Touring the
Nantes Art Museum (France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
The
Nantes Art Museum was a much-anticipated destination for me to visit the next
day. The museum is a gem that has works
by important artists of almost every period.
I would not say that all works are important, but they were all created
by important artists.
Nantes’
history explains where the funds for the collection of items in the art museum
came from. The city’s wealth was built
on the slave and sugar trade during the 16th to the 18th
centuries.
The
“armateurs” or traders called the slave trade “the ebony wood” commerce. Nantes was an active participant in the
Triangle Trade of slaves, rum, and cotton for the fashion industry. Even Voltaire, the champion of liberty had shares
in an ebony wood venture.
Nantes
transformed itself in the 18th century for three major reasons:
-the
abolition of slavery during the French Revolution
-the
French sugar beet replaced sugar cane from the Caribbean as the main source of
sugar during the Napoleonic Empire
-boats
able to hold larger cargoes had trouble docking at the quay in Nantes
Contemporary
industry in Nantes is centered around steel, cookies, and the port
business. The Donges port houses
important oil reserves.
The
city’s history is a necessary digression to understand how the city of Nantes
and its citizens have the money to endow and maintain their lovely museum.
When
you enter the museum, you find yourself in a large hallway with Neo-Classical
sculpture all around you. As you walk
straight ahead, you find yourself in front of a small landing.
This
landing gives you two directional choices.
You can continue walking into the interior courtyard, which is painted
white and has arcades opening up onto the second-floor gallery.
Or,
you can climb one of the general staircases in white marble on either side of
the landing. Just one of these
staircases would have been impressive.
There
are two square galleries surrounding a central courtyard, which maximizes wall
spaces. “Old Masters” are located
upstairs and “Modern Masters” are located downstairs.
Of
the “Old Masters,” I like the portrait of Madame de Sennones by Jean-Dominique
Ingres. The subject, wearing a red
velvet dress, has no less than 5 big, ruby rings on her fingers.
This
surprised me, since the French bourgeoisie favors restraint in its accessories.
I
had to leave the Museum before I could visit the modern art downstairs. The Nantes Art Museum has many paintings by
Kandinsky, who is an important artist for the advertising industry.
Kandisnsky’s
abstract art uses lines and various angles to draw a viewer’s eyes around a
painting and to one or more vanishing points.
Advertisements subtly do this as well, which is why Kandinsky is still
relevant today as an artist.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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