pogroms, fleeing to Palestine. After 5 years she was offered a job as a sewing teacher at a girls’ school, so she went to Paris to study fashion with the understanding that she would return to take up her post. She never did. Studying at the School of Decorative Arts and frequenting the artistic hangouts of Montparnasse, she met some of the most influential and fashionable artists of the time: Modigliani, Picasso, Chagall, Zadkine. Her studies in haute couture gradually fell away as she discovered a new love: sculpture. In the early 1920s, Chana Orloff became the portraitist of the Parisian elite, exhibited alongside Matisse, became one of the world’s most acclaimed modernist sculptors and was awarded the Legion of Honor. She had a residence and atelier built at villa Seurat in the 14th arrondisement, now home to her studio-museum. Her life story reflects the tumultuous times she lived through: war, pandemic, forced migration. Her husband died in the influenza epidemic in 1919 after only 3 years of marriage; she narrowly escaped Nazi-occupied France after being warned her arrest was imminent. After the war she split her time between Paris and Tel Aviv, where many of her sculptures can be found. There are also around 200 of them at the studio-museum at villa Seurat. If you reserve a visit (weekends only), it may be one of Orloff’s grandchildren who will show you around and recount her art and life. #Paris #travel #storytelling

WHERE GENIUS LIVED PART TWO 1/4: Rosa Bonheur 🐮 Have you heard of Rosa Bonheur? One of France’s greatest little-known artists, she was one of the world’s most famous painters in her day – the mid-late 1800s. Celebrated in the UK and USA perhaps even more than in France, her works were among the most well-known and expensive of her time. But her subject matter and style went out of fashion not long after her heyday, as Impressionism took the art world by storm. Rosa Bonheur was an “animalière” – a painter of animals. She depicted them all – working beasts like horses and cows, her pet dogs, the lions she kept at her chateau near Fontainebleau – with an incredible realism, giving all creatures a personality and spirit that’s both uncanny and moving. Bonheur is also amazing for her pioneering attitude as a woman in deeply patriarchal society. She had to get special permission from the prefecture of police to wear trousers so she could dress suitably to attend livestock markets. Her most famous painting, “The Horse Fair”, comes from these visits. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY, it sold for enough for her to buy her chateau – which is now a museum of her life and work. After a retrospective at the Musée d’Orsay in 2023, and with the opening of the Chateau-Museum in 2017, Rosa Bonheur is finally back in the spotlight as a pioneering feminist and champion of animal rights, and the power of her art is undiminished. See it for yourself – the Chateau Rosa Bonheur is an easy train ride from Paris. #Paris #travel #storytelling

PARIS 1900: “THE FARCICAL GAMES” 😳 As the clock ticks down to Paris 2024, let’s look back at what happened the first time around and hope that things go better this time… It was only the 2nd-ever instalment of the modern Olympic Games, so perhaps it’s not so shocking that the Paris 1900 Olympics were a little disorganised. Later dubbed “farcical” and “an absurd anachronism”, the Games got off to a bad start by being stuffed inside a bigger and more established event – the 1900 Exposition Universelle (or World’s Fair). Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic movement and IOC President, hoped that attaching the youthful Games to this better-known event would raise their profile. His tactic backfired. The Olympic competition was relegated to sideshow status. Spectators, officials – and even the athletes themselves – were often unaware that they were participating in the Olympics. Unsurprising, as most events were bafflingly labelled “International Contests of Physical Exercise and Sport” – no mention of Olympics. No opening or closing ceremonies were held. There was such confusion about schedules that few spectators or journalists were present at events; the press that did report called them "International Championships", "Paris Championships", and "Grand Prix of the Paris Exposition". Despite the poor marketing, almost a thousand athletes from 24 countries took part in 95 events. France – fielding 72% of all athletes – won the most gold, silver and bronze medals (although back then athletes received cups or trophies rather than medals). De Coubertin is reported to have commented later to friends, "It's a miracle that the Olympic Movement survived that celebration". But survive it did, and only 24 years later Paris would get a second chance. 📷: A poster advertising a 1900 Olympics fencing event, or “Concours international d’Escrime” / “Concours d’exercices physiques et de Sports” - note no mention of "Olympics"! #Paris #travel #storytelling

WHERE GENIUS LIVED 5/5: Museum of the Romantic Life 🖼️ On the lower slopes of Montmartre hill in the early 19th century, a new subdivision becomes an emerging republic of arts and letters. Nouvelle-Athènes, its name inspired by the craze for all things Classical Greek, is a vibrant neighborhood of artists and musicians – the elite of the Paris art scene. And at the center of it all is the atelier-salon of Dutch artist Ari Scheffer. Romantic painter and portraitist to the aristocracy, Scheffer played host to a literary and artistic meeting-place that welcomed the creative celebrities of the day and leading lights of the Romantic movement: Gericault, Delacroix, Rossini, Liszt, Chopin, George Sand – even Charles Dickens. This creative hub for the 1800s “bobo” (bourgeois-bohème) set is today the setting for the Musée de la Vie Romantique. It’s a transporting step-back-in-time experience to explore the lovingly preserved home-studio. Inside, the works and possessions of illustrious Parisians who lived and gathered here. Outside, the gorgeously sun-dappled Salon de Thé, a hidden oasis of calm, beauty, and cake. #Paris #travel #storytelling

WHERE GENIUS LIVED 4/5: Le Corbusier’s apartment 🏡 What better way to verify the father of modern architecture’s claim that homes should be “machines for living in” than to explore the home that he designed for himself? When Le Corbusier won the commission for a new apartment block at Porte Molitor in 1931 he was already a renowned architectural thinker and had begun to accumulate projects from Moscow to the Champs-Élysées. But this new apartment project would be special – he requested the top two floors, and designed a studio-apartment that would be his home from 1934 until his death in 1965. The building is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (along with 17 other of Le Corbusier’s designs), and an unmissable pilgrimage for anyone with an interest in modern architecture. Known as the Molitor Building, it was radical for its time. It’s the first-ever glass apartment block, with eight stories of all-glass façade – it was vital for Le Corbusier that people in dense urban environments could live in airy, light-filled spaces. The apartments were free-plan – plumbing essentials were built in, but residents were free to design their spaces as they wished. Le Corbusier’s apartment is a chance to walk inside his vision and see his ingenious solutions – the raised bed to catch the best of the Bois du Boulogne view, the huge pivoting doors, the modern kitchen, the movable wardrobe, the industrial-age materials. While he did design the building with all mod cons including a lift, the building’s residents request that visitors use the stairs to reach the apartment-studio (after almost 100 years, the lift is showing its age!). So be prepared for the 7-storey climb – it’s worth it. #Paris #travel #storytelling

WHERE GENIUS LIVED 3/5: Musée Gustave Moreau 💎 It’s perhaps Paris’ favorite small museum. That would have pleased Gustave Moreau. Even as an unknown painter in his 30s he was fretting about what would happen to his work and reputation after his death. He needn’t have worried. While he struggled to find recognition early in his career – his highly unfashionable fascination with the religious and mythological swam against the dominant realist tide – it turned out that he was just before his time. He was a committed Symbolist in 1860s, when the movement didn’t fully emerge until the 1890s. In the 1890s he was a popular teacher at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he influenced students including leading lights of the Fauve movement like Georges Rouault and Henri Matisse. The Surrealists claimed him as a father figure. And his non-figurative paintings have led him to be called a herald of Abstract Expressionism. When Moreau was in his late 20s he moved into his parents’ 9th arrondisement townhouse, where they had converted the top floor into a studio for him. He worked here, a bachelor, for the rest of his life. After his death in 1898, he bequeathed the home and studio to the state to be converted into a museum. Crammed with his works (there are over 11,000 paintings and drawings here) and home to what must be one of Paris’ most photographed staircases, the studio-apartment is a perfect jewel, glittering with the strange glow of Moreau’s otherworldly visions. 📷 The famous staircase 📷 “Les Licornes” / “The Unicorns” by Gustave Moreau #Paris #travel #storytelling

WHERE GENIUS LIVED 2/5: Musée Delacroix 🎨 Eugène Delacroix was born into violent times. By 1798, the year of his birth, the French Revolution had been raging for nine years. It would come to an end with Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup d’etat the following year, although that wouldn’t change the tempestuous political environment. Delacroix channeled that heightened atmosphere into his works. France’s leading Romantic painter, Delacroix painted historical scenes on a giant scale in dramatic style, with vigorous brushstrokes and dynamic compositions. He created sensation – even scandal – at the time, with paintings of violent scenes and extreme emotion. In fact, he was paving the way towards a new direction in modern art. You’ll know him best from “Liberty Leading the People”, the iconic work he painted to mark the July Revolution of 1830 that toppled King Charles X. A bare-breasted Marianne holds the French flag aloft, guiding a group of fighters over corpse-strewn barricades and onwards. (As it turned out, she was guiding them towards yet another Revolution – Louis-Philippe, Charles’ replacement, only held the throne for 18 years before he too was overthrown). At the age of around 60, Delacroix was commissioned to paint a set of murals at the Church of Saint-Sulpice. Fatigued by the long commute from his apartment in then-fashionable Nouvelle-Athènes, he moved into a garden apartment close by. He died at his haven at rue de Furstemberg in 1863, but it became a museum in his honor only 70 years after his death when a group of painters, collectors, and curators acted to save it from demolition. It’s a peaceful oasis filled with his works and only a 10-minute walk from his masterpiece murals at Saint-Sulpice. 📷 The garden at Musée Delacroix 📷 Liberty Leading the People #Paris #travel #storytelling

WHERE GENIUS LIVED 1/5: Musée Bourdelle 💫 Well off the beaten track, in Paris’ most untouristy arrondisement – the 15th – is one of its loveliest studio-museums. Sculptor Émile-Antoine Bourdelle – admirer of and assistant to Rodin – moved into his home and studio on the Impasse du Maine (later renamed in his honor) in 1885. At the time this was the heart of the city’s bohemian district, filled with gardens, grape vines and artist studios. Bourdelle lived and worked here for 45 years, and he was determined to bequeath it, filled with his works, to the state as a museum – just as Rodin had done. Today, the museum is virtually unchanged from his time here. With its wide spaces, floor-to-ceiling windows and rambling garden, it’s hard to imagine a better place to display his works. There are over 2000 plaster casts, bronze statues, marble sculptures and many in clay, stone and wood. We see the artist's evolution as he moved beyond the influence of Rodin to embrace the emergence of Art Deco and the movement towards modernism. The monumental Art-Deco bronzes in the lush garden are especially memorable, as is his luminous studio space, filled with works. Another highlight is the fascinating display of how the sculptures were created and cast. An added bonus: the onsite café, Le Rhodia, with its sculpture-view terrace. #Paris #travel #storytelling

SAINTS OF PARIS 3/3: Vincent-de-Paul, protector of the poor 😇 Of the many saints who have made their mark on Paris, the most globally recognized is probably Saint Vincent-de-Paul, inspiration for the famous charity – which was also started in Paris, centuries after his death. Vincent-de-Paul was born in 1581 to peasant farmers. He was ordained as a priest at the age of 19, and as a young man served the rich and powerful – the priesthood was his pass to an easy and comfortable life. But he had a change of heart when he heard the confession of a dying peasant, and from 1617 he began bringing food and comfort to the poor families of Paris. He organized the wealthy women of the city to help him, which led to the founding of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent-de-Paul in 1633, dedicated to serving “the poorest of the poor”. He also founded the Congregation of the Mission, bringing together a group of missionaries to travel to the most abandoned areas of France (starting with the Paris suburbs). Vincent was canonized in 1737, but his good works weren't finished yet. Inspired by his example, a Catholic student at the Sorbonne named Frederic Ozanam organized the Conference of Charity in 1833 to minister to the poor of Paris. It later became the Society of St Vincent de Paul, expanding throughout the world to continue the charitable works of the Paris priest. His heart, said to be incorrupt, is preserved in a reliquary in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Daughters of Charity HQ, in the 7th arrondisement. #Paris #travel #storytelling 📷 Saint Vincent-de-Paul at Saint-Severin in the Latin Quarter

SAINTS OF PARIS 2/3: Denis, the headless martyr 🤕 Saint Denis, France’s patron saint, stars in a gory story of martyrdom. He’d been sent to Paris (then Roman Lutétia) by the Pope around 250 AD. He took the role of bishop and got to work converting the pagan Gauls. His success attracted the attention of the Roman Emperor Decius who had Denis beheaded. A rather standard tale of these bloody times for Christians. But after his head was cut off, Denis is said to have picked it up and walked four miles to a nearby village, preaching a sermon about repentance and carrying his head the entire way. The place where he stopped preaching and died was marked by a small shrine that became a chapel, then an abbey, and then the Basilica of Saint-Denis, burial place of the kings of France. Around it grew up the city of Saint-Denis, now a part of the Paris banlieue (suburbs). The hill where he lost his head – probably a pagan holy place – is believed to have derived its name from the drama: Montmartre, the mountain of martyrs. Next time you’re at Notre-Dame Cathedral, look to the left of the main door to see Saint Denis, forever holding his head in his hands.  #Paris #travel #storytelling 📷 Saint Denis at Notre Dame Cathedral