A day in the Vuitton Foundation by Esprit de France

Samuel Courtauld was an English industrialist of French origin best remembered as an art collector whose main goal in life was to make his collection available to the public. He strongly believed in the good influence of modern art on society and, backed by this conviction, collected an exceptional range of impressionist and post-impressionist works in less than ten years backed by his conviction. He then put them on show for the public at one of London's must-see spots, Somerset House. The works are currently at the Vuitton Foundation here in Paris. The exhibition begins with a room devoted to Edouard Manet, starring the magnificent Bar aux Folies Bergères, which earned him a late recognition at the Official Salon of 1882, a year before his death. This painting represents a young woman who is facing us, empty-eyed, behind a bar. Behind her, a mirror returns the scene: her reflection appears from her back speaking to a client, in the complex environment of the cabaret with its crowd, its chandeliers and its lights, its bottles... A saturation which could harm the magic of the table but in fact amplifies it. Another room is dedicated to Georges Seurat's rare works, including the astonishing Young Woman Powdering. Another room yet focuses on Paul Cézanne -Samuel Courtauld has brought together the largest ensemble of Cézanne in the UK- with one of the versions of the Joueurs de cartes and an impressive Montagne Sainte-Victoire au grand pin. In the last room, Gauguin dominates with Nevermore: this nude lying on a lemon-yellow cloth that brings out the tanned skin and gives primitive strangeness to the painting turned out to be « an absolute révélation » for the collector !

Alongside the presentation of the Courtauld Collection, the Louis Vuitton Foundation features a new selection of pictorial works from its own collection. Some seventy works by twenty-three artists from the sixties to the present day are exhibited in monographic sets. Feel free to take a stroll through Joan Mitchell’s large formats, an artist who started in New York with Abstract Expressionist before settling near Giverny to resume with the spirit of Monet's painting: lyricism and colourful nature are at the heart from her work. Or have fun crossing the Penetrable BBL Bleu de Soto or, even better, the illusionist environment, based on red polka dots on a white background, created by the Japanese Kusama!

Impatient to go?