Water

In the Museum in Gorinchem I saw this realistic painting from the 17th century by an unknown artist. "The water is flowing through the broken dike. Several houses are flooded already and people try desperately to save themselves. The gentlemen on the left side are talking about how to handle this disaster". This is what the text to the painting says.

Outside the museum there was water too, no flooding but a lot of rain. So unfortunately no pictures of the pretty old city and its ramparts.

And we drove back home.

Chairs

Some quotes on the wall at the exhibition "Van stoelen bezeten" (Obsessed with chairs) in the "Gorcums Museum".

Here some examples of the exhibit.

This one I liked very much, you can change the back to get a lazy seat. It was made in 1908 by Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), an Austrian architect and designer and fellow founder of the "Wiener Werkstatte". He called it a "Sitting Machine"!

I preferred the old chairs like this one from the thirties, made by Marcel Breuer (1901-1981), a Hongarian/ American architect who fled for the Nazis to London.

I shouldn't know how to get in or out this modern wobbly one.

Linking to Signs, signs

Meet Napoleon

Last Sunday I visited a museum in the little village Gorinchem. We went for a special exhibition about chairs,  which I will show you later. But wandering through the other parts of the museum I was suddenly face to face with French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte! A waxwork which looked so real as if he just sat there for a moment.

The sign explains that Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) after he made a meteoric career in the French Revolution,  declared himself emperor of France and in 1810 he added the kingdom of Holland to France. In 1811 he visited Holland and amongst others Gorinchem. He inspects the ramparts and recognizes the strategic importance of Gorinchem which he calls " the key of Holland".

From 1813 France is getting further reduced by its enemies. In April 1814 Napoleon was eventually deposited. A year on he returns but is defeated in the battle of Waterloo. His last years he lives banned on a lonely island Sint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.