Those Steps We Walked Together

Take Line No.12 from Montparnasse to Place de la Concorde, transfer to Line [-], and arrive at the Louvre Museum Station.

As students of art colleges, Cheng Kesong and Hugo are not strangers to the Louvre.When the course of the first-year preparatory class just started, the teacher of the outdoor sketching class brought them to the Louvre to do sketching.

But at that time, they mostly drew the outer buildings of the Louvre and the sculptures displayed in the museum, and did not pay much attention to the steps.

The two went up to the ground along the steps out of the station, Cheng Kesong put his palms above his eyes to cover a shadow, and looked up at the metallic arch of the subway exit with a distinctive French Art Nouveau style.

Beside the dark green handrail, two pillars like flower branches stretch upwards.The column is bifurcated from the middle, and the top of the inner extension is drawn inward, forming a rounded arc, spewing out two flower buds to the center, and a thin beam to circle an oval plaque.The outer part props up two tulip-like corollas gracefully, drooping slightly, and there are orange light bulbs in the flower stamens, which are actually two street lamps.

The carvings on the arches and handrails are based on flowers and insects, and the smooth curves meander like the entrance to a dream garden.

"These subway entrances were designed by Hector Guimard, and there are not many preserved in Paris now." Hugo said, "They have been included in the French Historic Monuments List and have become a very representative landscape of Paris. .”

"It's really good, but it doesn't seem to fit our theme." Cheng Kesong laughed.

Hugo shrugged: "Well, our focus is on the steps. Let's go to the Louvre."

It is June, which is the season when tourists gradually begin to increase.The glass pyramid square of the Louvre is full of tourists, they gather together in groups, or take pictures in twos and threes against the water pool under the pyramid.Crowds of people, accompanied by chattering voices, seemed full of vitality under the blue sky, white clouds and warm sunshine.

Cheng Kesong followed Hugo through the dense crowd of tourists, and finally walked into the entrance of the Louvre Hall.

The lobby is also overcrowded, and the queue at the ticket office is extremely long.Fortunately, the two of them didn't have to line up with the large number of tourists in the tour group. They followed the tail of the individual tourists and soon arrived at the ticket gate.

"Hi, we are students of the Academy of Fine Arts and need two tickets."

As Hugo said, he handed in their student ID cards.

In Paris, many museums and art galleries are open to students for free, and the Louvre is one of them.Cheng Kesong and Hugo can redeem admission tickets with their student ID cards, and they can enter the regular exhibition area with their drawing boards and brushes to watch the exhibits at any time.

The regular exhibitions of the Louvre are distributed from the ground floor to the three floors above the ground, and are divided into six exhibition areas.There is a huge space here, and there are many exhibits. If you look at each piece carefully, you may not be able to finish it in a few years.In addition to regular exhibitions, there are sometimes limited-time loan exhibitions or private exhibitions in the Louvre, but these can only be seen with money.

Cheng Kesong and Hugo's goal is the steps in the Louvre, and the regular exhibition area is more than enough for them.

Hugo took out the sketchbook from his bag, looked at the crowd around him, and frowned slightly.

"We have to avoid these tourists."

"Agreed. Let's not go looking for Venus and Mona Lisa." Cheng Kesong said, "That's the exhibit that everyone wants to see."

Hugo nodded: "Let's find an atrium."

The roads in the Louvre were complicated, but the two of them came quite frequently, and soon found a deserted atrium.

Entering through the arch, the first thing you see is the four huge sculptures standing here-the sculptures stand on a high stone platform, and they are four horses of different shapes.Looking up from a low place, I only feel that those horses are dynamic and majestic.

"I remember this sculpture! That painting of yours was posted in the hallway for two weeks... Is this the angle, where did you draw it?"

Hugo walked up the steps excitedly, looking up at the horse sculpture in the southeast corner.

There is no direct sunlight here, and the slightly blue sky falls from the ceiling and falls on Hugo's delicate face.His 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 stairs above." Cheng Kesong replied.

"I can always see your paintings being posted in the corridor. You seem to be omnipotent in this regard." Hugo smiled and looked back at Cheng Kesong who was standing at the bottom of the steps, his eyes sparkling.

Cheng Kesong blinked: "I also remember the whale skeleton you drew—it's the outdoor sketch in the Museum of Natural History. It's super wide and takes up the entire wall of the corridor."

Hugo opened his eyes slightly: "Do you know that I painted that? I didn't sign the picture."

"Using oil pastels is your strong point. 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 in this way. Two students who like painting—maybe they are middle school students—they often come to the Louvre. Palace painting from life."

"But they don't know each other, they just saw each other's paintings at a certain school exhibition." Cheng Kesong added.

"Aha, you want to play the game of continuing the story with me?"

"Why not? You go on."

"Well, let me 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 each other'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 are so cute!" Hugo was dissatisfied.

Cheng Kesong raised his hand as a sign 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 floor. On the steps, I drew the high horse sculpture from the angle of looking up, and happened to see a person sitting on the high steps, who was also painting, so the student included that person in his picture..."

Hugo snapped his fingers immediately, and laughed loudly: "And the student who was sitting at a high place and drawing also drew the person who was sitting at a lower place and drawing in his own painting!"

"These two paintings were exhibited at the same time again." Cheng Kesong spread his hands in the same posture.

Hugo imitated his appearance and spread his hands: "This is really a wonderful encounter."

"The story is indeed good, but are there really two steps like this?" Cheng Kesong laughed.

Hugo acted immediately: "Let's look for it! You go down, I'll go up and look for it."

The two reached a consensus and searched separately in the atrium for steps that could match the storyline.

In the atrium of the Louvre, a three-story platform is built with huge milky white stone bricks, and you can go up the steps to directly reach the corridor on the second floor of the building.Several sculptures and many decorative green plants are distributed among them. Although it is not as good as the scene of Suzhou gardens, you can also find many painting angles with generous composition and rich layers.

The atrium faces the entrance arch on the first floor, and in the center is a low step with only six steps. On both sides of the step are square stone piers, and sculptures are placed on the stone piers as usual.

Bypassing the two sculptures on the left and right, it is the zigzag-shaped steps where Cheng Kesong and Hugo played Solitaire just now, bend and turn, and come to the central second-floor platform.

There are many sculptures on the second-floor platform, and on both sides of the platform are straight steps leading to the third floor.

At this time, Cheng Kesong had already descended to the first floor, standing on the edge of the six low steps, leaning against the stone pier where the sculptures were placed, looking up.Hugo didn't know where he went.

Suddenly, his cell phone rang, showing an unfamiliar number.

Cheng Kesong picked up the phone: "Hello?"

Hugo's voice came from the earpiece: "Cross? This won't work, 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 am the captain of our weekly challenge, and I have all of your numbers here!" Hugo laughed.

Cheng Kesong walked towards the second-floor platform while listening to Hugo.

"Stop! Right there! Head up!"

Cheng Kesong stopped at the turning point of the steps, raised his head and looked at the third-floor platform opposite.

Hugo was standing above the steps leading to the third-floor platform, raising his arms high and waving at him.

"The angle is good, I'm going to start drawing." Cheng Kesong said into the phone.

"No problem, I'll draw one too."

At the end of the call, the two tacitly took out the sketchbook and began to draw from this angle.

The stone railing above the three-story steps was wide, and Hugo simply climbed up with the sketchpad in his arms, sat cross-legged on it, and spread out the drawing tools.What he captures is a row of sculptures near the steps on the second-floor platform, just enough to capture Cheng Kesong at the entrance of the steps.

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 a fountain pen, and began to lay the background.He chose several sculptures interlaced with a row of green trees under the three-story steps. The picture is composed vertically. From this angle, Hugo seems to be sitting on the crown of a tree.

The distance between the two is a bit far, but they can see each other and know that they will appear in each other's paintings.

Cheng Kesong's heart was slightly hot, and he felt that the Louvre was really a good place.

Painting quietly, time flies by.By the time Cheng Kesong finished the painting, half an hour had passed.During the period, several tourists gathered around him to watch his painting, but they were very polite and did not disturb him. They watched silently for a while, or left quietly, or left a sentence "the painting is great" and left.

Cheng Kesong stood up the sketchbook, and signaled to Hugo in the distance that he had finished drawing.

Hugo raised his hand and compared a "five", which probably means that he still needs 5 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 scene of Hugo crossing his legs and painting.

This distance is too far, Cheng Kesong can only capture Hugo's figure, but can't see his facial features clearly.But what Hugo looks like is clearly imprinted in Cheng Kesong's mind, even if he can't see clearly, he can still draw it.

A few lines outlined the thin shoulders and elbows of the big boy. The short-sleeved shirt looked a little empty on his body. The clothes on his chest fell slightly with his bowing movements, and got stuck at his waist, forming a slightly sharp angle. of folds.

He has slightly long curly hair, which is tied into a small pull at the back of his head, and slightly curly hair hangs down from his temples, falling fluffily on his tough cheeks.Although he lowered his head, because of the angle of looking up from the picture, his entire face is almost at the same angle.The bridge of the nose is high, the eye sockets are deep-set, and the eyelashes are drooping. He is staring intently at the sketchbook in front of him.

Cheng Kesong carefully drew Hugo's facial features.

These details could no longer be discerned at this distance, so he kept his head down, looking at Hugo's face in his mind, and filling in the blank parts in the picture.

A figure blocked the light above Cheng Kesong's drawing paper.

"Huh? You only drew me? Where are the steps?" Hugo's voice sounded above Cheng Kesong's head.

Cheng Kesong immediately turned the previous picture down to cover the sketch he was drawing.

He was a little embarrassed: "Ah, it's just... drawing casually."

Hugo looked at Cheng Kesong and blinked.

"Where's your painting?" Cheng Kesong asked.

"I think this angle is okay." Hugo handed the sketchbook in his hand to Cheng Kesong.

"Well, the composition is very good, it seems that this angle is feasible."

"I also think this story is very good." Hugo said with a smile, "I can tell it to them at the meeting later."

Cheng Kesong nodded, and handed back the sketchbook.

Hugo: "I just received a few text messages. Valentin and Leia said that they went to the Sacred Heart Church and gained something. But Julia suggested that we act together tomorrow and go to the Opera House, where there is a most famous song in Paris. The big steps have appeared in many oil paintings."

Cheng Kesong: "Ah, there, I know the steps."

"The background of the opera house is also very suitable for making up stories. It is indeed a good idea." Hugo said, looking at the time, "It's one o'clock, let's go eat something? There is a sandwich shop here."

Cheng Kesong readily agreed.

After a brief lunch, the two wandered around the exhibition halls at the corners of the Louvre, drew a few pictures of the steps in the stairwell, and thought about a few stories about the Louvre, but felt that it was not as good as the atrium. The story in the book is beautiful.

"If we're just doing research, we've gained a lot. Stories, sketches, and these photos can sort out a lot of things." Hugo said, putting his sketchbook back in his bag, "Let's go, go back The school will meet with them to discuss tomorrow's itinerary."

Cheng Kesong also stood up from the ground, and wiped off the rubber debris on his pants.

"Well, go back."

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