Drawing from memory based on the streets of Montpellier.
To round off mes vacances (my holidays), I visited Montpellier on Friday and stayed until Saturday evening. It is a beautiful town with huge elegant facades, grand old buildings, cream and crumbling slightly so that it has a slight air of faded glamour. Palm trees line the streets. (I cannot get over the abundance of palm trees in the south of France, it feels so exotic and makes me think of Hockney's los-angelesian palms). The buildings give the appearance of being much bigger and taller than ours in Toulouse, and the streets seem wider, making Toulouse seem almost quite small and quaint by comparison. The difference in colours struck me too, between the pinks and oranges of Toulousian buildings to the creams and whites in Montpellier. It had the air of an old seaside town almost but with steep winding cobbled streets.
Unfortunately the weather was grey and rainy while I was there but I felt that it was a testament to Montpellier that its charm still shone through. Because of the weather I sampled several cafes and drank wine on a small quiet square outside in the evening. There were many little squares like this, in amongst the cafes and the beautiful churches-which weren't too over the top, in comparison to a lot of french churchery. I spent Saturday in a cafe in the morning where I had un chocolat viennois and ate a pain au chocolat and in the musee fabree, the big art museum in Montpellier. My favourite section was the most modern, dedicated to works from the Impressionist era onwards. I was really surprised and happy to find myself face to face with "Bonjour Monsieur Courbet"/the meeting by Gustave Courbet and I also saw some other fantastic works by Monet, Jacques-Emile Blanche and again to my happiness Berthe Morisot-the only female French impressionist-there is a lot of subtlety and a real delicate handling of light in her work. Perhaps my favourite work was by an artist who I didn't know called Cottell called "Voiliers pres de la cote", I think, it was a grey landsdcape looking out to sea, quite modernist in the handling of the paint. Recently I am finding myself drawn to slightly rugged landscapes and images of wild seas, it seems quite an English idea and nostalgic almost but also like the shipping forecast it is comforting to think about a rough sea from afar whilst safe and in the warmth.
My time in Montpellier passed very quickly, I hope I can return when the Sun is shining and perhaps even make a trip down to the seaside.
I saw several examples of really incredible realistic trompe d'oeil paintings on the side of buildings.
This was actually a flat wall!
Unfortunately the weather was grey and rainy while I was there but I felt that it was a testament to Montpellier that its charm still shone through. Because of the weather I sampled several cafes and drank wine on a small quiet square outside in the evening. There were many little squares like this, in amongst the cafes and the beautiful churches-which weren't too over the top, in comparison to a lot of french churchery. I spent Saturday in a cafe in the morning where I had un chocolat viennois and ate a pain au chocolat and in the musee fabree, the big art museum in Montpellier. My favourite section was the most modern, dedicated to works from the Impressionist era onwards. I was really surprised and happy to find myself face to face with "Bonjour Monsieur Courbet"/the meeting by Gustave Courbet and I also saw some other fantastic works by Monet, Jacques-Emile Blanche and again to my happiness Berthe Morisot-the only female French impressionist-there is a lot of subtlety and a real delicate handling of light in her work. Perhaps my favourite work was by an artist who I didn't know called Cottell called "Voiliers pres de la cote", I think, it was a grey landsdcape looking out to sea, quite modernist in the handling of the paint. Recently I am finding myself drawn to slightly rugged landscapes and images of wild seas, it seems quite an English idea and nostalgic almost but also like the shipping forecast it is comforting to think about a rough sea from afar whilst safe and in the warmth.
My time in Montpellier passed very quickly, I hope I can return when the Sun is shining and perhaps even make a trip down to the seaside.
Hey, I'm a BA Fine art student at chelsea organising a publication involving erasmus exchange students. I could send you some more information..my email address is w.ly1@chelsea.arts.ac.uk
ReplyDeleteThanks, William