Heidi Ellison
Les Bloggeurs de Paris
Les Bloggeurs de Paris Little Shiva in disguise. Photo: Richard Nahem Who knew that Paris had so many English-language bloggers? A bevy of them recently tore themselves away from their computers to socialize (and network, of course) at a cocktail … Read More
Picasso et les Maîtres
Riffing on the Masters Picasso’s “Still Life with Sheep’s Head” (below, © Succession Picasso, 2008) interprets the incredible pathos of Goya’s original with rather less subtlety but plenty of drama. Yes, of course, Picasso was a genius, but there is … Read More
Van Dyck
Gentleman Painter “Portrait of a Family” (c. 1620). © Hermitage National Museum/Vladimir Terebenin, Leonard Kheifets, Yuri Molodkovets, Svetlana Suetova Anyone who thinks portrait paintings are boring should rush to see the new Van Dyck exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André. Although … Read More
Taxi Jaune
Yellow Cab Cuisine Cheerful dining with often sublime results. February 2005; updated Oct. 15, 2008 THIS RESTAURANT IS NOW CLOSED The cheerful Taxi Jaune, located in the wholesale leather-goods section of the Marais (where tourists often fear to tred), has … Read More
Mantegna
Renaissance Fashions “The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist.” © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden This mega-exhibition at the Louvre might better have been called Mantegna & Co., since the works by the Italian master Andrea … Read More
Emil Nolde
Storms of Color “La Mise au Tombeau” (1915). © Nolde Stiftung-Seebüll This exhibition, which promises to be one of the fall season’s blockbusters, will be a delightful eye opener for anyone who is not familiar with the work of Emil … Read More
Georges Rouault
Through a Stained Glass Darkly “Bénigne” (1939). © ADAGP Paris 2008 Having never understood the appeal of the paintings of Georges Rouault, whose works can be immediately recognized by the heavy black outlines around the figures in them, I was … Read More
Première Etoile
Delivering the Gourmet Goods The media-savvy The ingredients and the recipe finally arrived around 9 p.m. Photo: R. Hesse posed for the cover of her own book. Some time ago, I bought an exquisite takeout lunch salad at a fancy … Read More
Le Silence de Lorna
Hard Choices
With Le Silence de Lorna (Lorna’s Silence), brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have made another of their morally complex films about marginalized people coping with the situations they find themselves in. These are no hapless victims of a cruel society, … Read More
La Rentrée Littéraire Sept. 2008
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll The usually bloated list of new books coming out during France’s fall publishing season, known as la rentrée littéraire, has slimmed down somewhat this year, with “only” 676 novels being published, 466 of … Read More