A crazy dream of mine is to one day be rich enough that I can rent out the entire Musée de l’Orangerie to myself and then just lie down in the oval room that contains Monet’s Water Lilies in complete solitude.

If you’re dying of the summer heat like I am, my advice to you is to go to a museum.

The Musée de l’Orangerie is one of my favorite museums in Paris because it’s cool and bright, never too crowded, and I feel like if I sit and stare at the Water Lily paintings long enough I could actually fall into them.

Along with going to see an old favorite, I also got to explore an artist I had never heard of today at an exposition at the Musée de l’Orangerie–the Italian sculptor Adolfo Wildt.

I really enjoyed the way his pieces interacted with the lighting at the exhibit to create cool shadows, making them a bit more haunting.

Wildt was a sculptor in the late 19th Century and often drew inspiration from Renaissance paintings, as well as Romanticism and Art Nouveau. The facial expressions of his sculptures were sometimes rather disturbing and mask-like or they were completely serene and smooth.

Also, in celebration of the Supreme Court’s announcement today, I thought I would post this bit of street art I stumbled upon in the 13th arrondissement that seemed fitting:

Stay cool

and gay.

XOLily