Born in Cuzco in 1500, the Inca leader, Son of the Sun, Atahualpa, was trying to reign over 10 million Indians in an Empire that went from Ecuador to southern Columbia and Chile when his fate made him meet the Spaniard Francisco Pizarro. This conquistador had spent twenty years in Haiti and Panama before mounting an expedition to Peru. Pizarro … Read More
From Catalonia with love
There is an exhilarating feeling in landing at Perpignan airport, in the gentle warmth of early summer, and driving straight to Collioure, the famous little port where Matisse (Fenetre, 1914), Signac, Derain and friends used to paint at the beginning of the XX th century. The 3 000 population Mediterranean fort and beach are minuscule and so is the museum … Read More
Tapestries that speak of love
The city of Beauvais, an hour North of Paris, has a long tradition of tapestry weaving since Colbert, Louis XIV th’s minister, established a Manufacture Royale in 1664. Three centuries later, French Minister of culture André Malraux decided to create a museum devoted this art. It was built in the early 70’s, just in front of the sumptuous medieval cathedral, … Read More
An American painter is back in Paris
Joseph Keiffer was partly raised in Paris by his artistic parents and he is back with a charming exhibition at Jane Roberts Fine Arts. From his French years he has kept, beaches in the Cotentin, 2 cv cars racing in Normandy, but also a staircase at 93 rue du Bac and a series of very French landscapes.
The Princess moves on!
To own and maintain a large historical castle has become a gigantic adventure nowadays, and Princess Minnie de Beauvau-Craon, daughter of Marc, the seventh Prince of this French aristocratic family, knows all about it. She has decided to turn a new page at Haroué, her beautiful house in Eastern France, in Lorraine, and modernise her way of life. After exhibiting … Read More
Victoire and Hélène risk it all with their “gri-gri”
For their first exhibition in their new not-yet-totally-renovated gallery, Victoire de Pourtalès and Hélène Nguyen Ban are showing a good measure of courage ! After negotiating for a long time the lease of Yvon Lambert’s former gallery at 108 rue Vieille du Temple, the young women chose an artist from Cameroun, Pascale Marthine Tayou (yes a man with a … Read More
Poussin and a few discoveries
I have always been reticent about Nicolas Poussin’s paintings and even in Chantilly where I discovered the fabulous « Massacre des Innocents », which is considered as one of his masterpieces, I tended to be bored by his landscapes. Well, with this new exhibition at the Louvre of « Poussin et Dieu », and thanks to Guy de Compiègne’s new … Read More
A Dolce Vita not so sweet
It starts with furniture by Bugatti (the brother of… ) and Eugenio Quarti, presented at the Universal exhibition of Turin in 1902. An amazing painting by Pelizza da Volpedo, « The Mirror of life », shows a series of sheep following each other. So funny and so true ! In a small room full of Vittorio Zecchinis, one discovers the … Read More