Architects, portrayed in style!

parisdiaArchitecture, Art2 Comments

Louis Michel Van Loo, Portrait of Jacques Germain Soufflot, architect of the Pantheon in Paris, 1767

Just at the time when I.M. Pei, the architect of the Louvre’s pyramid and of so many chefs d’œuvre around the world, is turning 100 at Rockefeller Center, La Cité de l’Architecture at Trocadero is celebrating “Portraits of architects”. I consider architects as true magicians, artists, technicians, and sociologists. They have to understand their clients’ needs and think ahead of society’s new rules. This is what the exhibition is trying to show throughout the centuries. And it is very successful !Read More

Happy Premier Mai!

parisdiaFlowers and gardens1 Comment

This year, lily of the valley appeared on April 7 th, but it is usually the flower which celebrates the First of May

I picked these especially for you in my garden so you can share what all Parisians enjoy on May 1st. Everyone in France is allowed to sell lily of the valley on the streets of Paris or on country roads. The communist party which celebrates the First of May as their official Labor Day (fête du travail), usually sells it to raise money for the party! and I just learned that the Red Cross does too…Read More

Pierre-Joseph Redouté, a master of flowers

parisdiaArt, Flowers and gardens5 Comments

Catherine de Bourgoing curated the show and created the garden of Musée de la Vie Romantique

Nicknamed the « Raphaël of flowers », Pierre-Joseph Redouté spent almost 60 years collecting and identifying flowers that he then meticulously painted. His artistic talent rivals his scientific rigor as we can see at Musée de la Vie Romantique, in the first ever exhibition devoted to his art in France. There are 250 items celebrating flowers and the garden of the museum, conceived by Catherine de Bourgoing is a perfect extension of the galleries.Read More

Pissarro, a double bill at Marmottan and at Luxembourg

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Camille Pissarro, Two Women Chatting by the Sea, St. Thomas, 1856, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

I am not a particular fan of Camille Pissarro but Musée Marmottan always has nice shows and walking through the Ranelagh gardens on the way, is an extra bonus. The new exhibition « Pissarro, the first of the Impressionists » is a good surprise. From the painter‘s origins in St Thomas in the Caribbean, to his paintings of Norman harbors and gardens in winter, the 60 paintings are definitely worth the tripRead More

Dalida at Galliera

parisdiaFashion1 Comment

Each podium is designed like a vinyl record with the title of one of her 2 000 most famous songs

One needed a magician like Robert Carsen to build the perfect whimsical setting for the collection of dresses of Italian/Egyptian singer Dalida, who was Miss Egypt in 1954 and became one of France’s most popular singer in the 1970’s and 80’s. After her death in 1987, her brother Orlando decided to give her « garde-robe » to Palais Galliera. And the show is very fun.

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Prune Nourry plays around at Musée Guimet

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“La destruction n’est pas une fin en soi” (Pied) 2017, in the main hall of Musée Guimet, plaster and incense sticks

I first attended a Prune Nourry show in 2011, when Tatyana Franck, then 26, exhibited her work in an empty apartment of Faubourg St Honoré with Sophie Ubald Bocquet. These very young ladies were quite excited over their friend’s « Terracotta Daughters » and one could sense success around the corner. Tatyana went on to exhibit Prune Nourry in Mexico, Zürich and New York and became the curator of Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne. Six years later, Prune Nourry shows at Galerie Templon in Brussels and is given a « carte blanche » on the four floors of Musée Guimet. Where will she stop ?Read More

Cars are stars at Fondation Cartier

parisdiaHappy moments, Photography, Technique1 Comment

Peter Lippmann, Citroën traction 7, 2012 from the series Paradise parking

It was great fun as usual at Fondation Cartier for the opening of « Auto Photo, from 1900 to today » a show of 450 pictures by American, British, German, Swiss, Japanese, Mexican, Chinese, African and French photographers who, one way or another, were attracted by cars. Small and large formats, color and black and white, esthetical or social themes make for a very varied exhibition curated by Xavier Barral and Philipe Séclier, two adventurers who love photo.Read More

Camille Claudel and the Marquise de Maillé

parisdiaArchitecture, Art, FurnitureLeave a Comment

The château de la Motte-Tilly was built for Abbé Terray in 1754

It was a short drive from the beautiful village of St Loup de Naud where I slept in Violet Trefusis‘s house (now owned by a close friend), and we arrived at Château de la Motte-Tilly promptly for the 10.30 am tour. This house which used to be Louis XV th treasurer Abbé Terray’s, was built in 1754 by architect Francois Nicolas Lancret, the nephew of Nicolas Lancret. It passed on to the Rohan Chabot family and was entirely restored in the 20 th century by both Charles Gérard de Rohan Chabot and his daughter Aliette de Maillé. It is a few miles away from the new and beautiful Camille Claudel Museum in Nogent sur Seine.

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