At the time when Bernard Arnault is seen shaking hands with Donald Trump on the 8 o’clock news, inaugurating a Louis Vuitton factory in Texas (what about the “made in France”?), while France has 9,1% unemployment, it is important to read this new book by Jean Gabriel Fredet, “The secret war of art billionaires” (unfortunately only in French at the … Read More
Louis XIV and Charles de Gaulle, attract British biographers
Two major biographies of great French men have been published in the last year in Great Britain and both are translated into French: “King of the World, The Life of Louis XIV”, by Philip Mansel and “De Gaulle, A certain idea of France”, by Julian Jackson are huge successes in the time of Brexit. And both are published by Penguin … Read More
Pays Basque is celebrated through its dance costumes
The Basque country, which goes across borders over the Pyrénées, from Bayonne to Bilbao, has always fascinated ethnologists and this new book on its traditional dance costumes conceived by Serge Gleizes, is a little gem. Largely due to the talent of photographer Véronique Mati. If you have ever been curious about provincial French costumes, this is a series of photographs … Read More
London is swinging even in the heat
While the whole of literary London gathered around charming historian Philip Mansel at the French Institute for his talk on his remarkable new biography of Louis XIV, “King of the World”, and art collectors and dealers (like Alexis Kugel) were at Christie’s bidding for the Rothschild treasures with its exceptional Flemish cabinets, polychrome enamel plaques by Léonard Limosin and rock crystal … Read More
Rachel Cobb, a sensitive photographer who celebrates the Mistral
American photographer Rachel Cobb won the Picture of the Year award for her coverage of 9/11, she worked in Sarajevo and with the homeless in New York. But the topic of her first exhibition in Paris is more poetic and results from twenty years of watching a specific wind, the Mistral in Provence, which became a book published by Damiani. … Read More
Two exceptional shows bring Romanticism to Petit Palais
Once again, an exhibition opens at Petit Palais and the surprise is overwhelming in quality and originality. “Romantic Paris, 1815-1848” comprises all the arts of the beginning of the 19th century thanks to the clever Christopher Leribault who convinced his colleagues from Musées Galliera, Carnavalet, Arts décoratifs and de la Vie Romantique, to lend exceptional treasures. It is a panorama … Read More
New York is changing fast but remains the best
I had not been to New York for three years and I found lots of changes. First the Hudson Yards, a new business/shopping/living area at the start of the Highline on 30 th st and the Hudson, attracted me because I wanted to see the Vessel. This large pile of staircases in red copper was much talked about and I … Read More
La Fontaine’s fables illustrated in Lahore, at Musée Guimet
It’s a curious phenomenon that is shown at musée Guimet in the rotunda: a series of illustrations of Jean de La Fontaine‘s Fables, painted in the first half of the 19 th century by Imam Bakhsh at the Sikh court of Lahore, Punjab. “Oriental Fables” shows beautiful miniatures illustrating the Memoirs of General Court (1793-1880) at the time when French … Read More