Bonjour! This week’s carte postale features “La liseuse” (The Reader) by French painter, Jean-Jacques Henner (1829-1905).
Apart from the beautiful image of a woman reading in the nude, the model’s bright red hair caught my eye as I spotted the linen postcard at a local antique shop.
The caption on the back of the undated postcard seems to indicate that it was printed in 1981 or prior since the original painting was part of the Louvre’s collection from 1909-1981. Until 2016, the oil-on-canvas painting was at the Musée d’Orsay.
Speaking of Musée d’Orsay, its current director, Laurence des Cars was recently appointed as the new president-director of the Louvre beginning September 2021 — the first time it will be headed by a woman!
Over the years, I have accumulated hundreds of postcards from around the world, which I’ve either purchased from my local antique shops or received from thoughtful jet-setting family and friends who know I collect them. When I travel, I also like to send myself a carte postale just for fun!
I hope these postcards will make you want to revisit a favorite vacation spot or to embark on a journey to the destination of your dreams (when it’s safe to travel freely again, of course!)
And if you’ve been to the Musée d’Orsay and/or the Louvre, tell me about your experience there – I’d love to hear from you.
Until the next Wednesday Postcard, take care!
Bonjour: A Francophile Blog 
What a great image and an artist that I was not previously aware of! Thanks for sharing this! 🙂
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I’m glad you liked the postcard! 🙂
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I did! 🙂
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Did you know that there is an entire “national museum” in the 17th arrondissement of Paris devoted to the works of Jean-Jacques Henner? Neither did I, until I realized that I had hardly anything in my blog about the 17th, so I did some clicking around (what we quaintly used to call ‘research’) and came across this museum: https://operasandcycling.com/jean-jacques-who/ .
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I did read about the Musée National Jean-Jacques Henner, but was unclear about the location of the original “La Liseuse” — was it there, in someone’s private collection, or still at the Musée d’Orsay? Thanks for sharing the link to your post. Reading it piqued my curiosity, so I’ll add this museum to my itinerary for the next time I visit Paris.
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What a beautiful postcard! I’ve been lucky enough to visit the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay and I definitely prefer the Musée d’Orsay. What about you?!
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I’m happy you like the postcard! I hear only the best things about Musée d’Orsay — I drove by it a few times, does that count? 😉 Kidding aside, it’s on my list for my next trip to Paris (don’t know yet when that’ll be!) I’d also like to visit the Louvre again and take my time and not rush through it!
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What a postcard. Really enjoyed our visit to the Louvre.and the Musee d’Orsay
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