To add to how absolutely awful I am, instead of posting in the right order or everything I've done in the last little while, I'm only going to post what I did today (I will definitely eventually get to the other stuff, though, but I still have a lot of photos to go through and plan things out et cetera et cetera).
But anyway!
Today I did something special and went to visit the Embassy of Ireland!
Oh hey, coincidentally that also happens to be Jägerstraße 51, which was the Mendelssohn & Co. Bank headquarters, what luck, eh?
Now, I've already posted a few pictures of the outside before right over here, but here are a few more, just for the sake of having them:
The building its self
The street, which is surprisingly empty and peaceful considering just how close it is to
The Gendarmenmarkt, remember this place? (by the way, I happened to hear possibly my favorite music piece today there, the second movement of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto. Achjaaa.)
Anyway, back to the building!
There's a little interior courtyard("innenhof", I don't care if there's a better translation) before you get to the actual exhibition which used to be the bank's carriage house which looks awful pretty all things considered
They even have a little fountain.
The exhibition takes up only one room and there isn't terribly much there, but what is there is pretty damn neat. The place is also used for concerts, Sonntagsmusiken like Fanny Hensel held in the Leipzigerstraße or just... Muisken on days besides Sundays. Tomorrow they're playing Fanny's "Das Jahr" (plus a presentation) which I wish I could go to buuut alas, I am seriously lacking in fonds right now... For some unexplainable reason. Yup.
Either way, here are some pictures of the room
I'm going to be completely honest now, I didn't take nearly as many photos as I usually did. I'm not quite sure why. Well I am but saying "I was in a state of awe" sounds so dumb. Basically though, there are a lot more neat things than I am able to post here. But I'll show what I managed to photograph anyway:
Painting of Fr. Fanny Hensel with her son, Sebastian by her husband, Wilhelm Hensel(in Italian manner for the record)
This is Pauline Felicia Henriette Mendelssohn Bartholdy or just Pauline, the first (living) child of Paul and Albertine. She died when she was 19 of, more or less unknown causes. Even the date and place, or maybe especially the date and place are uncertain. The church register states she died on the 22nd of June in Berlin her grave on the other hand says the 23rd of June in Dresden.
Either way, shortly after her death this painting was made and, as one can see in this portrait of the family, given a rather prominent place in the living room of the family
(in case anyone is as interested as me, left to right: Fanny(Paul's daughter, not Fanny Fanny), Ernst, Paul, Albertine and Gotthold - the picture was probably for their daughter Kätchen's wedding, hence she isn't on it but the letter is probably from her).
And then there was this:
Which made my year. I might possibly have mentioned before that I kind of have a bit of a thing for Paul and I've always been terrible fond of this picture. Though of course up until now I thought it was only to his shoulders and not thissss much. Ach ja, I am so very lucky I was alone in that room, I had a major fangirl moment.
Just so no one thinks I've completely abandoned Felix, they also had this wonderful bust of him which I really want to steal one day. Ach ja. They had a lot of other busts but I, being the horrible and lazy person I am only got a photo of Felix and Moses:
They also had, as mentioned before, a lot of other neat things like
(it was pretty, okay?)
Fanny (Hensel) brought this with her from her second trip to Italy in 1845 and kept it in her music room.
And these are copies of the Baptismal certificate of Fanny, Felix, Rebecka and Paul, which I found neat as well.
There are, again, a lot more things in the exhibit and it is definitely worth a visit just to be in that building (and, you know, giant Paul picture).
Here's the website!
And yes. Now that school is, basically back I'll probably write even less somehow... Or not, because I have a lot of Mendelssohn related things planned and I'm quite sure I'll somehow be able to fit in some free time to write.
