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- 03/13/2022
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
ARROW - 17. Chapter 17
Walking into the home of Madam Lavigne, I gave her the food we had bought. I told her we would rest a little before dinner. I knew the time when dinner would be served. That gave us time for a bit of a nap. Actually, we had a very little nap most of the time we were enjoying our vows.
Getting dressed for dinner, Colin noted a painting on the wall. “Did you paint this?”
I looked and laughed. “Yes, I was sitting by that window when the light hit that tree just right."
“You need to sign it." So I did.
Dinner was a beef dish that Madam Lavigne had made several times when I lived here. I told her that I had eaten this dish several times after leaving France, but no one made it as she did. I offered a toast to her, with the wine I bought. Dinner was a trip down memory lane. She would tell stories about me when I stayed there, and I would translate for Colin.
In French, “Armand had a girlfriend when he lived here. Do you remember Armand?”
I would translate that for Colin. The following conversation was in French, and the following is the translation.
“Yes, I met her in the park one afternoon. I think she was 12.”
“You were always with children. You would draw them, do you remember?”
“Yes, there was a young boy, I think he was 6, who wanted a picture of a horse, and I drew him riding a horse. His parents came to thank me.”
When we finished the wine, I told Madam Lavigne we have a busy day tomorrow and we enjoyed our evening.
In our bedroom, “I’m tired, too much wine.”
“Let’s get to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow.”
The next morning after breakfast, we headed back to the Louvre. As we walked, Colin talked about the brochure they had from yesterday. “Armand, they have sections where they have constructed various artifacts like an Egyptian temple. I’d like to see that. They have statues from excavations and known sculptures, and we could see those as well.”
“You can spend more than one day here. We could go floor by floor, what do you think?”
“Okay, but if we see everything in this brochure, we will be here tomorrow as well.”
We started to look at various pieces of sculpture, “Armand, do you think that you would be interested in sculpture?”
“No, why do you ask?”
“This sculpture title ‘Dying Slave’ was done by Michelangelo. There are some of his paintings here as well.”
“Believe me. I have no interest in working with stone, except as a base for my painting.”
For the rest of the morning, we toured the Museum looking at the sculptures. We saw examples of Greek sculptures, Venus de Milo and Winged Victory. We saw pieces by Degas and Pilon. Then the Pyramid caught Colin’s eye. We saw antiques from expeditions in Egypt and sculptures dated over 2000 years BC. When we finished touring the Egyptian exhibit, it was lunchtime.
Walking toward a small cafe we saw when we arrived, a young man stopped us. He spoke to use in English. “Are you not the man who commented on the Mona Lisa yesterday?”
“Yes, I am.”
“I told my friends and my art professor, he said he never noticed that, and you must have a critical eye. He said he would like to meet you.”
“I need to finish my tour of the Louvre, and then I want to go to the Train Station. I understand they have more paintings by artists that I like. Now, we are going to have a light lunch.”
“Do you mind if you have some company?”
I looked at Colln, he smiled, so I knew it would be okay. “Yes, we will have lunch with you and your friends.” I thought maybe one or two, but it turned out to be his classmates.
What I thought would be lunch with some students turned into a discussion of various techniques and critiques of styles. Questions: What are my thoughts about cubism versus the styles, impressionism, abstract, and surrealism. We discussed past painters and how they compare with artists of our generation. We digressed into whether we think oils or watercolors and even talked about chalk.
“Armand, we will not have time to see the paintings in the Louvre if we stay here any longer.”
“If we leave now. we can have 2 hours, and maybe we can get them to give us an extra hour.
“I leave it to you.” We rushed back to the Museum and headed for the floors that exhibited their paintings. As we would stop in front of a painting, we would discuss it. I gave my views and then left them to share their views. I told them how I would paint the painting, the colors I would use, and why. One of the museum guards walked with us. I wasn’t sure why. Anyone seeing us would think we were a class of students. We were approaching the last hall showing paintings by current artists. There we saw a lot of cubism. Before I could begin my criticism, our museum guard told us the Museum had been closed for 2 hours, and he needed to leave.
Walking home, “I think you had fun this afternoon. I knew, in comparison, you weren’t as interested in this morning.”
“It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested. Some of the sculptures we saw were by artists like Michelangelo. He was known for his paintings as well as his sculptures. I’m not a sculpture. I’m a painter.”
“I thought some of those cultures we saw were dated 1000 of years ago. And those artifacts from Egypt were over 2000 years old. I want to go to Egypt sometime in the future.”
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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