Most museums encourage artists to come in and draw or paint from their works. I often go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my sketchbook to draw and always learn a great deal. I love to see other artists working from the masters… it restores my faith in others who are looking for beauty in this world.
The Louvre in Paris has been host to artists since they opened. There are 150 easels that you can reserve to paint from their collection, but the waiting list to do so is 1 year long. There is one special easel… it’s the easel that Cezanne would use when he came into paint. It is still there, but you cannot use it. Cezanne once famously said: “The Louvre is the book from which we learn to read.”
Picasso also painted at the Louvre and painted a fantastical version of Eugene Delacroix’s “Women of Algiers.” “That bastard,” Picasso reportedly said of Delacroix. “He’s really good!”
Kind of fun to think that the great Picasso had trouble copying another artist!
