Louvre Drawings

After, Dying Slave

Michelangelo has always been an important artist for me. It was basically my introduction to both art and the female anatomy, so being able to draw right from a sculpture is pretty magical.

I was in the middle of inking the pencil sketch in - and the museum closed. I was told to leave. I meant to finish this at home - but I lost my Rapidograph pen. If I was to guess where that pen was, I'd have say a little crêperie in the 17 off of Avenue de Saint-Ouen that has 5 tables and miraculous Normandé. It's a horrible choice of pen to bring to this sort of atmosphere, but I left my other pen at home.

I guess it's fitting to have an unfinished drawing of an unfinished sculpture.

I've done a drawing after this sculpture before (but - from a picture):

Pastel, 2003

Some more, from the visit:

Rebellious Slave

dieu à tête de bélier probablement Amon Rê

Façade de androcéphale ailé

chapiteau d'une colonne de la salle d'audiences du Palais de Darius

Tête barbue coiffée d'une dépouille d'oiseau ; Sérapis

I was actually quite amazed at how considerate the other museum patrons were of me drawing things. Personal space in Paris is quite different from what I'm used to: Things are smaller and closer together and I'm a fair bit bigger than most people, on average. Simply: I don't fit well with the social architecture. But, people actually saw what I was doing, were interested, wouldn't get in my way and were in fact, curious in what I was drawing. It was nice.

A group of students were especially intrigued while I found one of the few sitting places in the Louvre, while sketching chapiteau d'une colonne de la salle d'audiences du Palais de Darius . Sitting down, I was very accessible, so the entire class crowded around to say hello, see my drawing and tell me they liked it. I like them, too.

While drawing the rebellious slave, I was actually asked to have my picture taken, with my drawing by a tourist. Strange things like that.

Museums as large as the Louvre and from such sources are strange in of themselves. One really wonders why they keep some of their collections - parts that are obvious NOT so much taken with askance, but perhaps more as spoils of war (none of which I can now cite* - but where exactly did they get, Façade de androcéphale ailé?) . But, here I am - with thousands others, enjoying and utilizing it.

* The Louvre is involved in controversies that surround cultural property seized during World War II by the Nazis and under Napoleon I. After Nazi occupation, more than 60,000 articles were returned to France. Nearly 2,000 objects that did not have clear ownership and were claimed by Israelis and Jews were retained by French museums, including the Louvre. In 1997, Prime Minister Alain Juppé initiated the Mattéoli Commission, headed by Jean Mattéoli, to investigate the matter and "according to the government[,] the Louvre continues to hold 678 pieces of [claimed] artwork."[68] Napoleon's campaigns acquired Italian and Northern European pieces and antiquities were taken during excavations, particularly in Egypt and the Near East. The Louvre administration has argued in favor of retaining these items despite requests by source nations for their return. The museum participates in arbitration sessions held via UNESCO's Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to Its Countries of Origin.[69]