Paris Arts Club

  Andy Warhol: Gertrude Stein 1980 acrylic and silk screen print (New York Whitney Museum of American Art) The Exhibition at the Luxembourg Palace spotlights two great creative artists of the 20th Century:  Gertrude Stein (1874 - 1946) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). They were both foreigners in France, Gertrude Stein from the United States and Picasso from Spain. This  gave them them something in common and also a detachment and space to create new modern languages- he in painting, she in writing. When they met in 1905, she was 31 and Picasso was 24.  Both admired Cézanne:  Paul Cézanne : Pommes et biscuits (Apples and biscuits) 1880 Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris Gertrude Stein started writing her "Three Lives" while contemplating Cézanne's "Portrait of Mme Cézanne with fan"- a work which she acquired and never parted from until three years before her death. Cézanne's use of colour to define form and his altering of traditional perspective helped inspire P...

   Berthe Morisot: Au bal   (At the ball) 1875 As a core Impressionist painter, Berthe Morisot was interested in portraying modern scenes and was present at 7 out of 8 Impressionist exhibitions. She had a lightness and elegance all of her own. The exhibition at the Musée Marmottan Monet compares her graceful style to that of the 18th century. The ivory fan in the above painting belonged to her own collection; it features a romantic scene between a shepherdess and birdkeeper:     Fan: La Bergère et l'Oiseleur ca 1760-1780 Ivory and gouache on paper Two portraits of Berthe Morisot are exhibited - one a self portrait, where she appears as an artist confident in her profession: Morisot: Self Portrait 1885 (aged 44) The sketchiness and natural pose, as if caught spontaneously, would have appealed to the 18th century. The second portrait of Berthe Morisot was painted 10 years previously by fellow woman artist- Marcello, alias Adèle d'Affry, the duchess of Castigl...

Camille Claudel: Sakountala 1888 single bronze safeguard of original plaster That Camille Claudel was a genius, no-one would dispute nowadays. As a girl, she lived with her family in Nogent sur Seine. A local sculptor Alfred Boucher encouraged the young Camille-  who at 14 years old was already demonstrating a gift for clay modelling. In 2017 a new Camille Claudel Museum was opened, incorporating the Claudel family's old home: Camille Claudel Museum  Now 45 works by Claudel are on display, many coming from Camille Claudel's great niece- Reine-Marie Paris de la Chapelle - and another 200 by sculptors of the same time period- the end of the 19th century. Here is Alfred Boucher's "Volubilis", referring to the morning glory flower the young woman is holding: Alfred Boucher: Volubilis ca 1897  marble The village of Nogent was home to sculptor Alfred Boucher. It was also the birthplace of his tutor Paul Dubois, head of the Beaux Arts School in Paris from 1878 until his ...