The Macklowe's at Musée du Luxembourg

After our very overbooked overnight flight arrived in Paris midday Saturday (and three hours late), we dropped our bags at a little hotel near the Luxembourg Gardens and immediately set out for a late lunch. The sun was shining, the breeze was warm and we planted ourselves at an outdoor table at La Rotonde, where our able and sympathetic waiter brought us drinks and an expertly prepared Sole Meunière. I felt like Julia Child (as channeled by Merryl Streep) as I giggled in delight at the butter from the fish rolling down my chin. Equally delightful is the French culture of facing all the chairs and all the tables out towards the street, more to make the passersby the entertainment. I think of the French as very discreet, private people so this tradition has always baffled me, but it doesn’t bother them in the least to be observed so as they say “When in Rome...do as the French do!” By the time the meal was over we felt restored but not revived so we retreated to our room for a nap. We had dinner in bed and resolved to make a go of it again on Sunday.

Over the next 24 hours we had an unexpected meeting with the soul of Hector Guimard as expressed in his masterwork the Castel Béranger. That is a story I will have to tell in our next newsletter as it is entirely too long and takes away from the Tiffany theme, so please excuse the tease my dear friends. I promise to write about that soon.

On Monday evening we were greeted by a color guard at the entrance to the Musée du Luxembourg which gave the evening a nice level of pomp. The show’s curators and Museum directors waited just inside the entrance, and seemed genuinely excited at what they had achieved, as they should be. Inside were true masterworks from the Met, who loaned approximately 45 pieces, and the Virginia Museum, who loaned approximately 40. Macklowe Gallery was well represented, having loaned an early “Woodbine” lamp on a blown glass and bronze base as well as arranging for the loan of several unusual “fancy goods” inkwells from a private collector. I was also so pleased to see pieces my parents and Lary Matlick had donated to the Virginia Museum in such an illustrious exhibition, particularly the set of Tiffany salts with silver spoons by Edouard Colonna in its original George de Feure- designed box that was retailed by Siegfried Bing’s “La Maison Art Nouveau”, circa 1900. Such an artistic collaboration required that all three artists simultaneously offer their most acute aesthetic sensibilities and simultaneously put their egos aside. This makes a nice parallel to all the cooperation necessary between the three lending museums and the Musée du Luxembourg to make this show such a success.

I could go on indefinitely about the objects in the show, but you are better off ordering the catalogue. If your French is rusty I would think an English version will be coming out once the show makes it to North America, but if you can’t wait this catalogue is a winner as is.

After the vernissage, we went to the French Senat, which just as it sounds is where the French senators meet to hash out the affairs of the state. Of course this all takes place in a building created by Salomon de Brosse for Marie de Medicis between 1615 and 1622! The spaces are enormous and covered in intricate plasterwork and gilding that left this little intrepid antique dealer from New York duly impressed. I spent a good bit of the evening pinching myself; it was a long way from East 61st Street.

A grand dinner was served, and I had the good fortune to be seated with Pascal Bonafoux, a curator for exhibitions and a good friend of Sylvestre Verger, who for the last nine years has been the force behind all eighteen exhibitions at the Musée, including one a few years back dedicated to the Art Nouveau jewelry of René Lalique and of course for this remarkable survey of the artwork of Louis Comfort Tiffany.