Musée D'Orsay- Norm Goldman
Norm
Musée D'Orsay:
Published on the following sites:
www.bookideas.com
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For many of us a trip to one of the greatest museums in the world, Musée D’
Orsay in Paris, can prove to be mindboggling. We are not only overwhelmed
with the magnificent art that is on display but we never seem to have enough
time or energy to view a fraction of these great artistic contributions to
mankind.
Treasures of the Musée D’Orsay, authored by former director of the Musée
Françoise Cachin, is one solution to resolve our dilemma in planning a
meaningful visit to this great institution.
The author in her introduction introduces us to the most important artworks
of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist eras.
While we take this journey, we are also made aware of the fact that the
museum was a train station and a hotel that were classified as historical
monuments in Paris, and as a result were spared demolition.
The museum houses the works of artists born between 1820 and 1870, with some
exceptions. It is also explained to us that the Musée d’Orsay, insofar as
its paintings are concerned, is to be placed between the Louvre, which
houses artworks before 1820, and the Beaubourg Museum, which prides itself
with works, executed after 1870.
What is interesting about the book is that the author gives us a detailed
tour of the museum and this is what will make an ultimate tour to this great
institution invaluable.
Cachin leads us by the hand from one section of the museum to another where
we discover realism on the first floor; the Ingrism and Romanticism as well
as social scenes by Daumier and highlights of Manet, Monet, Renoir, Sisley
and Cezanne in the upper gallery; awesome statute surrounded by a steel
architecture in the middle floor; and Winslow Homer and other foreign
artists in the esplanade.
Another vital aspect about this beautiful book is that the co-author, Xavier
Carrère, presents background information and concise essays pertaining to
each and every one of the periods.
It is also breathtaking to view the many photographs of just about every
aspect of the museum’s collection-oil paintings; sculpture, decorative arts,
pastels, drawings and watercolors, architecture and photography that are all
well represented in the book.
What is also noteworthy is that the volume contains several works that may
not even be on display when you personally visit the Musée as they are
constantly being rotated in order to preserve them.
Francoise Cachin and Xavier Carrère have reached their goal of preserving
vivid memoirs of the quality and variety of works seen at the Musee d’Orsay.
They have also provided the reader with an extensive index that will
facilitate the viewing of a work of art within the book as well as in person
at the Musée.
If you want to save steps and enjoy the Musée, read this book before
visiting.
Norman P. Goldman & Liliane Goldman
Allan Levine’s “Fugitives of the Forest” is a chronicle of the thousands of
Jews who had participated in the partisan resistance in eastern Poland,
Belorussia, the Ukraine, the three Baltic states, and the western part of
the Soviet Union.
As the author mentions in the introduction, there were other countries where
Jews had participated as partisans; however, the book is restricted to a
study of only those above-mentioned geographical locations.
Most of the book deals with personalized oral accounts of those who survived
the Holocaust and why and how they resisted.
Many of us will ask the troubling question, why did not more Jews resist?
The author very aptly states, our question should have been rephrased: “how,
under the circumstances, was any resistance possible at all.”
Levine points out that there were a variety of reasons why many Jews did not
join the underground resistance.
For many there was a blind belief that if they obeyed the Nazis they would
survive.
This was one of the main beliefs of some of the Judenrate. The Jewish
councils established by the Nazis in each city and town whose main mission
was to ensure that the Nazi’s orders and regulations were carried out.
In certain instances these councils tried to convince their fellow Jews that
if they worked hard and helped the Nazi war machine things would work out.
There was also reluctance for fear of mass retribution. In other words, if
one family member were to be caught it was more than likely that an entire
family would be killed.
Other reasons were a lack of arms, fear of the forest, a loss of all hope
and some, who were too paralysed to act.
On the other hand there were those who emphatically believed in the slogan
of the underground resistance: ‘the ghetto means death, provide yourself
with arms, leave the ghetto and take to the forests.”
It was not a matter of being a hero but only one of survival.
It is the story of these few Jews that are extensively dealt with in the
book.
We are told of the men, women and children who escaped the Minsk and Vilma
ghettos and eluded death for a brief time span.
We are also informed of some of the peasants who had collaborated with the
Nazis and brought about the death of thousands of Jews.
However, the author makes it clear that it is difficult and nearly
impossible to generalize about the behaviour of some of the European
peasants towards Jewish fugitives. After all, they also were in danger of
being killed by the Nazis if they aided the Jews.
Some of the peasants had taken great risks, while others were indifferent or
frightened.
Some may question the accuracy of the facts or the reliability of oral
testimony.
There are others who go so far as cruelly denying that the Holocaust even
existed and they attempt to revise history.
Levine’s book, although very well written, is nevertheless heart wrenching
and extremely disturbing. Very often I had to stop and put it aside.
“Copyright 2002, Bookideas.com. Orginally published at Bookideas.com”