Diane Schrenzel shares her knowledge of the Louvre Museum
in Paris on Nov. 1 at the Highland Beach Library. Schrenzel
lives in France most of the year and part-time in Highland Beach,
where she takes painting classes at Burlini Studio of the Arts in
Boca Raton. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Pure joie de vivre. That’s what flows out of 14-year-old Parisian and part-time Highland Beach resident Diane Schrenzel when she talks about Renaissance art.
“When I go through my art history book and I hit the Renaissance, I think this is the period,” she says. “I love the sense of balance and harmony, and what I also like are the bright colors they used. For example, Botticelli or Raphael, they had really bright colors — pinks and light blues, and all these kinds of colors I really love — and every Italian Renaissance painting really makes me think of light and joy and spring, as a matter of fact … ”
She speaks confidently, using grown-up adjectives such as “magnificent” and “spectacular.” And despite her youth (she’s wearing a short, pink Spandex swim-dress and flip-flops at the moment), you realize she’s the perfect person to speak with authority about her favorite museum on Earth: the Louvre in Paris. She’s been there at least 30 times.
“I think it’s something really so exceptional … and what is weird for me, 99 percent of the people who go to the Louvre just see the masterpieces, a few antiquities, the Mona Lisa, and then it’s ‘Ciao, bye bye.’ ”
Schrenzel will have a chance to teach locals about the Louvre when she presents a lecture at the Highland Beach Library on Nov. 1. She has created a slide show of significant Louvre paintings and will share anecdotes about various works.
For a few years, Schrenzel and her mother, Helene, a French radiologist, have spent summer vacation and periodic school breaks at their Highland Beach condo. When in town, Schrenzel takes painting classes twice a week at the Burlini Studio of the Arts in Boca Raton, where she is using oils to copy paintings by Cezanne, Van Gogh and others.
“I like being in the footsteps of a great artist. For example, in my art studio, I’m painting water lilies by Monet. And sometimes when I paint, I really feel like the painter myself,” she says, remembering her visit to Monet’s gardens in Giverny, France.
Here in Florida, Schrenzel enjoys the beach, shopping at Boca’s Town Center mall — “Everything is concentrated in one area, not like in Paris” — and eating non-French desserts such as carrot cake. She speaks four languages (French, English, German and Spanish), and envisions a career at a major art auction house.
“Now that the world has become so competitive,” she says in her wise-beyond-years way, “Christie’s really needs people who have studied management, law, something more than just art history.” A straight-A student, she plans to pursue the appropriate academic path to make her dream come true — once she finishes high school.
— Paula Detwiller
Q. Where did you grow up and go to school?
A. I was born in Paris (such a beautiful city!), where I grew up and where I have always studied in a bilingual school. I will be entering 10th grade.
Q. What are some highlights of your life?
A. Traveling, painting and speaking about subjects I like. I have traveled to the U.S. since the age of 6; it’s a country so different compared to France in almost every field. I have traveled to China and Australia; their cultures and ways of living are so unique and interesting. And I have traveled around Europe’s historical, highly cultural and artistic countries. In all those places, I enjoyed extraordinary museums, being fond of art history (Renaissance, 17th- and 18th-century European paintings, Impressionism, Fauvism). Painting has become my life’s passion. I’ve been painting since the age of 6, in Paris. In Boca Raton, I paint at Burlini Studio of the Arts. That’s where I began painting with oils. I love Chris, the instructor there. Speaking, mainly to adults, about art history and politics, is really part of my life. The lecture that I will do at the Highland Beach Library (“Louvre Museum through Unknown Anecdotes”) has already been done at Burlini Studio; I spent 30 to 40 hours preparing it. I am also interested in French politics and, when I have time, I read newspapers and magazines.
Q. How did you choose to make your home in Highland Beach?
A. We discovered the city through friends by pure accident and fell in love with it.
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Highland Beach?
A. Enjoying the beach, which is really unique and magnificently beautiful, while doing activities (for example, seeing baby turtles, reading and shopping).
Q. What’s your favorite painting in the Louvre? Why?
A. Titian’s Madonna of the Rabbit because the sunset is very Venetian-like and beautiful, and because of its hidden messages — for example, what details show us that it is a religious painting (except for the title)? Suspense ... I am going to give the answer during my lecture.
Q. Who is your favorite artist? Why?
A. Raffaello Sanzio or Raphael is one of my favorite artists. He knew how to combine tenderness in his Madonnas with the art of Leonardo da Vinci (mainly sfumato, or fine shading) and of Michelangelo (muscular nudes) with talent and genius.
Q. If someone made a movie of your life, who would you like to play you and why?
A. My mom. We really look alike, and she is one of the few people I can really trust.
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
A. Jewish folk and religious music, and French songs from the 1960s and ’70s — Michel Polnareff and Claude Francois, who wrote the original version of My Way.
Q. What do people not know about you that you wish they would?
A. That sometimes I can be very shy, and people often misinterpret this and think that I snub them.
Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
A. Dance as if no one were watching you; sing as if no one were hearing you; love as though you’ve never been hurt before; live as though heaven is on Earth.
f you go: The Louvre Museum, 5 p.m., Nov. 1, Highland Beach Library.
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