05 september 2016

Claude Monet #11



Studio Claude Monet in Giverny. (bron: art-Monet.com)


The Hôtel Baudy’s artists’ studio.

"....
In its heyday, from the late 1880s until the beginning of the Great War, the Hôtel Baudy was the center of the village’s thriving social scene. Originally a tiny canteen and general store, it expanded thanks to the sudden influx of American and international artists. Attracted to the region for the beautiful landscapes, the cheap rent and the tantalizing proximity of Monet himself, they came by train from Paris, sometimes intending to stay for a few days and leaving years later.

The American artist William Metcalf is attributed with “discovering” Giverny in 1886, and the likes of John Singer Sargent, Paul Cézanne, Theodore Robinson, and Mary and Frederick MacMonnies are among the better-known painters who patronized the Baudy. Of course, not all of the artists who stayed there found fame and fortune, and some original artworks, traded in lieu of room payment, still hang behind the wooden bar.
....
Afterward, I wander around the restaurant’s back garden, poking about the sunny atelier, which was built in 1887 to accommodate the many artists-in­residence. Dust specks drift in the air, and the cobwebs are thick. Pots and brushes lie about, and an unfinished painting rests on an easel. It feels like the last artist simply put down his brush and walked away.
...." (bron: The Washington Post, tekst en foto: Anna Hartley)

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