Monet's my man!

I’ve loved Monet since I lived in NYC in the 60s and joined MOMA, probably on
a student rate. As I recall, it was an L-shaped room, walls covered with his water
lilies. I liked to go there and just sit, as did Ferdinand with his flowers.
On 2 previous trips to Paris, Regina drove us to Giverny, Monet’s home of 40 years.
He gardened as he painted and his Japanese water garden, complete with bridge,
old rowboat and hundreds of water lilies, is the eighth wonder of the world (or
thereabouts).
The big Fall Expo at the Grand Palais is …tah dah…Monet! Some 200 Monets
from museums and private collections all over the world, the most complete
exposition of his work ever mounted. And it’s splendid. Skip commented on
the kodachrome feel to many of the works. I looked up info about his first
wife, depicted in a gray dreamlike (after)deathbed portrait and in an equally
haunting portrait seen out the garden window in a red cloak. She died before
age 40; never received adequate medical care due to their poverty.
The term Impressionism came from a painting of the port of Le Havre Monet
showed in 1874 entitled “Impression soleil levant”. A critic ridiculed the style
as “impressionist”. Impressionism was not always considered serious art and,
to this day, some feel the French have not been fans. You will be one of this
show if you can make it to Paris by January 24, 2011.
Our advance tickets, thanks to Regina and Christian, put us second in line that
morning until a few line crashers arrived. We kind of had the place to ourselves
at first. To prolong the occasion, Regina had read about a great restaurant online
and Christian made reservations. We walked the entire length of the Champs-Elysees,
past the Arc de Triomphe, to a pretty little street, walked up and down in vain.
We had the correct address, but they’d apparently moved and not changed it on the web. We found another. All was chouette.