At the Gobelins, the most beautiful tapestries you will ever see

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Charles Le Brun, The marriage of Louis XIV in Saint Jean de Luz, Gobelins, Mobilier National, photos Isabelle Bideau

What Louis XIV’s minister Jean Baptiste Colbert and royal painter Charles Le Brun achieved at the height of the Sun king’s reign is exceptional and the exhibition at Manufacture des Gobelins gives us an idea of the luxury cultivated at court at the Louvre, first and then in Versailles. Tapestries created at la Savonnerie in Chaillot, at the Gobelins and in Beauvais, North of Paris, are exhibited until December 4 th. It is a unique occasion to see the marriage of Louis XIV th which is usually at the French Embassy in Madrid and the 9 meter long carpet which used to be at the Elysée palace, in the President’s office.Read More

Jules Adler, a naturalist painter at MahJ

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Transfusion of goat blood, 1892, Université Paris Descartes, Museum of the history of medecine, Photo Alain Leprince © ADAGP

The Museum of Art and History of Judaism, MahJ, has wonderful permanent collections set in an 18 th century hotel in the Marais. After showing Helena Rubinstein’s collections last spring, it focuses (until February 23) on a Jewish Alsatian painter, Jules Adler, who is little known today in France but was celebrated at the turn of the century as a naturalist painter. His most famous painting is “La Grève au Creusot” (Strike at the Creusot) painted in 1899 and lent by the Pau museum. The show is historically interesting and puts into light many dark popular scenes and country workers.Read More

The Phantom of the Opera is back, thanks to Gérard Fontaine

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George Grie, The Mind Cave or Paranoid non-bizarre delusion, 2010. © George Grie

After writing half a dozen books on the architecture of Opéra Garnier, Gérard Fontaine is digging into the very active life of the Phantom of the Opera, a legendary hero created by novelist Gaston Leroux, who has been continuously on stage in London at Her Majesty’s Theater since October 1986. The beautiful book published by Editions du Patrimoine, reveals all the secrets of the Opera House wanted by Napoléon III and tells the story of this Fantôme who was the topic of ten International films from Rupert Julian in 1925, to Brian de Palma in 1974 and the latest by Joël Schumacher in 2004. It is a visual delight and the text reads like a witty dinner conversation. Read More

Maria Helena Vieira Da Silva in three cities

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Unitled, 1955,  © Prudence Cuming Associates, Courtesy Waddington Custot, London

Often when I visit Salon du Dessin in Paris or more recently FIAC, my eye is stopped by a curious painting and it is by Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, a Portuguese artist who became French in 1956. Her unique semi abstract style has always fascinated me whether it is an oil on canvas or a gouache on paper. Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, who was the first one to show her work in France, in 1930, has organized a retrospective of her works until November 16. Waddington Custot will follow in London until February 2 and Di Donna Galleries in New York from 27/3 to 29/5. So you have three chances to see this amazing collection of paintings, which are all for sale.Read More

Café des Ministères is reborn, on Place du Palais Bourbon

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Oyster from Normandy and sausage from Toulouse with Granny Smith apple

There is nothing that pleases me more than to have a good dinner, cooked and served by an enthusiastic young couple who have faith in tasty food.  This is what I found at Café des Ministères, a restaurant that Roxane and Jean Sévègres took over last February, a few meters from the Assemblée Nationale. He comes from Cahors in the Lot, and she from Lorient, in Brittany. They share a great mix of specialities which lead them to serving oyster with sausage, a delicious starter.

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Pinault versus Arnault, is there a winner?

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Tadao Ando, Bourse du Travail, model for the future Pinault Collection exhibited at Centre Pompidou in 2018

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 moment). It is a perfect instant photography of the art market in 2019, and a clever analysis of what drives the two richest art collectors in France, François Pinault, 83, and Bernard Arnault, 70, into constant rivalry.Read More

Zloty, an experienced graffiti artist with a child’s mind

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Zloty today, photo galerie Mathgoth, Paris

Gérard Zlotykamien (Zloty), became the first graffiti artist in the world, when he traced his  “Ephémères” in Great Britain in 1963. Today at 79, he is painting an empty wall in a children’s park, at 44 rue du Dessous des Berges, in the 13 th arrondissement. It is a joyful fresco painted in acrylic, which perfectly matches the playground beneath it. This conjunction of space and talent is due to Mathilde and Gautier Jourdain, from Mathgoth gallery who only represent street artists and are showing 55 years of his work at the gallery. This is their tenth large project in the 13 th arrondissement and their 45 th in France.Read More

Leonardo, reigns over the Louvre

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Leonardo da Vinci, Portrait of a young man holding a partition,  The Musician, ca 1483-1490, Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, © Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana.

To celebrate the 500 th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death (1452-1519), the Louvre has assembled 160 of his works including 11 paintings. Mona Lisa stayed in her own room so that visitors can keep coming to see her but the “Virgin and child” from the Duke of Buccleuth’s collection, and the “Belle Ferronière” are there to testify of the artist’s genius. “St Ann, the Virgin and Jesus” from the Louvre as well as “Isabelle d’Este” are also attending. After the marvelous drawing exhibition at Buckingham palace this spring and the tantalizing Verocchio retrospective in Florence, the Louvre is surpassing itself thanks to Vincent Delieuvin et Louis Frank, co curators of the show.

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