Undoubtedly, one of the most attractive events in France is Paris Fashion Week. So I took a trip from Istanbul to Paris to see it. However, today I won’t tell you about the fashion world or the clothing industry. Instead, we’ll discover some of the latest fashions concerning art and history. By using the word “fashion,” I want to express the latest trends in those areas.
If you intend to see the Louvre Museum in Paris — it’s the world’s second most-visited museum, averaging 15,000 visitors per year — you’ll definitely need more than one day. With approximately 380,000 objects on display, spread across more than 60,600 square meters, it’s one of the world’s largest museums. However, if you’re looking for a nice alternative, let’s say on the banks of the Seine, the Musee D’Orsay is definitely my recommendation. Inside the former railway station, which is the Musée d’Orsay today, some of the very famous paintings by Osman Hamdi Bey are kept, alongside some by Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh and many more.
Osman Hamdi Bey was a painter from the Ottoman Empire and painted “Vieil homme devant des tombeaux d’enfants” in 1903. It hangs in the Musée d’Orsay.
Maybe because it coincided with the holiday season in Korea, the museum was filled with many Korean visitors. I even became friends with some of them and we took some commemorative pictures after our visit to the museum. The best part was when I learned that all of my new Korean friends had already visited Turkey, and some of them had been there twice! We truly felt the miraculous moment of being able to have a nice, warm conversation in the heart of Paris, in Korean, as citizens of two brother countries, Turkey and Korea. That’s why we posed in front of the sculpture “Asia” in the courtyard (there’s a series of sculptures there representing the seven continents).
The courtyard of the Musée d’Orsay is one of the nicest spots in Paris.
Until now, I’ve been telling you about places you can visit at any time, but now I will write about a pretty interesting exhibition I went specifically to see. It was the special exhibition of Paul Jacoulet (1896-1960), a French-Japanese artist. The exhibition took place in the Maison de la culture du Japon a Paris, a location close to the heart of the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty. I wish to share some of his wood block paintings of Korea. A huge section of the exhibition was reserved for Korea paintings by the artist. If you’re in Paris, while on your way to or from the Eiffel Tower, it might be a good idea to stop by here and see this collection before it reaches it’s end. It’s Korea from the eyes of a Parisien artist!
The exhibit, currently underway at the Maison de la Culture du Japon a Paris, features many Joseon paintings done by Paul Jacoulet.
By Ayse Oncul
Korea.net Honorary Reporter
Photos: Ayse Oncul
