Pictures of Perfection

Think I'll begin with this Picture of the Perfect Patisserie, the phrase referring both to the little gateau above AND the magasin nearby. I stopped recently to buy from the Academie Patisserie and was delighted to find an example of pink grapefruit, a favourite fruit, used in a confection. This little shop is full of amazing tartlets and sweetmeats and must be one of the best in Brugge, at the very peak, in fact. It is just round the corner from a more famous, larger [and also gorgeous] patisserie, Van Mullem, where crowds sit on the pavement terrace and the inner temple is always full. The large window spaces are poems to the confectioner's art and seduce the eye of the passer-by, even that of the puritanically-inclined [in dietary terms] Both places are testimony to the wider art of Bruges.

Quite forgot in the last blog to mention the two important purchases at the Brocante in late March where I attempted to sell some surplus pictures. One was an antique map of Brugge, subsequently covered by the generous cheque from the Jane Austen Branch in Kent as a 'retirement' gift. It is from the Flandria Illustrata of 1649, by Antonius Sonderus and is detailed with such tiny writing that I have to keep a magnifying glass to hand to decipher it but it is such a privilege to have it there in my sitting room with me as a temporary custodian.

This is the best picture I can manage; doesn't do the map justice at all but it does convey the extraordinary detail of the engraving.

My second Brocante purchase was equally, though differently, thrilling to yours truly. I had never heard of James Ensor till perhaps four or five years ago; he was an artist, born of English parents, who lived almost his whole life in Ostend [his dates were 1860-1949] but he eventually, belatedly, became famous as 'a forerunner of twentieth century Expressionism'. I visited the James Ensor Museum in Ostend three years ago with a girlfriend from Florence who is an artist. I loved some of his work; he was an innovator, often grotesquely so. Anyway to the point. In the Flea Market in March, there was a print of a drawing of James Ensor which was quite special. The original charcoal line portrait had been done by David Lang in 1926 then subsequently the same artist had created prints of it; the one I bought, slightly scruffy, was the artist's proof and is dedicated to the 'Marquise Massoni avec mon plus respect et tout ma reconnaissance. Bruxelles le 20 Okt 1951'. As I managed to negotiate a reduced price of 125 euros, think I got a bit of a prize which cheers me even more each time I look at it. The picture appeals both to the aesthetic and the historian in me.

I'm making this issue a testament to the fact that I have joined the Gadarene swine in their rush towards rampant materialism! After WEEKS of dithering, for I need extra furniture not at all, I have given in to the base desire to possess and place a venerable old [circa 1900] Chinese chest of drawers. I knew it would be perfection in the bathroom [though I might yet move it into the corridor]
and it is. It arrived on Thursday evening delivered by the owner's wife [who gamely struggled] and his grand-daughter, the latter observing that her family had a similar one in their bathroom. This in answer to my diffidence about it being 'in the right place'. Here it is.

And this image doesn't do justice to the subtleties of tone and texture!

But I must stop and prepare for a guest, an old friend of Eric's, en route as I write to a short stay here for three nights, on his way to Germany from the US via the UK. Think my living in Brugge will be a similar story to the nine months I spent in Florence when I happily entertained many visitors, attracted alas, not by my personal magnetism, but the opportunity for free accommodation in a
beautiful destination!!