Andy Warhol, Portraits d’Yves Saint Laurent, 1972 Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, Paris

Visiting Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent on avenue Marceau, is always a treat. Exhibitions there are as varied as Tibetan art or David Hockney’s Ipad work, and they are very luxuriously scenographed. The new show of « Jacques Doucet-Yves Saint Laurent, Vivre pour l’art » (live for art) is bringing the space to a high point and letting us dream about a lost world of gratuitous esthetism and elegance.

Salon du studio Saint-James, chez Jacques Doucet, L’illustration 1930. The Douanier Rousseau and Modigliani are in the show © Béatrice Hatala

Jacques Doucet (1853-1929) was the heir to a lingerie manufacturing company and became a fashion designer himself. But he is mostly remembered  as a furniture, books and painting collector. He bought les « Demoiselles d’Avignon » from Picasso himself at a time when most of his friends collected 18th century and assembled a beautiful collection of books and art books which became the Bibliothèque Jacques Doucet and is now owned by the Sorbonne. His art collection was shown in the 1920’s in a studio on rue St James in Neuilly and was a rare mix of contemporary art and African art. Pierre Bergé

Joan Miró, Paysage,1924-1925, Folkwang Museum, Essen © Successió Miró

Fernand Léger, Le Profil noir, 1928
 © Christie’s Images Limited

shared with Yves Saint Laurent a passion for art and he is showing in the Hotel Particulier of avenue Marceau, two fine collectors’ worlds recreated with a unique talent by Nathalie Crinière and decorator Jacques Grange. It is a small show but so intense in emotion and beauty that you can go many times. Manet, Goya, Chirico, Rousseau, Picasso, Brancusi are all represented with their best works, Warhol, Mondrian and Miro bring a colourful note, Dunand and Lalanne a decorative darkness.

Grand Salon du 55 rue de Babylone, where Yves Saint Laurent lived from 1970 to 2008, Photo Nicolas Mathéus

Both interiors are recreated beautifully and one feels like spending the night on a camp bed in the middle of the gallery. Bravo Monsieur Bergé ! once again you have surprised us. (Until February 14 th, 3 rue Léonce Reynaud)