Musee Maillol

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Today I went to a rather small, out of the way museum called the Musee Maillol.  It is managed by a foundation created by Dina Vierny.  An interesting story....here is what is says in the literature provided by the museum...my paraphrasing....  Dina Vierny met painter and sculptor Aristide maillol when she was 15 and soon became his favorite model for a new phase of his work.  He thought she embodied the ideal of physical beauty he had always had in mind.  When his sculptures were donated to the State in 1964, she created the foundation in order to make the rest of his art available to the public.  The building where the museum is housed was built in the 1700's and it's facade is called "The Fountain of the Four Seasons."  All the the pictures in this post were taken from Google images, as the museum would not allow any picture taking.

Here are pictures of Dina Vierny and Maillol, one of his portraits of Dina and also a nude of her.

               A more recent picture of Dina.  Sorry I don't know when this was taken.

                         The facade of the building.............

The museum also has temporary exhibits.  They had several when  I was there.  The main one was by a woman artist from the 1600's, named Artemisia Gentileschi.  Her paintings and use of light were fantastic.  Again, not usually my taste, but you could not help but be fascinated by her work.  As beautiful as they are, many of her painting were quite gruesome.  For instance, she did several versions of Judith Beheading Holofernes.  And her Death of Cleopatra is stunning.

Another temporary exhibit was by a woman artist, Seraphine de Senlis, (1864-1942).  She aspired to a religious life and worked much of her life in a convent.  An art collector, Wilhelm Uhde, bought everything she painted.  I loved her paintings.

      This must be a poster from a previous show.  I'd love to have this poster.

I think both these amazing woman artists, from different centuries, are worth checking out further.