Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [203]
River of Light: Monet’s Impressions of the Seine, Douglas Skeggs (Knopf, 1987). In this beautiful and interesting book, Skeggs presents a portrait of Monet and his lifelong connection to the Seine, but this is as much a story of the river as it is of Monet. As Skeggs writes in an early chapter, “The river Seine was Monet’s landscape, his subject, and his home. The lessons that he learned from painting its water inadvertently altered the course of the arts. The vision that he imposed on it is still with us today.” Chapters focus on different geographic points along the river, such as Sainte-Adresse, Paris, La Grenouillère, Argenteuil, Vétheuil, and Giverny, with nearly 150 reproductions of Monet’s paintings and period photos.
The Secret Life of the Seine, Mort Rosenblum (Addison-Wesley, 1994). “There is not a river like it in the world,” writes Rosenblum of the Seine, and he reveals just how unique it really is in this truly marvelous and engaging book. Rosenblum spent many years as a journalist in Paris, starting out at the Associated Press and eventually becoming editor in chief of the International Herald Tribune. He’s written several other books on French-related topics that I’ve mentioned in these pages. Rosenblum’s expert reporting sense is abundantly clear as he traces the Seine from its source, in Burgundy, to its mouth, at Le Havre, providing us along the way with a historical and present-day perspective on the river and the communities it serves. The geographic term for a river that flows into a sea is fleuve, he notes, but for the people who live and work on the Seine the river has always been just la rivière, which technically refers to inland waterways. He should know, as he lives aboard a fifty-four-foot boat moored in the center of Paris—talk about a room with a view!
Sundays by the River, Willy Ronis (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999). Strolling or picnicking near water—oceans, rivers, lakes, streams, tributaries of any length—is a time-honored tradition in France. Sunday mornings and afternoons are still often reserved for this pastime, by residents and visitors alike. This favored loisir (leisure activity) is captured in this book by noted documentary photographer Willy Ronis. The forty-eight duotone images featured span nearly half a century, and they’re reminiscent of scenes from Impressionist paintings.
Île de Chatou
When my friend Jay entered the room housing Renoir’s Déjeuner des canotiers (Luncheon of the Boating Party) at the Phillips Collection (phillipscollection.org) in Washington, D.C., he actually gasped: he was simply unprepared for the effect this wonderful painting would have when seen up close. It is wildly popular, and long one of my favorites as well. Its history, including its acquisition by Duncan Phillips, is rather interesting. According to Susan Vreeland in her wonderful novel Luncheon of the Boating Party (Viking, 2007), Renoir finished the painting in 1881 and soon after it was purchased by the noted art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, a champion of the Impressionists. Durand-Ruel sold it to a Parisian collector, but then reacquired it in 1882. Though originally against Renoir’s wish, the painting was shown at the seventh Impressionist exhibition in March 1882, and also in London, Zurich, and New York, but was never shown at the Salon. In 1923, Duncan Phillips and his wife, Marjorie, were in Paris on an art-buying trip for what was then the Phillips Memorial Gallery. Duncan and Marjorie were invited to a lunch at the apartment of Joseph Durand-Ruel, son of Paul. According to the Phillips museum publication Duncan Phillips Collects: Paris Between the Wars, the couple, seated directly across the room from the painting, were so transfixed that the question of its purchase was not “if