When you walk into the 2 200 sq meter exhibition dedicated to Norman Foster on the 6 th floor of Centre Pompidou (until August 7), you feel completely lost at first. As if you had dived in a pool too large for you. Almost sixty years of drawings are exhibited in the first room, on the walls and in very pretty … Read More
In Le Havre, Marquet is staged at Musée André Malraux
Going to Normandy implies for me a visit to Musée André Malraux in le Havre, a little jewel built on the water with perfect proportions and a steady collection of Boudin, Dufy and other Impressionists. As Edouard Philippe, mayor of Le Havre, writes in his introduction to the catalog, “Guillaume Apollinaire describes Albert Marquet (1875-1947) as someone who watches nature with … Read More
Alfred Courmes is a revelation at Centre Niemeyer
I had never heard of painter Alfred Courmes, 1898-1993, and it’s only because a friend asked me to go with him to the Parti Communiste Français’s beautiful monument designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer that I went. And it was a true adventure but a very successful one. Born in Bormes-les-Mimosas, the son of a naval officer, he studied in Monaco before … Read More
La Chapelle Expiatoire celebrates Louis XVI th’s surviving daughter
La Chapelle Expiatoire is a discreet little chapel built by Louis XVIII in 1815, on the former Madeleine Cemetery, in memory of his brother Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who were buried there after their heads were chopped off on place de la Concorde. Their bodies were then transported to the St Denis basilica and the monument finished under Charles X’s … Read More
Ecouen, Chantilly and Musée de l’Armée are allies in the War of the religions
Had you ever heard of Antoine Caron (1521-1599)? I hadn’t, even though I saw some of his tapestries in Fontainebleau last year in the exhibition “L’art de le fête à la cour des Valois”. The masterpieces of the show were already three exceptional tapestries lent by the Uffizzi in Florence. In Ecouen’s Musée National de la Renaissance, the eight tapestries commissioned … Read More
In Sceaux the chateau and the park are a discovery
I had been trying to visit Château de Sceaux for many years but always ended up being there at the wrong time. It only opens at 1 pm while the park opens very early and is incredibly busy with joggers and retired couples who walk energetically with sticks. The occasion of the visit was a small exhibition of photographs (some … Read More
Rupert Shrive walks to Tours with his Balzac
Natasha Fraser Cavassoni was celebrating her birthday near the Buttes Chaumont and I was lucky to sit next to an eccentric English artist Rupert Shrive who was born in Norfolk but settled in Paris many years ago. He was commissioned to make a large head of Balzac for the Paris Balzac museum and decided to move it from his studio … Read More
Musée Bourdelle had a serious facelift and it’s successful
The garden was awakening and the first pink magnolias were in bloom to celebrate the 5 million € renovation of Musée Bourdelle, the house and studio where the turn-of-the century sculptor trained so many famous artists such as Giacometti and Germaine Richier. The architect Bertrand Naut has done an extraordinary job or consolidation of the foundations and restoration of the house … Read More