simple pleasures: la vie romantique

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I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.
— Langston Hughes

a dutch painter + professor of drawing, ary scheffer came to settle in paris in 1811, eventually inhabiting the handsome home that came to be le musée de la vie romantique. scheffer befriended artists + intellectuals including george sand, chopin + delacroix. from within this picturesque home + art studio, scheffer supported upcoming artists by showing work that had been refused by the salon such as théodore rousseau’s the descent of the cows. he showed these declined works along with paintings by his friends paul huet and jules dupré, thus establishing “an exhibition of the refused.” scheffer rented this abode until his death in 1858 when he passed, at which time his daughter purchased the home.

simple pleasures: un nouveau jour

Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.
— Socrates

avignon, a small town in the south of france is located on the rhone river and was the seat of the catholic popes in the 14th century. at the heart of the historic city sits the papal palace, a medieval gothic building. once a fortress, today it is a captivating museum housing religious artwork including centuries-old paintings, sculptures + frescoes.