Rodin

Our team left Marrakech for Paris, which is the ultimate way to travel from one exotic metropolis to another. Stylish Heath reporters are in the City of Light checking out Le Musée de Rodin located at the Hôtel Biron on the rue de Varenne, while several of us went to New York City to explore the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth to review the Rodin exhibit before it left yesterday.

{The top photo from Le Musée de Rodin garden is of “Le Penseur” [The Thinker] 1902, bronze-and the next image is “Adam”– a bronze cast in 1910 from The Met}

Our plan is to divide between two continents, while dealing with the assigned topic, and examining the extraordinary range of work from Auguste Rodin, the only sculptor of modern age to be on par with Michelangelo.

A consummate draughtsman and sculptor, Rodin’s most famous works were his Age of Bronze, The Thinker, The Kiss, and Monument to Balzac.

The Age of Bronze is where Rodin began his career, his first succès de scandale. The statue though unconventional in its lack of a specific subject, reflected in the number of different titles Rodin would give, and the immediacy of the strained but graceful body of the ‘common man’ aroused suspicion and disapproval. Official protest caused accusations that Rodin used life casts, but all had been proved wrong not so much by the photographs of the model, but for the artist reputation as an excellent modeler.

Stay stylish,
K

Jardins Majorelle

Several of our reporters are in Marrakech to experience the atmosphere and history of this former imperial city in western Morocco. This is truly an exotic place to visit if you are seeking an indulgent time. Crafts from the souks with narrow winding streets contain a massive range of items; pottery, leather goods to open-air butchers and specialized traders. The Majorelle Jardin is a two and half-acre botanical garden created by French artist, Jacques Majorelle. The property features a Cubist villa designed by French architect, Paul Sinoir in the 1930’s, and in the 1980’s fashion designers, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge, purchased the estate.

Surrounded by vast palm groves the medina {a non-European quarter of a North African town} in Marrakech is called the “red city” because of the beaten clay used in buildings and ramparts. And, camels  are an important part of tourism, as their allure conjures images of those who trekked across the desert, traversing the sands of time.

Travel stylishly,
K