At Christie’s and at Galerie Kugel, Hubert de Givenchy’s taste is revived.

parisdiaArt, Auction, Books, Furniture2 Comments

Joan Miro, The Passage of the migrating bird, its 2.500 000 to 3.500 000€ with Alberto Giacometti” Walking woman (estimate on request)

It took a whole year for the French and International teams of Christie’s to organize this “house” sale of Hubert de Givenchy‘s two properties: his apartment in the Hôtel inhabited by the Bemberg on rue de Grenelle, and his country house of Manoir du Jonchet. Bedrooms, gardens, a few salons have been reinvented on avenue Matignon and the privileged visitors of the exhibition’s preview  were raving about the decor and the lavishness of the scenography. Indeed it was probably the most social event of the week and let’s hope that the sale will be the greatest financial success. I noticed a few things I would love to acquire like a Diego Giacometti console and a large Hubert Robert “Landscape with an obelisk and a colonnade”. Green velvet sofas, Napoleon III armchairs, are numerous but what is fascinating is the number of 55 reading lamps (1 000€) by Maison Meilleur and 66 photophores, being sold. Givenchy must have been a very pragmatic man.Read More

At La Compagnie, great food but overpriced

parisdiaRestaurants & HotelsLeave a Comment

La Compagnie on 123 avenue de Wagram near rue de Courcelles

I happen to know one of the young waitresses well so I was curious to see where she worked. And it was a very nice surprise to have lunch at La Compagnie, a modern style brasserie, whose owner used to work for the Costes brothers. The decor is fun and unpretentious, the service is great and kind, the food homemade and excellent but for lunch the bill at 59 € was totally overpriced… Dinner might be a better idea if you are in the XVII th area.Read More

Dürer is celebrated in Chantilly and more…

parisdiaArt, Happy moments4 Comments

Albrecht Dürer, Head of an old man with a beard, ca 1505 (?), feather and brown ink, ©RMN Grand Palais, musée des Chateaux de Malmaison et Bois-Preau, Photo, Gérard Blot

Last Sunday was festive: at 36, Rafael Nadal won Roland Garros for the 14 th time beating the Norwegian Casper Ruud 6/3, 6/3, 6/0, Prince Karim Aga Khan’s horse Vadeni, mounted by Christophe Soumillon, won for teh 9 ht time, the Jockey Club prize at Chantilly. And Yves Bienaimé, celebrated the forty years  of Musée vivant du Cheval which he created, with a magical dressage performance, surrounded by his two daughters Virginie and Sophie. He is 86 and rides every day. But the event of the spring is definitely the exhibition of Dürer, Prints and drawings, at the Jeu de Paume of the château. It is refined, well researched and of high quality. The day was definitely blessed at Chantilly. Read More

René Laubiès, the exception.

parisdiaArt1 Comment

Untitled, 1953, Oil on paper marouflé on Isorel

Alain Margaron has exhibited René Laubiès (1924-2006) for many decades and the last time I met the painter was at his gallery of 5 rue du Perche. This magical painter recently lived a nomadic life between India in the winter (He died alone in Mangalore) and Paris and it was always very soothing and impressive to meet him. He had the gentleness of a monk, the calm of a philosopher who had early on adopted taoism. His works are full of his inner wisdom and serenity and the search for light is inherent to all of them. Forty of his oils and drawings, painted between 1949 and 2006, are on display until July 9. Read More

Musée Guimet and its women ceramists are a winner

parisdiaArt, Technique6 Comments

Fukumoto Fuku, born 1973, porcelain biscuit 2017

The title of the new exhibition at Musée Guimet is strange, “Touch Fire, Women ceramists in Japan”,  but the result is wonderful and even if I don’t agree on today’s constant attitude of singularizing women artists over men, the story behind the show is interesting. It is putting forward three generations of women ceramists, who were at last allowed to use fire for their porcelain or sandstone sculptures in 1946. Until then only men were ceramists in Japan. The Arts university of Kyoto opened to women just after the war, then Tokyo followed in 1952. MNAAG has been steadily acquiring their works since 1995. Two of these artists live in France, Katsumata Chieko and Futamura Yoshimi. Hosono Hitomi whose Zenmai (fern) scupture is one of the most elaborate, lives in London.Read More

The Queen is celebrated in Paris and so is Gene Kelly

parisdiaArt, Flowers and gardens, Happy moments1 Comment

Jazz at the British Embassy with the Scottish regiment

Attending the Queen’s platinum jubilee’s party at the British Embassy was a true joy, especially since the weather was perfect, the lawn was mowed just high enough so that we would not feel we were killing it and the staff was totally charming including the young boy and girl scouts from Bougival who were serving hors d’oeuvre. Dame Menna Rawlings, the Ambassador, and her husband Mark, were dutifully saying hello to thousands of guests and the Royal regiment of Scotland was playing jazz  from 6.30 onwards. I immediately rushed to the garden, drank a Pimm’s, my secret passion, and ran into Robert Carsen who was studying the Scottish regiment’s uniform for his next opera of Bellini’s The Capulets and the Montagues at Opera Bastille in 2023. Read More

At Bibliothèque Nationale, XIX th century explorers and Champollion make us dream

parisdiaHistory, PhotographyLeave a Comment

Joseph Martin with a guide toungouse, 1884 BnF, Société de géographie ©BnF, SG

What can be more exciting than to follow the adventures of 19 th century explorers in Darfour and Ouadaï, Tibet, the Amazon or Sénégal with their guides, wifes, helpers? Thanks to the 200 th anniversary of Société de Géographie founded on December 15, 1821, whose archives are kept at Bibliothèque Nationale, BnF has organized a beautiful exhibition of two hundreds portraits, photographs, maps, drawings and travel books on the theme of the explorer. “Faces of XIX th century explorations, from myth to history”. Next door another show gives every detail on how Champollion translated the Pierre de Rosette and wrote the first dictionaries for hieroglyphs.

Read More

Musée Antoine Vivenel in Compiègne, what a find!

parisdiaArt, Furniture3 Comments

Léonard I Limosin, (attr) Hercules, Enamel from Limoges, XVI th century

When Mathieu Deldicque mentioned that he had borrowed an ink portrait of a lady from Musée Vivenel for his major Dürer exhibition at Chantilly (opening on June 4), I became intrigued. Who was this Antoine Vivenel (1799-1862)?  So I went with my friend expert of the city of Compiègne, Garance Aufaure, and I found amazing treasures in this municipal museum, which is too often eclipsed by the Imperial palace. This real estate/architect entrepreneur made money under the reign of Louis Philippe and started collecting Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities. He also collected ivory chess pieces, and religious  Medieval works, Renaissance Italian faïence and Limoges enamels by Leonard Limosin. And a room is devoted to local paintings of Donjon de Vez by Régnier, and Compiègne’s 1732 bridge. The Hôtel de Songeons-Bicquilley, where the collection is shown, is a charming museum full of surprising discoveries. Read More