Thursday, July 31, 2014

Jardin Cavelier de La Salle Paris, France.

Beautiful stone sculpture made by Charles Alphonse Achilles Gumery called La Nuit, Night. There is also the stone sculpture made by Gustave Grauk in 1870 called, Le Crépuscule, Twilight.

Did you know that Paris has a garden named after the French explorer that claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for France? I first visited here on my first trip to Paris in 1996 and could not wait to get back to this lovely garden. This Garden is named after René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de La Salle (November 21, 1643 – March 19, 1687) was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for France.

The garden have lawns and are planted with four rows of chestnut trees which are sharply trimmed in the classic French-style providing shaded walkways.

The garden are also planted with flower beds that surround several statues by the most famous sculptors of the Second Empire.


Stone sculpture created by Jean-Joseph Perraud during 1870-1875 called Le Jour, Day, and a sculpture made of stone by François Jouffroy called L'Aurore, Dawn, created during 1870-1875.


The celebrated Fontaine des Quatre Parties du Monde, Fountain of the Four Parts of the World. It was designed and supervised by Gabriel Davioud and it was created during 1867-1874.

It is a collective work portraying in bronze four continents of the world; Asia, Europe, Africa and America. Asia is represented by the figure of a Chinese woman; Europe is represented by the figure of a white woman; Africa is represented by the figure of a black woman and America is represented by the female figure of an American Indian. These were created by Jean Baptiste Carpeaux.

It also has the figures of eight dolphins, horses and tortoises made by Emmanuel Frémiet. The garlands surrounding the pedestal were done by Luis Vuillemot. The sphere was created by Pierre Legrain. The sculpture was foundried by Matifat in 1873 and it was constructed in 1874.

 Asia, Europe, Africa and America. Asia is represented by the figure of a Chinese woman; Europe is represented by the figure of a white woman; Africa is represented by the figure of a black woman and America is represented by the female figure of an American Indian. These were created by Jean Baptiste Carpeaux.

 Asia, Europe, Africa and America. Asia is represented by the figure of a Chinese woman; Europe is represented by the figure of a white woman; Africa is represented by the figure of a black woman and America is represented by the female figure of an American Indian. These were created by Jean Baptiste Carpeaux.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Hôtel de Sully in the Marais Paris, France.

The Hôtel de Sully is a hôtel particulier, or private mansion, in the Louis XIII style, located in the Le Marais, IV arondissement, Paris. It is located at 62 rue Saint-Antoine. Twin sphinxes face each other at the foot of the staircase leading out of the courtyard.


The financier Mesme Gallet built the hôtel, with gardens and an orangery, between 1625 and 1630. The building was designed by the architect Jean Androuet du Cerceau. The site was chosen to give access to the Place Royale - today the Place des Vosges - and was located in the Marais, at the time a fashionable district of Paris.


Detail of the decoration

Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully, former Superintendent of Finances to King Henri IV, purchased it on 23 February 1634. He completed the decoration of the hôtel, and spent his last years living there. His grandson Maximilien commissioned the architect François Le Vau, son of Louis Le Vau, to build an additional wing in 1660, to the west of the garden. The Hôtel de Sully still bears the name of this family, who owned the building into the 18th century.

he cobblestone-paved front courtyard features a celebrated series of sculptures representing the four elements and the two seasons. 




The hôtel then passed through the hands of various owners, becoming an investment property in the 19th century. Various additions and alterations were made, to accommodate trades, craftsmen and other tenants. In 1862 it was classified as a monument historique, and new owners, more concerned with conservation, gradually restored the building. It became a state-owned property in 1944. A long restoration programme was then undertaken, which was completed with the repair of the Orangery in 1973.



Since 1967 it has been the home of the Caisse nationale des monuments historiques et des sites, which in 2000 became the Centre des monuments nationaux. This public body, under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, is responsible for the management of historic buildings and monuments in state care.


On the left there is the presence of a fox wall, blind arches.

Hôtel de Sully, Garden and Orangerie




Detail of the decoration



Hôtel de Sully, Garden and Orangerie


Through the central portal, go to the side garden. And what a garden! 
Admire the façade of this side vested in abundance and pleasure, therefore bringing the statues of beautiful seasons. On the left there is the presence of a fox wall, blind arches. A right wing was built at right angles to the second Duchesse de Sully, Charlotte Seguier by François Le Vau, in the late seventeenth century.

 architectural sculpture in the garden of the Hôtel de Sully


The Air and Fire adorn the left side, while Earth and Water are right. These high reliefs reminiscent of Carnavalet, attributed to Jean Goujon, made ​​about a century before ... The floating a little style, the position of imbalance are a nod to mannerism. The abundant decoration, many masks, foliage and stone lingeries are in the baroque tone. However, the regularity and symmetry of the building are all classics. This hotel is therefore at the edge of the baroque and classical records.

Hôtel de Sully, Garden and Orangerie


The façade of the Galerie Véro-Dodat

The façade of the Galerie Véro-Dodaton circa 1826 on the Rue Bouloi is decorated with two statues in niches representing Hermes with his winged helmet and a Caduceus hand, god of merchants, and Hercules dressed in the skin of Nemean lion.

This morning I walked by my favorite covered passage in Paris, France. The Galerie Véro-Dodat. Located in the 1st arrondissement, connecting the Rue de Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Rue de Croix-des-Petits-Champs. It was built in 1826. 

Véro-Dodat was one of the first of Paris's passageways to get gas lighting in 1830, and one of the last to fall into decline. Its decline began during the Second Empire with the demise of the Messageries Laffitte et Gaillard. It was listed as a French historical landmark on June 9, 1965, and was restored in 1997 to its former nineteenth-century, neo-classical glory, complete with its elegant shops specializing in antiques, objets d’art, art books and fashion accessories.


The Galerie is neoclassical in style, with marble columns, gold trim, frescoes, and a black and white tiled floor. The passage is arranged to give an illusion of depth, the diagonal grid of black and white tiles, the low height of the ceiling decorated with paintings of landscapes where it is not glass, for shops on the alignment of a strict horizontal plane. The entries in the gallery are ionic arcades closed by gates. Entries are crowned with a balcony. The façade of the gallery on the Rue Bouloi is decorated with two statues in niches representing Hermes with his winged helmet and a Caduceus hand, god of merchants, and Hercules dressed in the skin of Nemean lion.


Galerie Véro-Dodat is filled with mostly high-caliber, designer boutiques and antique shops. Among them are two Christian Louboutin stores, the women's Paris flagship boutique, and the world's first CL Men's store, Boutique Homme.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse - Portrait De Monsieur Holstein, Grand-père De Monsieur Feraud 1818

Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse, Portrait of Baron Rene Hyacinthe Holstein, 1818

Philippe de Champaigne : Le Bon Pasteur. Jésus

Philippe de Champaigne : Le Bon Pasteur. Jésus

Shepherd Boy by Bertel Thorvaldsen 1817

Shepherd Boy by Bertel Thorvaldsen 1817 

Thursday, July 17, 2014

My latest masterpiece "Creole Apothecary"

Creole Apothecary by Andrew LaMar Hopkins 

Over a month ago I got the ideal to paint a 18th century New Orleans Creole Apothecary. I had to imagine what it might have looked like. Like the famous Renaissance artist Michelangelo who once said “In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.”  It is the same with me and canvas. I get visions and it is my work and job to release it with paint. I'm always working on 30 paintings at the same time as I get tired working on one at a time. 


At the end of finishing my Saint Joseph Altar painting I got the vision to paint Creole Apothecary. I had to start it on the same date. I did not have any fresh canvas in the size I wanted to paint it on so I gessoed a old canvas I had started to paint that I would most likely not finish. I had recently seen photo's of the beautiful  La chapelle des Carmélites in Toulouse, France. I loved the color schemes of the interior of the chapelle. I wanted the interior of this painting to be grand! Apothecary's like banks of the period were built and decorated to be imposing and impressive. Just by looking at a exterior or interior you were suppose to be impressed into spending your money in a beautiful place like the Apothecary depicted in my painting.  

 La chapelle des Carmélites in Toulouse, France. Inspiration for wood work in Creole Apothecary 

La chapelle des Carmélites in Toulouse, France. Inspiration for wood work in Creole Apothecary

La chapelle des Carmélites in Toulouse, France. Inspiration for wood work in Creole Apothecary

French Ionic capital with hanging flower garlands and Scamozzi-style volutes.

 During the mid 18th century New Orleans and Louisiana had new levels of prosperity. Louisiana realized increases in both trade and population due primarily to the arrival of an ancestor of mine Pierre de Vandreuil Governor of Louisiana from 1743-1753. Vaudreuil was popular with the upper-class colonist and French officials for his elegant manners. He frequently sponsored balls, dinners and other social events.  During this period New Orleans was know as the Paris in the Swamp. The panting depicts a elegantly appointed Apothecary of about 1785.  The cabinets and shelves have gilded  French Ionic columns and capitals with hanging garlands and Scamozzi-style volutes. The paneled cabinets are painted a dusty blue and marbleized trimmed with gilt and dark blue doors.  The baseboards of the case pieces are marbleized to look like Black Egyptian gold veined marble.

The shelves are lined with faïence blue decorated  tin-glazed pottery Pharmacy jars as well as glass jars. On the upper shelves are French 17th century pendent portraits of Christ and the Virgin Mary in ornate gold gilt frames with altar urns with carved gilded flowers on each side of the portraits. In the center of the shelves is a taxidermy alligator and lizard bringing  in the exotic. Louisiana has long captured America’s and Europe's imagination with its beautiful bayous, delicious cuisine and abundant wildlife. Stories about the alligator (or “crocodile,” as the French called them) began to appear in print soon after the Sieurd’Iberville established the Louisiana colony in 1699.

In fact, one of the first mentions of our alligator can be found in Iberville’s diary.  “We see a large quantity of crocodiles,” he wrote while exploring Bayou Manchac. “I killed a small one, 8 feet long. They are very good to eat.” Andre Penicaut accompanied Iberville on the expedition, and he claimed that one of the first places in Louisiana the French named was the Riviere-aux-Chiens "because a crocodile ate up one of our dogs there." This stream is modern-day Dog River in Mobile, Alabama the first capital of French Louisiana. Le Page DuPratz, another early explorer, frequently mentioned the alligator in his memoirs. According to DuPratz, they were not only widespread but downright huge. "Among other things I cannot omit to give an account of a monstrous large alligator I killed with a musquet (sic) ball …," he wrote. "We measured it, and found it to be 19 feet long, its head 3 feet and a half long … at the belly it was 2 feet, 2 inches thick…. M. Mehane told me, he had killed one that was 22 feet long."


 The the Apothecarist hands a bill to a Gentleman as his sick Creole Free lady of color gaze off with a sick expression holding her fan. 


 In the center of the shelves is a carved wood Louis XVI  frame with cobalt background with gilt letters "Apothecary La Nouvelle-Orléans". Under the frame a Neoclassical  wrought iron safe door holds valuables related to the Apothecary trade under lock and key. In the center of the wrought iron is a  caduceus. It is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology. The Caduceus as a symbol of medicine where it was sometimes associated with alchemy and wisdom. Under the wrought iron safe door is a faïence blue decorated water cistern and green glasses. On ether end of the counter are a pair of Louis  XVI style  Argand lamps. The Argand lamp is a lighting oil lamp producing a light output of 6 to 10 candelabra which was invented and patented in 1780 by Aimé Argand. 

Aside from the improvement in brightness, the more complete combustion of the wick and oil required much less frequent trimming of the wick. In France, they are known as "Quinquets" after Antoine-Arnoult Quinquet, a pharmacist in Paris, who used the idea originated by Argand and popularized it in France. He is sometimes credited with the addition of the glass chimney to the lamp. A English pottery Leech jar also sits on the counter. The European medical leech Hirudo medicinalis and some congeners, as well as some other species, have been used for clinical bloodletting for thousands of years. The use of leeches in medicine dates as far back as 2,500 years ago. 

If you came into apothecary one of the first things that would be done to you was bloodletting a very common practice from the late 19th century back. All sickness was thought to come from bad blood. If you were sick releasing some of the bad blood  was thought to be beneficial to the body and could cure or prevent illness and disease. Bloodletting was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily fluid were regarded as "humors" that had to remain in proper balance to maintain health. It was the most common medical practice performed by physicians from antiquity until the late 19th century, a span of almost 2,000 years. We now know  in the overwhelming majority of cases, the historical use of bloodletting was harmful to patients.


A elegantly dressed Lady stands at the counter as a young assistant gazes off  behind the counter.

18th century French fashion print. 

In the center of the room we have a gilt wood Louis XVI piece of furniture called a Athenienne.  The design was a French twist on a classical piece, which made its appearance in France around 1773. The essential pedestal table is supported by a tripod base.  You can have them in your living room or any room where you might entertain. "The multi-purpose athénienne was intended for entertaining in the salon or boudoir and was accordingly fitted with casters and an ormolu-mounted patinated copper cassolette, silvered on the inside and containing a removable spirit lamp, above which was set a tin-plated double boiler, surmounted by a marble slab and a patinated copper cover.

The uses of the Athénienne were eight:

as an ornament and focal point in the middle of a room
as a table under a pier mirror , or in a corner, or as a pedestal to support a candelabrum or a piece of sculpture
as a perfume burner as used in the painting 
as a heater for making coffee, tea, or chocolate
as a goldfish bowl
as a planter to grow bulbs in winter
as a bowl for cut flowers
as a device for keeping bouillon or other drinks warm."

 A English pottery Leech jar also sits on the counter. 

To the left of the painting a fashionably dressed Free man of color apprentice crushes herbs in a Mortar with a  Pestle on a Louisiana French styled cabriole leg table a preparation table where the medicine was mixed on prescription. A elegantly dressed Lady stands at the counter as a young assistant gazes off  behind the counter . The the Apothecarist hands a bill to a Gentleman as his sick Creole Free lady of color gaze off with a sick expression holding her fan. An Apothecarist was one trained and skilled in the arts of formal medicine. Though not as highly regarded as a physician, these workers devoted their time and studies to the arts of healing. Trained physicians were expensive and usually only retained and hired by kings, nobles and the elite. Therefore the Apothecarist served the common people. Commonly a monk or priest held the position and most available remedies came from the natural uses of plants, herbs and roots. It is believed that most of these practical applications were first discovered by the Celts and Druids. 

A fashionably dressed Free man of color apprentice crushes herbs in a Mortar with a  Pestle on a Louisiana French styled cabriole leg table a preparation table where the medicine was mixed on prescription.

A early Louisiana French styled cabriole leg table 


 In the center of the shelves is a taxidermy alligator and lizard bringing  in the exotic. Louisiana has long captured America’s and Europe's imagination with its beautiful bayous, delicious cuisine and abundant wildlife. Stories about the alligator (or “crocodile,” as the French called them) began to appear in print soon after the Sieurd’Iberville established the Louisiana colony in 1699. In fact, one of the first mentions of our alligator can be found in Iberville’s diary.  “We see a large quantity of crocodiles,” he wrote while exploring Bayou Manchac. “I killed a small one, 8 feet long. They are very good to eat.” Andre Penicaut accompanied Iberville on the expedition, and he claimed that one of the first places in Louisiana the French named was the Riviere-aux-Chiens "because a crocodile ate up one of our dogs there." This stream is modern-day Dog River in Mobile, Alabama the first capital of French Louisiana. Le Page DuPratz, another early explorer, frequently mentioned the alligator in his memoirs. According to DuPratz, they were not only widespread but downright huge. "Among other things I cannot omit to give an account of a monstrous large alligator I killed with a musquet (sic) ball …," he wrote. "We measured it, and found it to be 19 feet long, its head 3 feet and a half long … at the belly it was 2 feet, 2 inches thick…. M. Mehane told me, he had killed one that was 22 feet long."

18th century engraving showing a alligator 

18th century German spice sign showing the exotic. A plumed African, China-man and hanging Alligator  

A 17th century European Apothecary showing a lady having bloodletting done to her, not the hanging Alligator.  


The shelves are lined with faïence blue decorated  tin-glazed pottery Pharmacy jars as well as glass jars. On the upper shelves are French 17th century pendent portraits of Christ and the Virgin Mary in ornate gold gilt frames with altar urns with carved gilded flowers on each side of the portraits. 

French 17th century portrait of Christ 

Detail of gold gilt frame 

faïence blue decorated  tin-glazed pottery Pharmacy jars


faïence blue decorated  tin-glazed pottery Pharmacy jars


faïence blue decorated  tin-glazed pottery Pharmacy jars




18th century Brass Scale

 Louis  XVI style Argand lamps. 





An Apothecarist who was a member of a religious order often charged a donation to his sect for his services. A layman who served in the same occupation could charge whatever fees he or she wanted.  Ironically New Orleans had the first licensed pharmacist in the United States. In the early 19th Century when the Americans took charge of New Orleans (and the rest of the Louisiana Purchase) in 1803 and William C.C. Claiborne took over as Governor of the Louisiana Territory. 

In 1804, Claiborne approved an order that established a licensing exam for pharmacists. The Louisiana legislature re-affirmed this with a law after becoming a state in 1812. In 1816, Louis Dufilho, Jr., a resident of New Orleans, passed an exam administered by a board of experienced professionals at the Cabildo, becoming the first licensed pharmacist in the United States.  To add to the list of early pharmaceutical remedies, Voodoo potions were sold on the down-low in New Orleans pharmacies, and the recipes were taught to the pharmacists by local voodoo priestesses. Dufilho studied European medicine in Paris, but it appears he learned much from the African population in New Orleans. 



Creole Apothecary by Andrew LaMar Hopkins 

The painting is available for purchase here https://squareup.com/market/andrew-hopkins

You can follow my art on facebook here https://www.facebook.com/andrewhopkinsfolkart

Creole Apothecary 20x16 on Square Market