The Frutch
“French, Russian, Dutch – the Great European Melting Pot.”
“What?”
“Cultural exchange! Mutual inspiration! Cross-pollination!”
My wife is accustomed to me thinking out loud. Her strategy is to ignore me until I get to the point.
“That’s what the blog’s going to be about!”
She calmly unchains her bike. We’ve just spent a couple of hours viewing the works of Gauguin, Bonnard, Denis and their contemporaries in the Hermitage Museum, occasionally catching a glimpse of the magnificent Amstel River as we strolled through the halls.
“Courses are actually Russian – did you know that?”
“What courses?”
“Amuses, hors d’oeuvres, main course, dessert – we think that’s French, but the French call it service à la russe, which means ‘Russian service’. Traditionally, the French served their food as one large buffet. But all that changed when wealthy Russians starting buying holiday homes in Paris back in the day, apparently.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I read it somewhere on the web.”
“And what does this have to do with the exhibition?”
“Well, the Hermitage in Amsterdam is like an annexe of the Hermitage in St Petersburg, which owns most of the artworks we just saw. But those paintings were created by French artists and bought by wealthy Russian collectors, who probably wanted to brighten up their long winters back home with all those warm Mediterranean colours.”
We cross the Skinny Bridge and freewheel into the narrow street beyond. We can’t cycle side by side, so I have to shout my theory over my shoulder in short bursts.
“And then there’s Tsar Peter the Great. He spent time in Amsterdam. Learning about shipbuilding. He fell out of a mast. A Dutch doctor treated him. The doctor went back to Russia with the tsar. And lots of other Dutch craftsmen went along, too. The tsar wanted to rebuild Amsterdam. In St Petersburg. He loved Holland. That’s also why the Dutch and Russian flags are so similar.”
“Are they?”
“Well, that’s one of the facts I need to check. Along with the Russian service thing. But the point is …”
We squeeze through a narrow gap between the pavement and a row of cars waiting at the traffic lights.
“… the point is: it was all a huge melting pot back then. People, artists, wanted to learn from one another. They were interested, inquisitive, not afraid. Gauguin was inspired by his trip to Tahiti. And Van Gogh was inspired by Japanese art. The Russian collectors bought their work in Paris and took it back to Russia with them. And now it’s here in Amsterdam.”
“I like Gauguin’s work most,” says my wife. “It’s as if he was in love with what he was painting.”
“I think he died of syphilis.”
“That’s not funny.”
The lights turn green and the road widens. We cycle side by side.
“So that’s what the blog is going to be about. What do you reckon?”
“Sounds like a lot to cram into such a short piece. But I’m sure you’ll find a way.”
(Gauguin, Bonnard, Denis – A Russian Taste for French Art will be on at the Hermitage in Amsterdam until 28 February 2014. The painting above, “Sacred Spring”, painted by Paul Gauguin in 1894, is part of the exhibition.)
