Ever since Robert Delaunay, we “have not been able to see the city from a naturalistic perspective,” wrote art critic Theodor Däubler in 1911 with regard to the painter’s first Eiffel Tower paintings. “Entire rows of houses cringe as if they had been bent. It is as if we were driving past them in sharp curves on an express train.” Delaunay himself, born in Paris in 1885, referred to the work simply as the “barometer of my art.” He found in it “the entire poetry of modern life”. And that is not all: For him, the Eiffel Tower and the universe were one and the same. The artists dedicated more than 20 paintings to his favorite motif, illustrating the landmark and surrounding buildings from different perspectives. Most of them portray the Eiffel Tower from a bird’s eye view in sharp, colored lines, architecturally intact, firmly anchored in the ground. And yet everything appears to be caught in motion. Our gaze skims silently across the Eiffel Tower, as if we were sitting on a blimp. The geometric ornamental patters of Champ de Mars unfurl behind it. The tower’s delicately intertwined net of metal struts blends harmoniously into the green of the park, combining nature and technology to create an esthetic whole. The “Tour Eiffel” painting can still be seen in the exhibition “From Henri Matisse to Louise Bourgeois – The Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris as Guest of Kunsthalle Würth” until 15 September 2019.
Eiffel Tour (1926), Oil on canvas, Musée d‘Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
FELIX from Kupferzell, Germany, 9 years
FELIX AND THE EIFFEL TOWER
I like the picture. Especially the colors, they’re so bright! But you can still recognize the Eiffel Tower right away. It looks pretty, standing there on its four legs, with a round arch at the bottom and lots of spikes on top in the tower. I know the Eiffel Tower because my grandma sent me a photo of herself in front of the Eiffel Tower during a visit to Paris with her friends. She also told me that it was only supposed to last twenty years. Now it’s been there for over one hundred years. High as a skyscraper, even if it’s no longer the tallest building in the world by far. The tallest is 828 meters.
The painter must have painted the Eiffel Tower from the air because you look at it diagonally from above. I’m sure you have a great view of the city from up there.
