Gray Weather at Grande Jatte
Monet, Sisley, Seurat, Van Gogh — The most famous Impressionists have painted on Île de la Jatte in Neuilly-sur-Seine and Levallois. Although the small island lies right in the outskirts of Paris, tourists stay away.
NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE, France – Wandering around Île de la Jatte in Neuilly-sur-Seine and Levallois-Perret, in the western outskirts of Paris, one might find oneself standing inside an impressionistic painting. Following a prepared path, visitors can discover the exact places where Monet, Sisley, Seurat or Van Gogh painted in their famous masterpieces, coining the impressionist scene of the nineteenth century.
Small white signs provide brief background information on the historical legacy, but some are overgrown by branches, others are only accessible on slippery mud paths. One can easily walk past them unknowingly, being distracted by oversized banners informing about regional fish species.
Each year anew, tourists crowd the flowering gardens of Claude Monet in Giverny to see his famous water lilies and the house he lived in for forty-three years. With over half a million visitors per year, Monet’s estate remains the second most visited site in Normandy after Mont Saint-Michel.
But during the Year of Impressionism, the city of Neuilly missed out on properly informing residents and tourists about their cultural heritage. Little do their website or posters in the city centre give hints about the Impressionist Year and the island’s trail.
„The artists, especially the impressionists, saw the trees, the play of light,” said Grégoire Quenault, an art professor teaching in Paris, specialized in the Avant Garde period, “They had the opportunity to look and paint.” Back in the end-18th century, the island west of Paris had a vibrant night life with many dance halls and bars for people to party and enjoy leisure time.
But today, life on the island has changed. The dancing halls have made room for fine dining restaurants with Porsche SUVs parking in the driveway. Although the island seems green and overgrown from outside, visitors will hardly find spacious picknick meadows to sit on. Only some spots hint at where Monet and his colleagues must have stood to get their inspiration.
Lolita Kesselmark, 28, lives in mainland Levallois but regularly walks her Dalmatian through the park along Île de la Jatte. “I walk here with my dog every day, but I have never stopped to read the signs,” she said, “They are too small.”
At the eastern end of the route, right at the round-about “Claude Monet” lies the restaurant “Le Petit Poucet.” Its manager Xavier Campos, 34, was not aware of the Year of Impressionism. “Most people aren’t old enough to know the history of the place,” he said, pointing to the wall with the black-and-white photographs from the time before the restaurant had opened in 1992.
Neuilly’s bordering city Levallois recently joined the label “Impressionisms Routes”, validated by the Council of Europe. Their town hall currently displays an exhibition about Levallois in the Impressionist era and appointed 2019 the “Year of Impressionism.” But only the eastern tip of the island belongs to Levallois. The biggest part, featuring most paintings of the impressionist route, is part of Neuilly. Despite repeated attempts to reach out, the city of Neuilly did not wish to comment on this.
Meanwhile, numerous art lovers crowded the fifth floor of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris to immerse themselves in the world of nineteenth century Impressionism. Carolyn Fisher, 51, and Sue Lorenz-May, 62, came all the way from Sydney to follow the paths of French impressionists. Watching George Seurat’s studies for “A Sunday afternoon on Île de la Grande Jatte,” they had no idea the place was just a short metro ride away.
“We have been to Arles to see Van Gogh’s ‘hospital garden’ and we climbed the whole [Saint-Victoire] mountain for the Cézanne route. But no, I’ve never heard of Île de la Jatte,” Fisher said.
Mr. Quenault, the art expert, describes the phenomenon of visiting places from famous paintings as “a kind of voyeurism,“ that tourist businesses can benefit from. “But Neuilly has no interest,” he said, “The city is already rich and the population wants to stay calm. They want nothing to disturb them. No noise, no young people in weird clothes.”
On the northern side of the island, Christophe Meslin, 54, quickly passed the paved road. He never noticed the Impressionist routes. “But Maison Fournaise is very well-known,” he said, referring to the location of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s famous painting “Luncheon of the boating party,” 18 kilometers west of Paris.
Gwladys Jubi, 36, who works at the office of MANE Parfums on the eastern end of the Impressionist route said she never goes there, even if she works just next to it. “Île de la Jatte is not known as the island of Impressionists,“ she said, hastily smoking her cigarette, “It’s known for being a nice neighborhood.”
