Ode to Monet

Very interesting article in the NYTimes today about the renovation of the Musée de l'Orangerie à Paris. As many times as I have been there, I never knew the history of the building. They faced their share of challenges during the renovation.

Monet's eight large waterlily paintings are housed here.

Mr. Brochet, the architect, said unexpected problems arose because, despite the Orangerie's elegant neo-Classical exterior, it was in fact constructed shoddily. "It was thrown up quickly, without proper foundations," he said. "I have just been in Shanghai. They would have torn it down and rebuilt it properly. But that would not be possible here."

A fresh complication was posed by the discovery of remnants of a 16th-century city wall in the area assigned to the new Walter-Guillaume galleries. This led to a prolonged bureaucratic squabble over how the wall should be treated: in the end, a 30-foot section has been preserved and is now incorporated into the design.

Books I would need in my library about Monet