What I am showing these days

For those of you who read this blog, you know how much I believe in our National Gallery in Ottawa on Sussex Drive. It is a 150 year old Institution and in fact it is older than that, as early as 1820 Lord Dalhousie a staunch Scottish Presbyterian who was the Governor General of Canada residing in the Chateau Saint-Louis in Quebec City, the site is now occupied by the Chateau Frontenac Hotel, a man of letters and highly cultured and a patron of early Canadian Art who gave the first 140 art works to Canada.

George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie, Governor General of Canada (1820-1828)

Here are some of the works I have been showing in the last few weeks to the public in what is called the Docent's Choice or Le Choix du Guide, I give these 10 minute mini lectures on art to anyone who wishes to stop and listen.

La danseuse by Antonio Canova (1818)

PierAntonio Bandini by Agnolo Bronzino (1550)

Daniele Barbaro by Titian (1555)

a copy of this painting is in the Prado in Madrid.

Death of General Wolfe by Benjamin West (1770) with the new 18th century frame.

In the coming months I will also present the following, so I prepare by reading on the works and the artist and what motivated the creation of the painting or sculpture.  

Salisbury Cathedral seen from the Bishop's Garden by John Constable (1820)

Pope Urban VIII, Barberini, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1518)

The Age of Bronze by Auguste Rodin (1877)

If you happen to come by the National Gallery I may see you.

Museum volunteer work

I finished by assignment at the Canadian War Museum and have now returned to the National Gallery of Canada to start a new Season of Lectures and school work with visiting schools and introducing children to art, age group 6 to 12 years old. I am also a docent-guide and give small lectures 10 minutes or more on a specific works of art in the Gallery. All this is volunteer work and requires a lot of preparation and reading, you simply cannot do it cold turkey, not possible and very dangerous since there is always someone lurking about with that clever question or observation.

So preparation is everything and it also has to be entertaining. The Mercredis Culturels lectures is a 54 year old program and I have been the convenor for the last 2 years organizing lectures with various experts on an Art Topic of their choice. I had prepared a lecture just in case of an emergency if a lecturer cancelled and this did happen last week. I re-wrote the lecture in 48 hours and re-arranged my slides. My topic was the Hermitage Museum it's history from 1764 to 1936. This year is the 250th Anniversary of its foundation by Catherine II of Russia. It went very well and got a standing ovation and many compliments from the audience which surprised me no end.

The School program is just as complicated they may be in the 6 to 12 year old range they know what is of interest to them. Usually abstract, modern, contemporary art is a hit, kids understand that easily, it appeals to them. Classical, Academic, old Masters, Renaissance gets a big yawn, unless there are children or animals in the painting.

Maman by Louise Bourgeois at the NGC

So this year I will do tours inside the Museum and at local schools in the region of the National Capital. At the museum the tours are 50 minutes total and you take the kids around the galleries and present chosen selected paintings, at least you get a break after your tour is done and can have a coffee. Not so in local schools, this is a free program and since the Provincial Government cut all Art programs in schools some years ago, we are the only free outlet for them and you spend all day in school without as much as a pee break. This year again I am presenting a program on the Renaissance because one school asked for it. As for the other schools it will be about Abstract and Surrealism, Kandinsky and Magritte. The goal is to give the kids a first appreciation for Art, they often have no exposure what so ever in their lives unless a relative is an artist. I engage them by asking what they see in a painting or what attracts their attention, getting them to talk about a painting and playing a game of discovery works well. I also try to challenge what they may have been told about art or how to interpret it. I talk about the painter, the history behind the making of the painting, the people in it, who they are, etc.

It can be very challenging because they do not know why they should even be interested. It is also important to get the teachers into the act, many have never set foot in a Museum. My goal is to reach the kids if one person is happy and engaged then it is all worthwhile.

As for the public at the Museum who come for the talks and presentations, the goal is to make their visit worthwhile and hope that they will come back regularly. Unfortunately in Ottawa going to a museum is not an activity anyone considers. Many people I have spoken to have been in a museum once in 30 years, usually for an hour. It is a challenge to get them to come and stop to look. This is all part of the job and I take it to heart. Again I find that if you give visitors background on a painting and the artist, a bit of history and compare one artist to another to highlight differences or similarities people respond well to that, they can connect and it is no longer just a painting on the wall. We even get into conversations about framing, often people will ask how we got that frame or why this type of frame, they may not like it and think it is ugly. The whole idea is to make Art approachable and easy to assimilate.

It did work fairly well this summer when comparing the painters Otto Dix and AY Jackson. In the end despite the fact that Jackson is well known to Canadians many preferred Dix. The reason was that they had discovered a painter who was complex and controversial and was not afraid to explore difficult themes. He was a puzzle for viewers whereas Jackson was just plain.

All this to say that I do enjoy what I am doing as a Volunteer.

Benjamin West, painter

This week in the mail I received a financial solicitation from the National Gallery of Canada regarding the purchase of the original frame of the painting entitled The Death of General Wolfe by Benjamin West, 1770. See www.gallery.ca
In 1918 Hugh Lord Grosvenor the 2nd Duke of Westminster gave this painting to Canada in recognition of our heroic contribution to Victory during the First World War as part of what was then called the War Memorials. The painting has become an unofficial national treasure.

The Neoclassical frame was made in London in the same period as the painting. It is carved with various classical motifs, has its original matte and burnished water gilding. For unknown reasons we only got the painting and not the frame. So the National Gallery of Canada now wants to purchase the frame so it can be reunited with the painting.

Death of General James Wolfe, on the Plains of Abraham, September 1759, Quebec City

It is a very interesting picture and depicts the moment of the death of Wolfe as a messenger arrives to inform him that the British forces have won the battle. General Wolfe was 32 years old. By today's standard he would be considered a War criminal but then he lived in the 18th century when such concepts simply did not exist. Of course in French Canada, General Wolfe is a controversial figure as much as the Marquis de Montcalm, commander of the French Army at the Plains of Abraham is seen as a figure to pity, he too died at the battle. Whereas Wolfe is buried at Greenwich in the Church of the Naval Academy in London, Montcalm's body is in a Mausoleum in the Cemetery of the Hôpital Général de Québec. He was previously buried at the Ursulines Convent in a bomb crater.

SAKAHÀN International Indigenous Art Exhibit

The new summer show at the National Gallery of Canada has opened. I was instantly taken by this exhibit and its character, wonderful art, representing the various artists and indigeneous people from around the world, on exhibit the work of 75 artists from 16 countries, all with an indigenous history of conquest by foreign elements in all 150 works of art.

Sakahàn (to light a fire in Algonquin) is not only provocative but helps us to think about issues in our society, of conflicts, domination, dominant culture and contradictions, how we rationalize what has happened and possibly gain a better understanding.

In Canada, we, like elsewhere, are much influenced by our myths as a Nation, this exhibits challenges those officially sanctioned views or National myths. I am thinking here of the artist of Cree ancestry Kent Monkman and his painting ''The triumph of Mischief''. A disturbing piece for sure because of what it shows, it is a challenge to our Western Concepts. Monkman has in all his art work questioned the official version of history. Someone said that to believe Official History was the same as believing verbatim the word of a convicted criminal.  Monkman turns the tables on the viewer, it is the Indigenous man who has the upper hand not the colonialists.

The other exhibits from various parts of the world also shows the myths of countries like Australia, New Zealand, various African and Latin American countries.  The exhibit raises questions about suppressing cultures or rejecting cultural aspects which are not acceptable to Western ideas of culture in a Judeo-Christian frame.

No doubt many attending this exhibit will feel uncomfortable. I listened to some comments around me, one person questioned the painting presented, was the scenery real, did it really exist. According to the explanation in the exhibit catalogue, it was Yosemite Park. Still this person questioned if this was true.

Another art work portrayed a person in 3 different poses, all were different but this person looking at them voiced the comment that there was no difference. While another walked right by the work in question and other works as if seeing nothing but looking instead for the Exit. The eyes would not see what was obvious. Many of the art work portrays naked bodies, naked in the way nature intended them to be, basically unclothed humans, nothing more. Some show indigenous people in a dominant position compared to western people in a submissive attitude. There are erect phallus, but it is an arousal that is natural and not aggressive nor shown in a commercial pornographic way, but in a natural almost medical text book setting, but also mischievous. From the reactions around me, I would gather that these works are seen as threatening to some.

There is much exploration of the Berdache type of person in the native Canadian concept, this duality of personality, transgender or of the Indigenous Dandy type which is acceptable in the European Dandy model but not so in the Canadian Indigenous model.

This exhibit is refreshing because it present indigenous people and their artwork and culture as they are and not as we would like them to be or as we define them. The message is '' I can be an indigenous person with traditional beliefs and modern all at the same time''.

An interesting note, when the first white settlers came to Australia they declared that the continent was un-inhabited, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of Maoris lived there, the settlers saw them as non-persons, non-humans, in other words no one lived there.

A wonderful exhibit well worth seeing if for no other purpose than to educate oneself. It is curated by Greg A. Hill, Christine Lalonde and Candice Hopkins. See website:

 www.gallery.ca/sakahan

back on the ranch

Well back home and back to the business of the Museum, I mean the National Gallery of Canada.
Before I left for my European vacation, I had completed the program for the new season and had done up the brochure.
Today I had a look at the brochure mock-up for our ''Mercredis culturels'' Wednesday Art lectures (in French) for the new season starting in September.  Did some proof reading and I am told it is going to the printer this week or next. I also re-wrote some letters and instructions we give to invited lecturers.

I now have to prepare a lecture on a topic of my choice that I could present in case of emergency when a lecturer for whatever reason backs out at the last moment. It did happen once this past year and luckily my predecessor, in this volunteer job of coordinator, had a film to show which turned out to be interesting and instructive.

I do have a topic picked out for this emergency lecture (its a secret) based on a book I read recently, so I have to put together a PowerPoint presentation which will mostly be photos, no text. I will comment and the photos will accompany-support what I am saying.

I am also currently working at completing the program of the Season 2014-2015, so I have two years of programming done for the lectures. There is a lot of public relations involved in this type of work, you have to be able to talk to people to get their interest and get them to agree to do a lecture. The lectures are on Art and Culture or on an area of expertise in Art, can be restoration, conservation, museology, an artistic movement in time, a school of painting, etc... I am trying to get new and different topics not presented yet. The general public and members are always looking for something new, so it is a challenge to come up with something innovative.

I also have to go and see the new summer exhibit which opened just a few days ago entitled Sakahàn (pronounced Sagahan) International indigenous art. Canada and Ottawa feature many of our First Nations artists in this show, including from Ottawa, Algonquin artists.
The website of the National Gallery has the details: www.gallery.ca

We are celebrating 25 years since the opening of the new buildings of the NGC at Nepean Point in 1988. Buildings designed by architect Moishe Safdie. Entrance to the NGC is FREE on Thursday's from 5pm to 8pm.

 

Canal Rideau, Ottawa

Monday musical

This morning at 7 am just before the Sun rise in the East which is behind those buildings. Winter wonderland on the Rideau Canal.


This morning 26 November Winter officially arrived in Ottawa, we woke up to see about 15 cm of snow on the ground. The canal is not frozen yet but it makes for a nice wintery scene. Brilliant sunshine, maybe a little too bright, reflected off the new snow makes it a hazard if driving.

Top Winter as January and bottom Winter with the Wolves.

I usually spend my Monday's at the National Gallery of Canada, the museum is closed on Monday's but being a volunteer, we go for classes and briefings on Art. We go through the galleries and often have our talks surrounded by magnificent artwork.

The National Gallery of Canada before the snow.

I was listening to Radio Swiss Classic from Zurich on the radio and they were playing ''Dove Sono'' of the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, sung by Barbara Fritolli in 2010 at the Opéra Bastille in Paris and I thought how lovely on this sunny snowy morning.

F. Liszt and a day at the Museum

Today being Monday, I spent the day at the National Gallery of Canada on Sussex Drive. The Museum  
is closed on Monday's like all museums around the world. Being one of the volunteers, I was there for meetings and for training. How very nice to walk around the closed museum going from gallery to gallery, we have so many beautiful painting collections in our Museum.

The Smiths by Canadian painter W. Blair Bruce 1894. This painting in the National Gallery is quite large. The men are making steel wheel rims, an art lost long ago. It is believed that this painting was a tribute to Hamilton, Ontario.

The National Gallery of Canada on a grey day.

I really enjoy my time at the museum, meeting with other volunteers and curators.



This evening I was listening to Radio Swiss Classic on Airport Express on the internet, a little device that allows me to listen to radio music from around the world. This piece by F. Liszt is called Les Cloches de Genève, les Années de Pélerinage. Played on the piano by Konstantin Scherbakov in Zurich in May 2011.

Conference at the National Gallery of Canada

I was invited to attend a conference today in the auditorium of the National Gallery of Canada organized by the Director of the NGC and the French Embassy. The theme of this conference was entitled ''Visions: Art Museums in the 21 Century'' a discussion on the transformation and challenges facing museums today and the role of directors.

Invited guests where Xavier Dectot, Director of the new Louvre-Lens (pronounce Lance) in the small city of Lens (pop 36,000) in the Nord du Pas de Calais, which is near the Belgian border, an old coal mining area.
This new museum will open on 4 December 2012 designed by a team of Japanese architects, it is enormous and sits on 22 hectares of land formerly known as Pit no.9. It is an all glass building, each single pane of glass measures an impressive 6.80 meters or 22 feet in length.
The other guest speaker was Laurent Salomé, Chief Curator at the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Grand Palais in Paris. who spoke on what they were doing to bring more people to the museums.

Paul Lang, Chief Curator of the NGC was hosting and Marc Mayer, Director of the NGC was present as was the French Ambassador and his spouse. There was probably about 150 museum members present. The conference was in French with English simultaneous translation.

It was interesting to hear both guests who painted a difficult picture of the realities of Art Museums today, the average French Citizens goes only once per year to any museum. Only 50% of the population of France actually goes to visit a museum. Most people who visit museums are women over 50, usually retired with some money and a University diploma. The challenge for the director in attracting visitors to the New Louvre-Lens is as follows; the new museum is situated in an economically depressed area, the coal mines all shut down in the 1970's, largely a young population, poorly educated with high levels of unemployment. Lens in its description reminded me of those mining company towns in novels like Germinal by Emile Zola. The construction of the new Louvre-Lens follows the democratization and decentralization of museums, a movement which is popular in Canada and now being copied in France. So what will be on show at the Louvre-Lens will be borrowed for 5 years from le Grand Louvre in Paris. It will also feature temporary exhibits and contemporary artworks.

Canada and France have numerous collaborative efforts in the organizations of exhibitions and studies. This brings about a sharing of exhibits touring cities around the world, to save money and to generate revenues for each museum. Our guests bemoaned the fact that in France the budgets for Culture have been slashed severely. We were told that we should be thankful our Canadian Government which reduced the budgets of all National Museums has not been more drastic in comparison.

Reliance on private donors and private funding for exhibits is now the game and multinational companies are being courted assiduously, they are taking up where national governments have left off. In the last 15 years major exhibits have been funded almost 100% by private enterprise in Canada but also now in France and probably elsewhere in the world. Though our French guests admitted that there was still a big debate in France between generations of Curators on the merit of having private companies finance Art exhibits, many see that as cheapening the process.

Attendance is also down in Museums and I can vouch for that, I can see it at the NGC in Ottawa but also at the other National Museums like Civilizations and the National War Museum how very few people visit everyday.  Xavier Dectot was saying that if you took out only 3 famous art work at the Louvre, people would probably stay away, he mentioned the Venus of Milo, the Mona Lisa and the Victory of Samothrace. Entire galleries like the one devoted to the 17th century painter Nicolas Poussin are deserted. We saw that in Italy where people went to a museum to see one art work and ignore the rest, comes to mind the David by Michelangelo in Firenze.

The French are promoting now something we have been doing in Canadian Museums for a long time which is to make use of technology to promote museums, sending docents out to schools to promote art works and interest in the arts in general. Offer school teachers free programs to help them with their class curriculum. I was pleased to hear our guests compliment Canada and the NGC for our modern approach in trying to attract the public back to our museums.

I was relieved to see that our problems in Canada are the same elsewhere, a factor of a changing world and interest and falling educational standard. They are not insurmountable but a major challenge for any  museum director.

I also learned that a major retrospective of the work of Marie-Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun will be held at the NGC in 2014. She is said to be the most important female painter of the 18th century in France. She was the official painter of Marie-Antoinette. She also worked in Italy, Russia at the Court of Catherine II, in Switzerland and in England. There has never been a retrospective of her work.

Marie Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842)







  

I found $90 million dollars in the basement!!!

Well I did not personally find the $90 millions but Stephen Gritt who is a curator at the National Gallery of Canada sure did. He went to the basement of the National Gallery where many art works are stored. He wanted to see a painting of a Venetian nobleman Daniele Matteo Alvise Barbaro (1514-1570). This portrait was acquired by the National Gallery in 1928 for the sum of 10,000 British Pounds Sterling. However it had been deemed many decades ago by experts to be a copy of the original which hangs in the Prado Museum in Madrid and is owned by the King of Spain. So the portrait just sat in the basement and was forgotten, dirty and in poor condition. At one time it was almost discarded since the National Gallery is not interested in mere copies. However Gritt was not satisfied, he thought let's investigate this matter again, maybe the experts of long ago made a mistake. Today's technology can often reveal surprising details which would have gone unnoticed in the past.

So Gritt submitted the painting to X-Ray examination and it revealed many layers, the painter Titian had made many changes and corrections while creating the portrait, first it was with a simple drawing line outlining the figure then much work was done on the nose of the subject, Barbaro had a peculiar nose, and so on. If this was a mere copy by the students or assistants of the master painter no one would have bothered with correction, they would have simply copied the original. Titian was known for being self-critical and a perfectionist and would often keep a painting for years until he was satisfied with the finish product.

Daniele Barbaro by Titian

Gritt then contacted the Prado Museum in Madrid and asked for their help, could they examine their painting of Barbaro. It turned out that what had been thought to be an original was in fact a simple copy, so the Prado has the copy and we in Ottawa have the original portrait painted by the Titian. What a find! Estimates at this time are based on current market value at $90 million dollars.

Needless to say that the staff of the National Gallery of Canada are overjoyed with this news, a great addition to the collection.

Who was Daniele Barbaro? He lived at the time of the Renaissance in the Veneto, was a graduate of the University of Padua, he is thought to have designed the beautiful botanical garden of the University. He has a writer and diplomat, sent to the Court of Elizabeth I by the Republic of Venice. He was a man of science, he became a Cardinal and he was known for his many scholarly papers, he translated from Latin to Italian, the 10 volumes of the works of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (70BC- 15AD) on architecture. Vitruvius lived at the time of Emperor Augustus in the first century and his work was much appreciated.

As for Tiziano Vecelli aka the Titian (1488-1576) he is known as one of the greatest painter of the Renaissance able to paint portraits, landscapes, mythological or religious themes with ease.
His style influenced not only Italian painters of his time, he also had a profound influence on painters in the Western World.

So it only goes to show that you may have a treasure in your basement without knowing it. 

Vernissage Van Gogh at the National Gallery of Canada

        Amandier


Last night was the Vernissage at the National Gallery of Canada of the new Van Gogh exhibit, the first in 25 years in Canada. There were lots of people, the great Hall was full, we had a glass of wine and enjoyed the piano music though it was a little hard to hear over the conversations. The Government of the Netherlands and Japan participated in the organization, it was explained that Van Gogh is very popular in Japan and he had collected nearly 400 Japanese prints between 1886-88. He was fascinated with Japanese wood block prints. Other museums in Amsterdam and in Toronto like the Royal Ontario Museum also provided works, many never seen before in public, taken out of storage. I also like the etchings from which is took inspiration, beautifully detailed. The exhibit shows the different techniques he used from Horizontal lines, zooming in on a subject, close-up details, playing with perspective, push and pull and strong diagonals. You can see it all in this exhibit which is rare given that usually museums only have a few of his paintings. The Exhibit is called Van Gogh up close and yes, what I saw reflects the theme.

Iris in the Collection of the National Gallery of Canada

The poster of the exhibit is the painting Amandier or Almond blossom, Van Gogh chose the blossom of the almond tree, a member of the rose family, to celebrate the joyous occasion- the birth of his brother Theo's son, his nephew- and as a symbol of new life. I really like that painting in particular.
Others I liked are Lavender, on loan from the Museum of Otterlo, comes from a short trip he took to the South of France where he painted View of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. You can almost smell the lavender field.

Lavender fields in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

Roses and Sunflowers, on loan from the Kunsthalle in Mannheim. Sunflowers return frequently in Van Gogh paintings, a Christian emblem of Faith. For the artist it symbolized companionship and gratitude. Iris, which is part of the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, a popular motif in the Dutch still-life tradition, the iris also featured in the Japanese woodblock prints that Van Gogh studied.

Auberge Ravoux today in Auvers-sur-Oise

Van Gogh had a short life and a tragic one, born in 1853 in Zundert, a small village of the Brabant in the south of the Netherlands and died by his own hand in 1890 in Auvers-sur Oise, North of Paris.
There was a few details about his life, he did a little travel between the Netherlands, Belgium, England and France, he was a lay preacher, tried to become a full time preacher but failed, too excentric apparently. Many of his exhibits he organized in small Café's and local restaurants where he lived. His brother Theo who was an art dealer in Paris supported him financially all his life and was at his side when he died. Van Gogh did spend some time in a Sanatorium in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and contrary to popular Hollywood belief he only cut-off the lobe of his ear not the ear itself. A tormented soul, who lived in poverty and who left us a wonderful gift, without his realizing it he became immortal.

In closing let's not forget that our National Museums are all struggling financially with little to no help from the current Government. It is up to the public, all of us to strongly support our Museums. This exhibit on Van Gogh is at the National Gallery of Canada on Sussex Drive in Ottawa until 3 September 2012.

Afternoon at the National Gallery of Canada

We recently became members of the National Gallery of Canada on Sussex Drive in Ottawa, this modern building is the work of Moshe Safdie and was completed in 1988. I remember when the spot it occupies Nepean Point, a high cliff above the Outaouais river was just a park of wild grass, then Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau decided that the National Capital deserved a proper National Gallery building with architecture that would befit the important collections being shown. Prior to that the collections were housed in a old Lorne building in Ottawa on Elgin street, now demolished, a rather sad affair. The original National Gallery of Canada was created in 1880 by then Governor General of Canada, John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll. It was housed at that time in the old Supreme Court building at the western gate of Parliament Hill at Bank and Wellington streets, that building was demolished in 1962. The Gallery then moved in 1913 to the Victoria Memorial Museum on Metcalfe street, known today as the Museum of Nature. Most of the collection are gifts from the Sutherland Family and the Vincent Massey Family and many other people. Some important acquisitions have also been made by the Gallery with great public howl despite the fact that it came from important known artist. There is that sad element in Ottawa in the popular press and amongst politicians of a certain stripe to be anti-culture no matter what. A few years ago the same popular press started a movement to bring Art in general and the collections in the museums to the lowest common denominator, the argument being that if the Museums wanted to make money, it seems it is always about money for some people, then the art presented cannot be intimidating. The public will not go if they do not know or understand what they are looking at. Luckily that idea did not catch on. One idea that did catch on and was well received was to propose to various social clubs that their members come to the museum and would be met by a docent who would present a few selected works, here people who had never been inside a museum were invited to come and see for themselves and at the same time have selected works explained to them. Participants went away happy and enjoyed their visits by all accounts, better it cost nothing.

The National Gallery has in its collection some of the most important works by Warhol and other contemporary artists, great Canadian and European artists. The Canadian Group of Seven paintings are my favourites. It is a very interesting museum to visit not only for its art collection but also for its architecture.

National Gallery of Canada on Nepean Point seen from Parliament Hill

The great hall of the Gallery, copies the Library of Parliament across on the other hill. All glass and granite.

I walked around the Gallery, looking at everything and getting myself re-acquainted with the museum. I had not been in 10 years. Many new pieces were on display. A very interesting installation was the Janet Cardiff, Forty Part Motet in the old Rideau Street Convent Chapel. When the Rideau Street Convent was destroyed the Chapel was saved by Friends of the Museum who raised enormous amounts of money to ensure that architectural treasure would not perish. It has been re-assembled inside the Gallery. Janet Cardiff arranged a series of speakers in the chapel, the impression if you stand in the middle of the chapel is that you are part of a singing choir, you hear people next to you breathing as they sing and you hear every voice of the choir. It is the most stunning effect, you are part of the choir not part of an audience listening.  Being in the Rideau Chapel to hear this is quite beautiful.

The other exhibit I enjoyed is entitled Monuments of Paris by Hubert Robert who was a landscape designer and decorator, great admirer of Giovanni Panini and Giovanni Battista Piranese, he went to Rome in 1754 to study art. He returned to Paris in 1765. Robert was appointed garden designer at Versailles. His tableau Monuments of Paris juxtaposes seven significant Parisian structures in an imaginary setting. It was first shown in 1789 in Paris, the composition shows Porte St-Denis erected in 1672 to commemorate the French Army's victories on the Rhine, directly facing the gate is an equestrian statue of Louis XIV erected in 1692, it was destroyed during the revolution in 1792. To the right the Fountain of the Innocents it was commissioned in 1549 in honour of King Henry II.  The Medici column  dedicated to Catherine Medici, wife of King Henry II. The panorama is obscured by the Eastern Facade of the Palais du Louvre built in 1665 and completed in 1672 when the Court moved to Versailles.
In the background is the Fountain of the Four Seasons 1736 and looming over the composition is the Church of St-Geneviève commissioned by Louis XV, the church was not quite completed in 1791 when the Revolution under the Assembly decided to dedicate the building to French national heroes and it became the Pantheon. Retrospectively this masterpiece appears as a tribute to the master builders of the Ancien Regime.