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| Charlottenburg Palace. |
Tuesday morning's visit to the Charlottenburg Palace was a day to be remembered. This beautiful palace, although severly damaged in the war, has gradually been returned to its former glory, and oh how lovely it looked on a bright, warm day. Only the old part of the palace was open, but that was a feast for the eyes, especially the large collection of Meissen porcelain, which included dinner services and serving dishes, all lavishly decorated with plants, fruits and birds. Many intricate silver bowls and dishes were displayed along with silver cutlery, all laid out on a formal dinner table. The following link on Wikipedia (what would I do without it) will give you all the history of the palace.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlottenburg_Palace
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| Oriental porcelain in a mirrored room. |
Words cannot really describe the beauty of it all, and the many visitors from around the world stood in awe. We later strolled around the formal gardens to the fountain, and then on to the distant, oramental lake with its Japanese style iron bridge. I exchanged a few words with two ladies from Norwich who were on their first visit to Berlin, and were obviously thoroughly enjoying themselves. There is so much to see in Berlin, and hopefully I will return again in 2013 for another feast for my eyes!
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| Vicki and V photographed in front of the decorated mirror frame. |
After a lunch consisting of a huge bowl of multi flavoured ice cream topped with walnuts, we visited the Broehan Museum to see an exhibition of Art Nouveau furniture, tapestries, paintings, ceramics, metalware and Galle glassware. The highlight was the cast metal mirror frame above. I do like symetrical designs, and this one of a fountain and plants was most interesting. (it is difficult to find other words for beautiful) Mind boggling maybe!
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| Poppy Field, painted in gouache on board. |
We also saw a special exhibition of paintings by Karl Hagemeister 1848-1933. He studied the principles of classical landscape painting at the Weimar Art School in 1871, but in 1873 began to develop a more modern approach. His depiction of objects and the natural world became increasingly summary during his life, with his colours becoming lighter and cooler. Absorbing the influence of Japanese art through the interpretations of the French impressionists, and following the trends in international Art Nouveau, Hagemeister developed his own style of Art Nouveau. His paintings are decorative rather then naturalistic and became primarily ornamental. My favourite painting is pictured above, his field of poppies.
I had a chance to combine my two loves in life recently and had a two weeks' holiday in wonderful France, to which I had been before, and had loved so much. I took a little Renault rental car and headed off from Paris, to the Palace of Versailles, to Chartres then southward to sunny Provence, via the Auvergne region, with the Songs of the Auvergne playing repeated on the CD player.
ReplyDeleteMagnifique, comme toujours. I saw many art galleries and followed the footsteps of artists, like poor Vincent Van Gogh.
Back home all too soon, I ordered a canvas print from wahooart.com, choosing this painting by Cézanne, http://EN.WahooArt.com/A55A04/w.nsf/OPRA/BRUE-8EWNWL, to remember my trip by