My Favorite Sculptures in le Jardin des Tuileries

Le Jardin des Tuileries, the former royal garden dated back to Catherine de Medicis in the 16th century, situates between the Louvre and Place de la Concorde, is a wonderful place for Parisians to promenade, meet, and display.

It also hosts a wonderful museum, Musée de l'Orangerie, built to host the amazing series of Claude Monet's Les Nymphéas (Water Lilies).  Besides major works by Monet, it also collected many important late 19th - early 20th century modern works (Paul Guillaume collection).

In 2000, when I visited Paris for the first time, Musée de l'Orangerie was closed for renovation and only during my second trip to Paris in 2008, was I able to see Les Nymphéas and other amazing works inside the oval-shaped museum.

Artworks in Paris were not confined inside museums, therefore we saw many sculptures in the ground of Jardin des Tuileries.

The most amazing one was a gigantic modern work, by American artist Richard Serra, Clara-Clara, which consisted of two giant curved steel plates, forming an opened doorway, echoing the carriage driveway behind it.  The sculpture sat in the center of the elongated Jardin and from the opening of the "arms", seen from the side of the reflection pond, one could see the distant obelisk in the Place de la Concorde.  Seen across the pond, one could see a tall jet of water fountain competing with the obelisk.







The fun part was walking around it, examining the changing shapes from various vantage points, and walking through the opening and to admire the "strategically placed" obelisk in the middle of the opening of the outstretching sensuous arms of Clara-Clara.


Photo courtesy: Tybo


Photo courtesy: Tybo


Photo courtesy: Tybo

The second favorite sculpture of mine in le Jardin des Tuileries was Le Baiser (The Kiss) (1934 cast of the marble original), by omnipresent Auguste Rodin. It was a typical Rodin, monumental, sensual, life-like and larger than life.  Despite the metal material, and the though marvelous but unnatural green patina, the lovers were every inch the flesh and blood beings.


Photo courtesy: Sarah Stierch

My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 76: My Favorite Drawing and Painting in Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 74: My Favorite Artwork at Musée de Cluny - Musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited  


Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:

- My Favorite Sculptures in Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris
- My Favorite Sculptures in les Jardins du Ranelag, Paris
- Richard Serra in Grand Palais, Paris
- Rodin and Richard Serra in Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
- Inside Richard Serra's Sculpture "Sequence" at Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
- Richard Serra Drawing and 2010 SECA Art Award at SFMOMA
- My Favorite Sculptures at Musée Rodin, Paris
- Revisiting Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena
- My Favorite Sculptures at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, Paris
- Art in the Streets of Shenyang, China
- A Day at Palace of Fine Arts & Crissy Field in San Francisco