Beaux arts in Dijon - great museum

medieval art

Dear all, if you ever travel across France, please visit Dijon. I booked a hotel there only to take a pause in the 14-hour drive from southern France back to Amsterdam - but it was one of the best experiences in my holidays. The museum of fine arts was right across the hotel, free of charge, and clearly arranged by people who know what painting is about.

There was some very nice medieval art, of which a special feature struck me: the humanliveliness and story-telling qualities of the works. It made me feel like: the people of this time live like shadows, compared to the full soul-life of the medieval inhabitants of Dijon. (OK, maybe it says something about me as well, after all I was on holidays).

Niche with Egyptian eyes

But the best part for me was the attic with modern paintings. There were a lot of "lesser" works from great masters, but the choice of works seemed to tell a story about the development of painting, as seen from within, from a painter's point of view. Unexpected things were to be seen, like a scene from an egyptian tomb, bare underpaintings and other deviant works of the great masters, but also a very nice Redon. It was really inspiring, never I was in a place where I felt painting is actually understood. For art students this museum really is a treasure-cabin. I really felt like I was understood and inspired, the museum felt like a place to dwell for the creative spirit.
About the egyptian scene up here - no artist was mentioned. It was a hole in the wall, with the sculptures of a polar bear and two snails, and two Egyptian eyes on sticks. I'm not good at french but the text was like: "lifelike reconstruction of scene from egyptian tomb".  Very puzzling, because it looked like a great surrealist artwork, and it was situated between other early 20th century work.

There were other museums as well, of the sculptor Francois Rude (french pronunciation...), a famous artist in the more classical style, early 19th century. Some work of his is in the fine art museum as well.

Dijon has a special atmosphere. In the middle ages, it was the capitol of the huge Burgundy empire (now I understand the color name burgundy). In my language, the term "burgundic" is also used for the best and super-rich meals.  The town center consists of a few dozen streets that are all equally beautiful. The houses are very rich and beautiful in their design, the town looks very much like this typical medieval fairy tale film decor - but it's real. This look must  have inspired the shop-owners, because there's a special kind  of design to be found in Dijon: the friendly kind of alternative fairy-tale and fantasy stuff that really warms the soul. But also the regular classy shops (like Pimkie, Kenzo and other designer stuff) were very nice. And in between there were shops with seemingly equally good designs, only with prices much lower. The shop on this picture was about cats and the fairy-tale design I mentioned, clothing of brands like Bohemian, and some nice sculpture as well.

We didn't have time for the rest of Dijons culture, that was a pity. I did look through the flyers for film, theater and opera - very promising. There was a lot being programmed - theatre, opera and art-house movies that draw a smaller but more refined public. It seems as if Dijon is the hidden cultural capitol of northern France. Paris is nice, but too big for the artistic soul life. Art and Cultural creatives who are just a bit too gentle to survive in a big city, seem to find a good place to dwell in Dijon.