Curls and Impressionism

When I was young I had long red curly hair. My red faded just when red became fashionable again and lots of people were dying their hair to obtain it, and I like natural color rather than dyed, so I am left with just curly hair.  But my hair isn’t curly enough to leave it naturally curly, so I blow dry it every day.  Then I walk out into the humid Paris air, and within minutes it all turns curly again!

So I was especially delighted to find out that in our area of the Île de France is known as the Boucles de Seine. I translate “boucles” as the curls of the Seine, the place the river Seine turns back and forth on its way eventually to the ocean. Nevermind that others translate “boucles” as the turns or loops of the Seine. The title “Curls of the Seine” is more picturesque for the activities that happened in this part of France.  This area was a gathering place of impressionists.

Two kilometers down the road from us is the Île des Impressionists, an island in the Seine where impressionists like Renoir, Sisley, Morisot, Pisarro, Degas, and Monet, hung around the guinguette and boat house. Now, in Chatou, our ville, and other surrounding towns, you can find signs showing you where painters put their easels to paint particular impressionist paintings.

So today, after I bought groceries and was feeling antsy in the afternoon, I suggested Phil and I find the Berthe Morisot museum, just four kilometers from our house, along the Boucles de Seine. We spent the afternoon walking around her country house, which had beautiful gardens in the back before they were razed for a new bridge and accompanying wide street.

Still, the town of Bougival has a beautiful church and quaint streets, if you ignore all the cars now taking a short cut down to the river.

The painter Berthe Morisot exhibited first in the Salon, and then she was the only woman to participate in all but one of the Impressionist Exhibitions. She chose intimate and domestic subjects, such as mothers and children, often using her sister and daughter as subjects. She married Eugéne Manet, brother to Édouard Manet. We loved seeing many of her paintings at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris.

Here are some of my favorite paintings of Morisot.

She also was a model for many paintings, most famously, for Manet, her brother-in-law.

At her house, I felt connected to her maternal, womanly side. I noticed my own emotional reactions to her paintings of women dressing because there is no voyeurism, only gentle respect of the female body. She painted from scenes around her house, often using her garden and her husband and daughter as models. What a refreshing afternoon to spend time in this creative woman’s home and take in her paintings reflecting a women’s life.

So now you can see why I love the Boucles de Seine. When I was at a salon getting my hair cut this week, the woman drying my hair mentioned my “cheveux bouclés.” It is a good thing I love curls. My hair is eternally curly, although I have passed on the red to grandchildren Sam, Anna, Sadie, Wesley, and I share it with Phil’s children Jack and Kate. 

150 years ago, Impressionism flourished here at the Boucles de Seine, and, according to the crowds at the Musée d’Orsay, it is the style people still love the most. What a privilege to live where so many painters socialized and painted, inspired by the local people, the landscape, and the Curls of the Seine.

Straight hair

Curly hair