So Many Beautiful Things To See!

I am an unabashed museum lover, so I was in heaven at being able to go to some of the most famous art museums in the world: the Louvre, d'Orsay, and Prado. While many, including myself, think it is rediculous to go to an art museum and spend your time taking pictures, I nonetheless do it and did it and have a lot of pictures to show for it. Here are some of my favorites from the Louvre and d'Orsay museums:

My favorite part of the Louvre was the scultpures. I spent the majority of my time perusing the collections of Greek, Roman, and especially French works. This surprised me - I never thought of myself as a lover of scultpure, but there really were some amazing pieces and I had a lot of fun looking at some of the strange, fantastial, and downright whimsical pieces.

Cupid is the man/man-child/boy of the hour at the Louvre Museum. This one was a particular favorite. The title, which is in French and I am left guessing what the official title is, is something about Cupid playing with a butterfly (I know, I am a genius to figure that out!)

This one is titled something about a water nyph and the scorpion (there is one between her feet). I want her hairstyle!

Of all the famous paintings and sculptures, this one of Psyche and Cupid is actually as amazing as the fame builds it up to be. It is such a stunning piece of sculpture. Every angle is beautiful.

The women in these two paining look so tired, as does that baby in the second, that my thoughs went to how a mother's job is never done, even when she herself is tired. I couldn't stop thinking about these two, so I had to go back and take a picture of them so I would always remember. The second one's title includes something about Italian women travelling to Rome. The first is called "The Guardian Angel."

I ran out of time at the Louvre. Well, I guess everyone does. Where I didn't have enough time was the wing which held the collection of Dutch, Flemish, and German rural life/village paintings which are my favorite thanks to the Milwaukee Art Musuem. I had so little time towards the end that I started doing run-by photography. I would catch a glimpse, think I liked it, snap a picture, and repeat. There was no time to linger and the animal portion of my brain said "you can look at them later in the pictures." Anyway, this particular grouping I found visually appealling for the 30 seconds I stood in front of it.

This was probably the funniest scultpure I've ever seen. There were a few that made me smile out loud, but this one was a hoot!
Of all the sculptures I've seen now between the three museums, this one was my favorite, and I think the winning piece of art from the whole trip. There were so many sculptures that were part onyx, part marble (or bronze). The onyx was always different from scultpure to sculpture, and I often couldn't tell how the pieces of different materials were joined together. I thought this one was particularly beautiful.

The Orsay had a huge collection of Monet's and Degas'. These two were my favorite by each.