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Paris By Day & By Night [VHS]

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"Paris by Day and by Night" is the third in a series of four lectures on the "French Impressionism: A School for Happiness" by Rosamond Bernier. The lecture is delivered by Rosamond Bernier at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, who speaks with great enthusiasm about the life of late-19th-century Paris in general and the paintings of Edgar Degas in particular. I was rather surprised that Bernier would spend more time talking about Degas in this lecture than she did Claude Monet in the previous outing, but after hearing her explain the significance of a dozen Degas paintings it is clear that there is simply more to talk about here because Degas tended to paint people while Monet was enamored with places like train stations and buildings or objects like haystacks and water lilies. But as much as this is about the artists and their works this is also about Paris, from life as it was lived behind closed doors to the night-world of theater, music halls, circus, and boulevard cafe.

Bernier was the European features editor for "Vogue" magazine in the years after World War II, where she became friends with the masters of the School of Paris such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Joan Miró. In 1955 she founded the art magazine "L'OEIL." However, just listening to her talk about these paintings is enough to convince you of her expertise. "Paris by Day and by Night" follows "The Cast of Characters" and "Modern Art and Modern Manners: 1860-1874" in this series, which is completed by "An Accessible Paradise." Of course, you should watch these in order and you should also watch each one more than once, because unlike the lectures you remember from college, these Bernier's lectures can be enjoyed repeatedly. After you finish her mini-art appreciation course on the French Impressionists you can move on to some of her other equallyl informative lectures on other types of art.