Autumnal Cities, Exhibitions and Museums

Rainy Autumn in London via Pinterest

 Autumn in Paris via Pinterest

As I mentioned in my previous post, Autumn is well and truly under way and I am starting to dream about visiting cities, for me this time of year is the best time for going to the great cities of the Western Hemisphere something about the cold tang in the air, strolling through leaf littered parks and streets, huddling under an umbrella before making a dash into cosy cafes, pubs and bars, afternoon tea in fine establishments and the more obvious attractions of the grand department stores, shopping, theatre, opera, galleries and museums...

I could spend hours at the Louvre in Paris or the V&A in London but sometimes it's worth taking a look at what's going on at smaller venues, here are some that have caught my eye and if I am lucky enough to find myself in Paris or London in the near future I will definitely be checking them out...Paris up first, two exhibitions which have piqued my curiosity.

Exhibition Interieurs Romantiques at the Musee de La Vie Romantique, Paris 

 exhibition organised by Daniel Marchesseau, director of the museum, this time with Gail S. Davidson from the Cooper-Hewitt as invited curator. 
  
 This is a collection of ninety watercolours of interiors collected over the past thirty years by the American dealer and collector Eugene V. Thaw and his wife Clare E. Thaw. The whole collection has been given to the Cooper-Hewitt museum in New York.

Edouard Petrovitch Hau (Estonie, actif en Russie, 1807-1887) 

Petit Cabinet de l’impératrice Alexandra Feodorovna, 1830-1835

© Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, photo Matt Flynn

James Roberts (Angleterre, vers 1800-1867)
Le Cabinet de travail du roi Louis-Philippe a Neuilly 1845
 © Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, photo Matt Flynn

C. Rath (Autriche probablement, actif dans les années 1870)

Alcôve dans le salon de la grande duchesse Anna de Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 1877

© Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, photo Matt Flynn

Hilaire Thierry (actif de 1815 à 1825) Un salon dans le goût Restauration, début des années 1820. (détail)

© Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, photo Matt Flynn

Le Salon de George Sand, Paris musée de la Vie romantique 

© Musée de la vie romantique / Roger-Viollet

INFORMATION:

Musée de la Vie Romantique

16 rue Chaptal

75009 Paris.

Telephone : 01 55 31 95 67

www.vie-romantique.paris.fr

Open every day from 10 am until 6 pm, except Mondays and public holidays.

Tickets at 7 Euros ( 5 Euros reduced price, 3.50 Euros half-price)

Hardbound fully illustrated catalogue 30 Euros. (The museum has a small book shop).

The easiest and best choice of public transport is the 68 bus.

The exhibition runs until 13th January 2013 

Meanwhile over at the Musee Quai Branly, Paris...

Why is long hair supposed to be feminine ? Where do the beliefs about red heads come from? All these hairy questions are explored in this terrific exhibition on hair and their sexy mythologie.

Head for the Musée du Quai Branly to understand how hair has become an army of massive seduction.

If you don't have enough time, don't go grey overnight, the venue is open until June !

Not to be missed !

text from here

Information

Musée du quai Branly
37, quai Branly
75007 Paris

Tel: 01 47 53 68 00
http://www.quaibranly.fr

 The exhibition runs until 14th July 2013

 Now lets go to London where there are no shortage of small museums, in fact there are so many small museums in London that whatever your interests you will find one that appeals, most of them are listed and include details on opening hours and directions on Time Outs wonderful site here

I have already visited a few on various trips but here are a couple on my yet to visit list: 

Linley Sambourne House

 Linley Sambourne House is the Kensington house where from 1875 Punch cartoonist Edward Linley Sambourne lived with his wife and two children, and provides a chance to see a late-Victorian, middle-class home that has survived largely unchanged. Linley Sambourne House was passed on from one generation of the family to the next and almost all the original decoration remains intact, the rooms filled with the furniture and personal possessions the Sambournes left behind. A huge archive of diaries, papers, bills and letters also survived, providing an exceptionally detailed picture of daily life in the house. Around Christmas each year, atmospheric Victorian Twilight Encounters tours are held, which explore the seedier side of the artist's work.

Text from Time Out

18 Stafford Terrace, W8 7BH

Sir John Soane's Museum 

This is one place where the term 'spring cleaning' has probably never once been uttered: Sir John Soane's Museum in Holborn. The museum is actually the townhouse of one of Georgian London's most famous architects, Sir John Soane, the man behind the Bank of England and Dulwich Picture Gallery - and someone who was evidently not a fan of the 'less is more' school of interior design.

Soane was an obsessive collector of art, furniture and architectural ornamentation, a hobby which he pursued partly for enjoyment and partly for research. In the early nineteenth century he turned his house into a museum to which 'amateurs and students' should have access. The result is truly amazing.

Much of the museum's appeal derives from its domestic setting. Rooms are modestly sized but Soane's ingenious designs channel and direct natural daylight and expand available space, including semi-secret doors that swing out like cabinets to display his many paintings (works by Canaletto, Turner and two series by Hogarth). It's only when you step beyond into the rear of the house that the sheer oddness of the building confronts you. Every space in this warren of rooms is filled with some artistic object, in most cases classical, be that a bust, column or statue. For a real 'wow' factor, search out The Monumental Court, a multistory affair stuffed with an array of sculpted stone detailing that was removed from ancient and medieval buildings.
At the lowest level of the court is a sarcophagus made of alabaster that's so thin it's almost translucent. It was discovered in a tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings before being removed by nineteenth-century treasure hunters. Soane bought it after the British Museum declined the opportunity; he was so elated, he partied for three days.

There are also numerous examples of Soane's eccentricity, not least the imaginary 'cell' - a set of rooms in the basement - set aside for 'Padre Giovanni', a fictional monk invented by Soane. The yard even contains the 'Monk's grave' topped by a headstone engraved with the words 'Alas! Poor Fanny!' - the grave actually contains the corpse of Mrs Soane's lapdog, Fanny.

What you see at Soane's townhouse is just as he intended it to be. He wangled a private act of Parliament to set up the museum and stipulate that its contents should be left alone 'as nearly as possible'. His wish is now even closer to perfect fulfilment thanks to a £6 million project to move the museum shop and facilities into neighbouring buildings, which should be completed by mid-2012.
Be warned, though: the curator only allows a certain number of visitors into the house at any one time, so you may have to queue briefly out on the pavement before being admitted. It's worth the wait.

Text from Time Out

13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2

 Well there's a few to be going on with, note I have only mentioned Paris and London, I am currently fantasising of a Christmas Shopping trip to New York, in December, it's been so long since I visited NYC...