Take Line 12 from Montparnasse to Place de la Concorde, transfer to Line 1, and arrive at the Louvre Museum Station.
As students of art academies, both Cheng Kesong and Hugo are no strangers to the Louvre. At the beginning of the first-year preparatory class, the teacher of the outdoor sketching class brought them to the Louvre to do sketching.
But at that time, they mostly painted the outer buildings of the Louvre and the sculptures displayed in the museum, and did not pay much attention to the steps.
The two walked up the stairs to the ground. Cheng Kesong put his palms over his eyes to hide a shadow, and looked up at the subway exit with a distinctive French Art Nouveau style metal arch.
On the edge of the dark green handrail, two uprights like flower branches stretch upwards. The column is bifurcated from the middle, and the top of the inner extension is retracted inward, forming a rounded arc, spit out two flower buds to the center, and a thin beam, encircling an oval plaque. The outer part is slim and supports two tulip-like corollas, drooping slightly, and the stamens contain orange light bulbs, which are actually two street lamps.
The carvings on the arches and handrails are modeled after flowers and insects, and the smooth curves meander like the entrance to a dream garden.
"These subway entrances were designed by Hector Guimard, and now there are not many preserved in Paris." Hugo said, "They have been included in the French Historic Monument Register and have become a very representative landscape of Paris. ."
"It's really good, but it doesn't seem to match our theme." Cheng Kesong laughed.
Hugo shrugged. "Well, our focus is on the steps. Go, go to the Louvre."
It is June, the season when tourists gradually begin to increase. The Louvre's Glass Pyramid Square is full of tourists, who gather together or take pictures in twos and threes against the waterhole beneath the pyramid. The crowd is full of people, accompanied by the chirping voices, under the blue sky and white clouds and some warm sunshine, it looks full of vitality.
Cheng Kesong followed Hugo through the crowd of tourists and finally walked into the entrance of the Louvre Hall.
The hall was also overcrowded, and the line at the ticket office was extremely long. Fortunately, the two did not have to line up with the large number of tourists in the tour group. They followed the line of individual tourists and soon reached the ticket booth.
"Hello, we are students of the Academy of Fine Arts and need two tickets."
Hugo said, and handed in their student ID cards.
In Paris, many museums and galleries are free to students, and the Louvre is one of them. Cheng Kesong and Hugo can exchange their student ID cards for admission tickets, and they can enter the regular exhibition area with drawing boards and brushes to view the exhibits at any time.
The regular exhibitions of the Louvre are distributed from the first basement to the third floor above the ground, and are divided into six exhibition areas. The space here is huge and there are many exhibits. If every piece of work is carefully viewed, I am afraid that it will not be finished in a few years. In addition to regular exhibitions, there are sometimes limited-time loan exhibitions or private exhibitions in the Louvre, which cost money to see.
Cheng Kesong and Hugo aimed at the steps inside the Louvre, and the regular exhibition area was more than enough for them.
Hugo took the sketchbook out of his bag, looked at the crowd around him, and frowned slightly.
"We have to avoid these tourists."
"Agreed. Let's not go to Venus and Mona Lisa." Cheng Kesong said, "That's an exhibit everyone wants to see."
Hugo nodded: "Find an atrium."
The roads in the Louvre are intricate, but the two have come a lot, and soon found an inaccessible atrium.
Entering from the arch, the first thing you see is the four huge sculptures standing here - the sculptures stand on the high stone platform, and it is four horses of different shapes. Looking up from a low place, I only felt that the horses were dynamic and majestic.
"I remember this sculpture! That painting of yours was posted in the hallway for two weeks... Is this the angle where you painted it?"
Hugo walked up the steps excitedly, looking up at the horse sculpture in the southeast corner.
There was no direct sunlight here, and the slightly blue sky poured down from the ceiling and fell on Hugo's delicate face. A pair of light brown eyes reflected the somewhat cold sky at this time, showing a strange olive green.
"If I remember correctly, it's at the corner of the steps above." Cheng Kesong replied.
"I can always see your paintings posted in the corridors. You seem to be omnipotent in this regard." Hugo smiled and turned his head to look at Cheng Kesong, who was standing under the steps, with bright eyes.
Cheng Kesong blinked: "I also remember the whale skeleton you drew—it was the outdoor sketch in the Natural History Museum. It was super wide and took up an entire wall of the corridor."
Hugo opened his eyes slightly: "You know I painted that picture? I didn't sign it."
"Using the oil pastel is your forte. I think it's your painting. I secretly looked at the name you signed on the back of the picture." Cheng Kesong admitted.
Hugo laughed a few times, walked along the steps to the corner platform in the middle, and said: "The story of the steps here can be told like this, two students who like to paint - maybe middle school students - they often come to the Louvre to paint Sketch."
"But they don't know each other, they just saw each other's paintings at a school exhibition." Cheng Kesong added.
"Aha, are you going to play the continuation story game with me?"
"Why not? You go on."
"Well, let's think about it." Hugo lowered his head and pondered for a moment, "They both liked each other's paintings, so they came to the Louvre again, found the angle of the other party's previous paintings, and painted the same painting with different techniques."
"These two paintings were exhibited at the same time again." Cheng Kesong spread his hands.
"You're so funny!" Hugo was dissatisfied.
Cheng Kesong raised his hand in a gesture of surrender: "Okay, okay, it's my turn next—two students came to the Louvre again, and each chose a scene to paint in the atrium. One of them sat on the lower steps. I drew a high horse sculpture from an angle of looking up, and happened to see a man sitting on a high step, who was also painting, so the student included that man in his picture…”
Hugo immediately snapped his fingers and laughed loudly: "And the student who was sitting at a high place painting also painted the person who was sitting at a lower place and painted in his own painting!"
"These two paintings were exhibited at the same time again." Cheng Kesong spread his hands in the same posture.
Hugo followed his example and spread his hands: "This is really a wonderful encounter."
"The story is really good, but is there really such two steps?" Cheng Kesong laughed.
Hugo immediately acted: "Let's look for it! You go down, I'll go up and look for it."
The two reached a consensus and split up in the atrium to find a step that could match the storyline.
In this atrium of the Louvre, a three-story platform is built with huge milky white stone bricks, and you can directly reach the corridor on the second floor of the building by going up the stairs. Several sculptures and many decorative green plants are distributed among them. Although it is not comparable to the one-step scenery of Suzhou gardens, there are also many painting angles with rich composition and rich layers.
The atrium faces the entrance arch on the first floor. In the center is a low step with only six steps. There are square stone piers on both sides of the steps, and sculptures are placed on the stone as usual.
Going around the two sculptures on the left and right are the zigzag steps where Cheng Kesong and Hugo played the story solitaire just now.
There are many sculptures on the second floor platform, and the two sides of the platform are straight steps leading to the third floor.
At this time, Cheng Ke Song had already descended to the first floor, standing on the edge of the low six steps, leaning on the stone pier where the sculptures were placed, looking up. Hugo had no idea where he had gone.
Suddenly, his cell phone rang, showing an unfamiliar number.
Cheng Kesong picked up the phone: "Hello?"
Hugo's voice came from the receiver: "Crescent? This is not good, I can't see you, you have to come to the second floor platform!"
Cheng Kesong was surprised: "how do you have my number?"
"I'm the captain of our weekly challenge, I have all your numbers here!" Hugo laughed.
Cheng Kesong lifted his feet and walked to the second-floor platform while listening to Hugo.
"Stop! Right there! Look up!"
Cheng Kesong stopped at the turning point of the steps, raised his head and looked at the third platform opposite.
Hugo was standing above the steps leading to the third platform, raising his arms high and waving at him.
"The angle is good, I'm going to start painting." Cheng Kesong said to the phone.
"No problem, I'll draw one too."
After the call ended, the two of them took out their sketchbooks and began to draw from this angle.
The stone fence above the three steps was wide, and Hugo simply climbed up with the sketchpad, sat cross-legged on it, and spread out the drawing tools. What he captured was a row of sculptures on the second floor platform near the steps, just enough to capture Cheng Kesong at the entrance of the steps into the picture.
Cheng Kesong sat down against the stone railing at the entrance of the steps, put his legs together leisurely, opened the watercolor box, dipped the paint with the tap water, and began to lay the background. He chose several sculptures staggered with a row of green trees under three steps. The picture is vertical. From this angle, Hugo seems to be sitting on the canopy of a tree.
The two are a little far apart, but they can see each other and know that they will appear in each other's paintings.
Cheng Kesong felt a little warm, thinking that the Louvre was really a good place.
Paint quietly, time flies. By the time the painting in Cheng Kesong's hands was completed, half an hour had passed. During the period, several tourists gathered around him to watch his paintings, but they were very polite and did not disturb him.
Cheng Kesong stood up the sketchbook and signaled to Hugo in the distance that he was finished.
Hugo raised his hand and gave a "five", probably saying that he had five more minutes.
Cheng Kesong gave a thumbs up to indicate that he had received it, then turned to a new page and began to draw the dynamic of Hugo's cross-legged painting.
This distance is too far, Cheng Ke Song can only capture Hugo's figure, but he can't see his facial features. But what Hugo looked like was clearly imprinted in Cheng Kesong's mind. Even if he couldn't see it clearly, he could still draw it.
A few lines outline the thin shoulders and elbows of the big boy. The short-sleeved shirt looks a bit empty when he wears it. The clothes on his chest drop slightly as he bends and draws, and it gets stuck at his waist, forming a slightly sharp angle. folds.
He has slightly long curly hair, which is tied into a small tug at the back of his head, and the slightly curly hair on the temples hangs down, fluffy and falls on his strong cheeks. Although he lowered his head, because of the angle of looking up at the picture, his entire face was almost a half-face angle. The bridge of the nose is high, the eye sockets are sunken, the eyelashes are low, and he is staring intently at the sketchbook in front of him.
Cheng Kesong carefully painted Hugo's facial features.
These details could no longer be discerned at this distance, so he kept his head down and filled in the blank parts of the picture according to Hugo's face in his mind.
A figure blocked the light above Cheng Kesong's drawing paper.
"Huh? You only drew me? What about the steps?" Hugo's voice sounded above Cheng Kesong's head.
Cheng Kesong immediately turned down the previous picture to cover the sketch he was drawing.
He was a little embarrassed: "Ah, it's just... just paint."
Hugo looked at Cheng Ke Song and blinked.
"Where's your painting?" Cheng Kesong asked.
"I think this angle is okay." Hugo handed Cheng Kesong the sketchbook in his hand.
"Well, the composition is very good, it seems that this angle is feasible."
"I also think this story is very good." Hugo laughed, "I can tell them at the meeting later."
Cheng Ke Song nodded and handed back the sketchbook.
Hugo: "I received a few text messages just now. Valentin and Lea said they went to the Sacre Coeur, and they got something. But Julia suggested that we act together tomorrow and go to the Opera, where there is one of the most famous Parisian events The big steps have appeared in many oil paintings."
Cheng Kesong: "Ah, there, I know the stairs."
"The background of the opera house is also very suitable for making up stories. It's a good idea." Hugo said, looking at the time, "It's one o'clock, let's go eat something? There's a sandwich shop here."
Cheng Ke Song readily agreed.
After a simple lunch, the two walked around the exhibition halls at the corners of the Louvre, painted a few pictures of the steps in the stairwell, and thought about a few stories about the Louvre, but they felt that it was not as good as the atrium. That story is beautiful.
"Just doing research, we have gained a lot. The story plus the sketch, and these photos, can sort out a lot of things." Hugo said, returning his sketchbook to the bag, "Let's go, come back The school will meet with them to discuss tomorrow's schedule."
Cheng Kesong also stood up from the ground and patted off the rubber crumbs on his pants.
"Well, go back."
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