I had to celebrate my godson’s thirteenth birthday and besides taking him to Hotel de la Marine in the gilded galleries overlooking Place de la Concorde, I thought of wandering around the Seine on a Batobus and it was a wonderful little adventure. We started in front of Musée d’Orsay but could of gone from the Tour Eiffel at 10 am when it starts. Your day pass is valid for 24 hours so don’t worry about schedule. Hop on and off as you wish. Spend the day on the boat if you love it. Read More
What I look forward to in the autumn!
The fist large show is devoted to Nicolas de Staël, 1913-1955, who died too young and yet is one of the most revered XX th century French painters. Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris is opening a new exhibition of 200 of his works on September 15 and this is an event not to be missed.
Xavier Valls, the Spanish artist who was represented by Claude Bernard, the fabulous galerist who died last November, seems to have found a new home. His delicate works on paper will be shown at the dashing Sophie Sheidecker in the Marais, from September 14 until October 20.
Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz will be showing her antique papiers peints at Galerie Léage, 178 Fbg St Honoré, from September 15 to October 14. This expert in old wallpaper, has a unique collection of 19 th and 20 th century panels.

Ard deco panel with a Neo classical inspiration, 18 th century, printed by André Groult Paris, cir 1920, Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz, at Galerie Léage from September 15 to October 14.
British sculptor Antony Gormley, whom I adore, will be at Musée Rodin with the installation “Critical Mass”, from October 17 to March 3, 2024. He is showing sixty human size sculptures in a temporary exhibition room and in the garden. Six more sculptures will dialogue with Rodin’s marbles in Hotel de Biron. His work is represented by Thaddaeus Ropac who just showed new sculptures of his in Salzburg.
At Musée d’art et d’histoire du judaïsme, Mahj, an interesting exhibition on Salonica as the “Jerusalem of the Balkans” 1870-1920, will start on September 19. The Greek Thessalonika was for a long time a Jewish town under the Ottoman Empire, where shops closed on Saturdays. The great collector of Ottoman history, Pierre de Gigord, has given 400 photographs to the museum which are exhibited here.
At Musée du Jeu de Paume, a hundred photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1815-1879, will feature in “Capturer la Beauté” (Capture Beauty) including portraits of her niece Virginia Woolf, Charles Darwin and Alfred Tennyson. This extraordinary photographer of Victorian celebrities was born in Calcutta, where her father worked in the East India Company, met her husband in South Africa and eventually died in Ceylon where they retired. She grew up in Versailles as a little girl because her mother was French and her great grandfather had been close to Louis XVI th. On October 10.
And also in October, Dutch etchings from the Duc d’Aumale’s collections will be exhibited at Chateau de Chantilly. Works by Jacob Van Ruisdael, Antoon Van Dick, Paulus Potter will be shown to the public for the first time and prove that there was an art of printing after Rembrandt in the Netherlands. And new rooms are opening in the Musée du Cheval in the Grand Stables on September 16.
On October 4, Sophie Calle will be on all four floors of Musée Picasso with works of hers relating to the artist. The curator of the show is Cécile Godefroy.

Sophie Calle, Pablo Picasso, The Goal, 1950 2023, Musée national Picasso Paris, photo Maxime Champion
The first exhibition of Claire Bretécher 1940-2020, since she died, with 39 original drawings of “Les Frustrés” will take place at Galerie Huberty & Breyne on 36 avenue Matignon from October 6 to November 10. First in Pilote magazine, then in Le Nouvel Observateur, the artist described French society with a sharp sense of humor. There is not one detail of contemporary life that she missed and the drawings are still totally accurate today.
From October 13 to November 18, the wonderful British Portuguese artists Paula Rego will be at Galerie Lelong, 13 rue de Téhéran. Her drawings, influenced by Goya, Ensor and Hogarth, show her strong emotions thus the title of the show: “Drawing Breath”.
The openings at Galerie Kugel are always fastuous and elegant. This new exhibit of “Amber” promises to be again a festival of precious treasures starting on October 18 until December 16. Visiting it is an easy way of penetrating this mysterious temple of antiques at 25 quai Anatole France where Nicolas and Alexis, the two brothers, keep the highest quality of objects. But it is quite intimidating at other times since the quality of the pieces is unique.
Later in November, during Paris Photo, the gallery Jacques Lacoste on avenue Matignon, will exhibit on November 6, 33 portraits of artists and fashion designers photographed by André Ostier. The selection was made with François de Ricqlès and the Association of the photographer’s friends.
I hope that all these good news will lighten up your return to the capital…
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Pretty food is twice tastier
I spent a heavenly week near St Raphael and part of the pleasure was to discover very simple food presented in the most artistic way. So I am sending you these images to make you dream. Each dish is easy to create and you just need to find pretty plates to serve them and many friends to taste them.
“I can paint for a living”, at Musee Fragonard in Grasse.
In their introduction to the catalog of “I declare that I can paint for a living” exhibition in Grasse, Anne, Agnès and Francoise Costa, the owners of the Fragonard perfume company, pay a tribute to the curator, the formidable Carole Blumenfeld, 43, who discovered a painting by Marie Victoire Lemoine, 1754-1820, in the « purgatory » at the Louvre while researching this show. There were many more attributions and finds. After publishing in 2019, the catalogue raisonné of the daughter of a Grasse perfumer, Marguerite Gérard, 1761-1837, she developed a special relationship with Musée Fragonard, which owns the largest collection of her works in the world. And it was then perfectly natural to organize this summer show about five women painters, all from the same family, and contemporaries of Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, 1755-1842, who was close to Marie Antoinette. I could not resist driving an hour to see this exquisite show and I realized how prominent the different Fragonard shops are in Grasse, a town which was Italian until 1861 and has the charm of the Mediterranean. For all these reasons, it is worth visiting it before October 8.Read More
From Santa Barbara to Cape Cod, a fabulous holiday
The two long weeks I spent in the US were the best holidays I’ve had in many years and flying from the Pacific in L.A. to the Atlantic in Boston, was a romantic experience. Both airports are on the water and I almost felt like I was sailing. My trip started in Santa Barbara where jacarandas were in bloom in every street and I loved having lunch at the Miramar in Montecito where an Amtrak train comes through the garden every couple of hours. How can a luxury brand hotel build a bar on the beach along a railroad track? It was actually very entertaining. We roamed around the polo club where Prince Harry plays regularly and had delicious sandwiches at THE food shop “Wendy Foster” where all the stars meet incognito. The very rich mix with normal people and seem to enjoying it.Read More
Hopper and Gloucester, Massachusetts, a love story!

Briar Neck, Gloucester, 1912. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Josephine N. Hopper Bequest, (The correct spelling of this local landmark is Brier Neck). © 2023 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS)
Gloucester, pop 25 500, is an enchanting town in Northern Massachusetts and its main cultural attraction, Cape Ann Museum, can be reached in under an hour from central Boston. It features, until October 16, a perfect little exhibition which is fast becoming THE show of the summer on the East Coast, “Edward Hopper and Cape Ann”, curated by Elliot B. Davis, which includes 66 paintings by the master. His wife Josephine Nivison (1883-1968) also has some interesting works and portraits in the center of the show. The light which can be found there attracted many painters and this series of landscapes, sea views, boats and houses so typical of his work, reminds me of the artists’ colony of Pont Aven in Brittany. Hopper, (1882-1967) started going to Gloucester in 1912 and only met Jo in 1923 when their common art teacher Robert Henri introduced them. She was instrumental in getting him exhibited in New York that fall and his painting of “The Mansard Roof” was acquired by the Brooklyn museum of Art where she was already exhibited. Read More
Nic Barlow, a photographer at heart, has left us
Nic Barlow was a very dear friend. But most importantly he was a fabulous photographer, a garden specialist and also a great portraitist. His warmth, extravagant tastes, unusual clothes brought him the sympathy of all sitters. He left us last Tuesday, August 1, at 72, peacefully in his sleep in his beautiful house of Stancombe Park, Gloucestershire. He liked to say that Prince Charles had visited it before buying Highgrove. His Austrian mother had perfected the gardens which can vie visited on demand, and he had restored the Temple, a miraculous little house on a lake which he rented to honeymooners. He also developed follies in the park with a Chinese pavilion and entirely redecorated the house with the imagination of an artist. Read More
Bouguereau, the Academic painter, is the new star at Eglise Saint Vincent de Paul!
If you are early for your train at Gare du Nord, why don’t you stop by Eglise Saint Vincent de Paul (built in 1804), a five minute walk on rue la Fayette and admire the two newly restored frescoes (among 8) by William Bouguereau, a painter left aside at the time of the Impressionists and forgotten for most tof the XX th century. The taxi driver who dropped me off said that he passed the church every day and had never stepped in and this is the case of most Parisians. Four young women students at the Sorbonne have undertaken to find some of the financing (local parishioners and shops also contributed) under the wing of Sauvegarde de l’art français and have put the church back on the artistic map. The painting was finally restored (for 30 000 €) thanks to Laura Goodman, president of the World Monuments Fund. And most importantly, the mayor of the 10 th arrondissement Alexandra Cordebard and Karen Taieb, in charge of culture for the city of Paris, were present at the unveiling of the two canvases and confirmed that all the gates outside the church would be restored starting in January 14. After Saint Germain des Près and its group of restored Flandrin paintings, this is the new church to watch.Read More