Van Gogh Reborn! - Chapter 47

I want to draw more pictures of Auvers, but there are cases where transportation will become difficult like [Frost Wheat Field] .

So, I toured Paris with grandpa, while waiting for the frame to be completed.

It was a good thing the French culture, which dictates to take a long time for eating, had gotten shorter.

I went to famous restaurants in Paris, and I enjoyed a variety of tasty dishes.

I felt as if I had become an ancient Roman nobleman.

And today.

Finally, I will be visiting the Musée d’Orsay museum that I had been postponing for a long time.

I woke up and stepped out of the hotel early in the morning and walked along a narrow road with a long low buildings.

“We’re here.”

When I turned at my grandpa’s words, there were several bronze statues sitting on the upper right side.

“This is the Musée d’Orsay.”

There are a lot of people in front of the Musée d’Orsay, where you can see all the works of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Some people play musical instruments on the street, and there is also an elephant bronze statue which could be seen in the distance.

What surprised me is the size of the museum.

I walked along one wall for quite a long time, and it was all the outer wall of the Musée d’Orsay.

I don’t know how many days it will take to see this place properly.

It means that many works of people who lived in similar times as me have been displayed.

I felt very excited.

Suddenly, Grandpa’s smartphone rang.

“Speaking of the devil”

Grandpa answered the phone happily, nodded his head, and thanked the person on the other end.

“Is the frame done already?”

“Yes. He asked us to come and pick it up tomorrow.”

It’s not been two weeks since we promised, but Pierre Marlo seems to have made the frame already.

I also made an appointment with curator Bang Tae, so I planned to go back to Korea immediately after receiving the frame.

I think the I got only one day to enjoy Musée d’Orsay museum.

“It would have been nice if we were able to take a look at everything slowly.”

“We can come again next time.”

There’s not enough time to go around slowly.

It’s a shame, but I think it’s better to choose an interested Artist and look around today.

Grandpa also agreed with my idea.

“Who would like to see? Is it Van Gogh?”

“No.”

I don’t want to use my one-day chance to look at my own paintings.

I looked through the Artists names mentioned in the pamphlet.

The great teacher Jean-Francois Millet.

Mane, Gustave Courbet, Paul Gauguin, and Rodin.

Everyone got included.

Is there anyone I want to see more than the above mentioned people?

Suddenly a name popped in my head.

Toulouse Lautrec.

I remembered an old friend who was short and had a sea-like heart.

“ Grandpa it’s Lautrec.”

“Good choice. A wonderful painter. Let’s go.”

Grandpa brought up the story of Lautrec as we climbed the stairs.

“ He’s not well known in Korea, but Toulouse Lautrec is a great painter. Even Pablo Picasso fell in love with his paintings.”

I’m glad that Lautrec became a successful.

If Pablo Picasso had respected him, he would have been loved by many people.

“Really?”

“Of course. I heard that Picasso hung a poster of Lautrec in his room when he was young.”

I’m so happy as a loyal friend of Lautrec and as a big fan of Picasso.

In a way, it’s natural.

He was the most cheerful painter in Montmartre, so he must have lived a wonderful life after my death.

Is there anything more pleasant than this?

“How did he live?”

“Hmm. It was a short and colorful life.”

“Do you know that Lautrec was a nobleman?”

The word short and colorful life bothers me, but I nodded my head for now.

“Yes, he had a lot of money.”

“Hahahahah! Yes, yes. It is said that he bought Van Gogh alcohol because he had a lot of money.”

Thanks to him, I didn’t have worry about the price of alcohol when I was in Paris.

I’ve tried expensive drinks that I can’t even dream of under my circumstances.

Come to think of it, he also liked drinking a lot, I’m worried whether the short life is related to that.

It’s already in the past, but grandpa continued to talk about Lautrec.

“But he wasn’t trapped in the framework of a nobleman. He was insulated from his parents, but he lived for Art and was recognized.”

It’s very unfortunate that it didn’t work out well with his parents.

Lautrec was such a free man, who could have never fulfilled their wishes for living like an aristocrat.

“Especially, his posters became popular. He drew a very nice poster for the Moulin Rouge performance. Thanks to that, he is now recognized as a pioneer in modern graphic art.”

Moulin Rouge?

“Was it a drama troupe.?”

“Hehe. It’s the name of the cabaret.”

It sounds like he drew for a bar promotion picture.

When I was curious about what the hell he drew, grandpa smiled and asked me to search.

“We can see it here, right?”

“No, his poster works placed elsewhere.”

“Is it far?”

“It’s far.”

“The Heraklion Museum of Art in Athens, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the Lautrec Art Museum in southern France.”

Next time I come, I’ll make a schedule to stop by the Lautrec Museum.

While grandpa was buying tickets, I searched for Toulouse Lautrec and found a lot of pictures.

Among them, the most notable work was a poster titled Eglantine Dance Company

“Oh my god.”

It is said to have been painted in 1896, but it seems like his trick was still there.

Behind the three dancers dancing with their legs raised high, a red-haired woman in a ridiculous posture stands out.

Unlike dancers who took the same posture in a temperate manner, only the woman at the back is clumsy.

It makes us to turn our focus to her.

It is Toulouse Lautrec’s way of communicating.

“What’s so funny?”

I showed the Eglantine Dance Company picture to grandpa who bought the tickets.

“Do you understand the meaning behind this?”

“Yes. You usually draw the person you want to emphasize big, put them in the front, to make them more visible.”

“Yes.”

“But Lautrec seemed to have taken an opposite approach.”

Grandfather stroked my head and said.

“That’s right. She is a woman named Jeanne Abril. As you guessed, it’s a dancer that Lautrec wanted to emphasize”

This friend’s wackiness really makes people happy.

His style of breaking away from the standard way of thinking is beautiful, and draws everyone’s interest.

Thanks to that clumsy depiction of the dance, it makes everyone wonder who she is and why she dances like that.

If they become interested, then they have no choice but to find out about it on their own.

I’m sure that those who saw this poster visited to see how bad Jeanne Abril was at dancing.

“In fact, Jeanne Abril was a very talented dancer. Everyone who came to laugh at her turned into her fan and returned.”

How many people believe in promoting a good person as a bad person?

I think he made a good use of people’s psychology.

I sat on the bench for a moment and looked at Lautrec’s other posters.

A painting called Divan Japonais caught my eye.

It was once again modelled by the same woman named Jeanne Abril.

She looks like is a noble lady in this poster.

He drew the same person, but the impression is quite different.

Looking at the year, it was drawn three years earlier than the Eglantine Dance Company.

Divan Japonais 75 wedes Martyrs Ea Fournier……

“Ah.”

I was mistaken.

“Do you recognize this?”

“Yes. Jeanne Abril is not the main character.”

I almost fell for Toulouse Lautrec’s tricks.

The main character of this poster is the person on the upper left.

A woman wearing black gloves long enough to cover her elbow.

Since there are conductors and string instruments in front of her, she seems to be a singer who sings at Divan Japonais.

“This is the main character.”

“Right. What do you think about the reason why he didn’t draw her face?”

I cleared my mind and opened my mouth.

“To simply arouse the interest of the people.”

“That’s right.”

The long black gloves is used to symbolize the faceless singer.

“I guess he wanted to give her a symbol.”

He wanted the people looking at the poster to pay attention to the person wearing those gloves.

“It’s like a riddle.”

“Exactly. His posters are riddle. Lautrec wanted to convey the joy of small discoveries.”

Thanks to that, when you look at Lautrec’s work, your eyes quickly tend to search for the things he hid.

A riddle where you use your brain in moderation? What a smart friend.

“This singer is Yvette Guilbert, and she always sang with black gloves after this poster was published.”

“Oh. I see.”

The most important thing for an artist is images.

It’s easy to remember and you can differentiate yourself from others.

It is possible that Yvette Guilbert used the symbol given by Lautrec.

“Yvette Guilbert said to have commissioned a lot to Lautrec. She became popular in an instant thanks to Lautrec’s posters every time. Look for other posters, too.”

I swept the screen expecting what else would make me happy.

“Oh, my God.”

Old lady who gave the apple to Snow White will look prettier than this.

I think [Singing Yvette Guilbert] might be the posthumous work of Toulouse Lautrec.

I’m sure Yvette Guilbert should have beaten him to death.

Now I understand what grandpa meant.

“He got beaten to death by Yvette Guilbert… right grandpa.? That’s why grandpa said it was a short life, right?”

“Ha! Hahahah!”

Grandpa started laughing loudly.