Marc Chagall

Poster for the Exhibition

We are very lucky to have two extremely useful bus routes that come very close to our apartment.  These are the number 80 and the number 85.  Today we took the latter directly to the Luxembourg Gardens.  This is a 45 minute trip from the north of Paris right through the centre of the city and going past such wonderful sights as the Louvre, Palais de Justice, Sainte Chapelle and the Conciergerie.  In addition it passes the offices of the LeDuc private detective agency which, if you have seen the film, Midnight in Paris, is the firm used in the movie.

The Luxembourg Gardens

The Palais du Luxembourg

But we were headed for the Musée de Luxembourg in the gardens to view the Marc Chagall Between War and Peace exhibition.  In the past we had seen many reproductions of Chagall's work and somehow never quite warmed to it.  Previous experience, with other artists had led us to the realization that often when one sees the original it is a completely different experience.  We first had this when we saw the Jerusalem Windows at Hadassah Hospital in that city and the Cathedral window at Reims.  Today, the experience was similar but the magnitude was far greater.

If you would like to read a bit about Chagall which is based on the time frame of the exhibition, click here.  The Musée has also produced a very fine website which contains a number of interesting video clips about Chagall and his work.  To see these you can go to the website by clicking here.

Below are two of the paintings which we found particularly moving.

Over Vitibsk

The Rabbi of Vitibsk (1914)

When we left the exhibition we had a late lunch at a nearby cafe and watched people go by.  We then walked  along the Boulevard St Michel through the Sorbonne area down to the Seine where we caught the bus home.

Another very enjoyable day!