Art and Antiques

Art and Antiques

about france Unknown   12:25 AM

Art and Antiques
In Paris you can buy art and antiques either from stores and galleries with established reputations, or from flea markets and avant-garde galleries. Many of the prestigious antiques stores and galleries are located around the Rue du Faubourg-St-Honoré and are worth a visit even if you can’t afford to buy. On the Left Bank is Le Carré Rive Gauche, an organization of 30 antiques dealers.
Objets d’art over 50 years old, worth more than a given amount (values vary for all categories of art object), will require a Certificat pour un bien culturel to be exported anywhere in the world (provided by the vendor), plus a licence d’exportation for non-EU countries. Seek professional advice from the large antique shops.

EXPORTING
The Ministry of Culture designates objets d’art. Export licenses are available from the Comité National Conseillers du Commerce Extérieur de la France. The Centre des Renseignements des Douanes has a booklet, Bulletin Officiel des Douanes, with all the details.

MODERN CRAFTS AND FURNITURE
One of the best places for furniture and objets d’art is Sentou, where you can find objects and textiles, as well as furniture by contemporary designers. Another essential venue is the show-room of the Italian designer, Giulio Cappellini. Le Viaduc des Arts is a railroad viaduct, each arch of which has been transformed into a storefront and work-shop space. A great place for contemporary metalwork, tapestry, sculpture, ceramics, and much more.

ANTIQUES AND OBJETS D’ART
If you wish to buy antiques, you might like to stroll around the areas that boast many galleries – in Le Carré Rive Gauche around Quai Malaquais, try L’Arc en Seine and Anne-Sophie Duval for Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Rue Jacob is still one of the best places to seek beautiful objects, antique or modern.
Close to the Louvre, the Louvre des Antiquaires sells expensive, quality furniture. On the Rue du Faubourg-St-Honoré you will find Didier Aaron, expert on furniture from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Village St-Paul between the Quai des Célestins, the Rue Saint Paul and the Rue Charlemagne, is the most charming group of antiques stores and is also open on Sundays.
La Calinière has a suberb range of objets d’art and old lighting fixtures. Glass-ware from the 19th century to the 1960s is sold at Verreglass. Le Village Suisse in the south of the city also groups many art and antiques dealers.

REPRODUCTIONS,POSTERS AND PRINTS 
A beautiful, contemporary art gallery called Artcurial  on the Place des Champs-Elysées has one of the best selections of international art periodicals, books, and prints. On the Boulevard Saint Germain, La Hune is a popular bookshop, particularly for art publications.
The museum bookshops, especially those in the Musée d’Art Moderne, Louvre, Musée
d’Orsay, and Pompidou Center are good for recent art books and posters.
Galerie Documents on  the Rue de Seine sells original antique posters. Or leaf through the second-hand bookstalls along the banks of the Seine.

ART GALLERIES
Established art galleries are located on or around the Avenue Montaigne. The Louise Leiris gallery was founded by D. H. Kahnweiler, the dealer who “discovered” both Georges Braque and Pablo
Picasso. The gallery still shows Cubist masterpieces.
Artcurial holds many exhibitions and has an impressive permanent collection of 20th-century art, including works by Joan Miró, Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, and Max Ernst. Galerie Lelong is devoted to contemporary artists.
On the Left Bank Adrian Maeght has a tremendous stock of paintings at prices to suit most budgets; he also publishes fine art books. Galerie 1900–2000 specializes in works by Surrealist and
Dada artists, and Galerie Jeanne Bucher represents postwar Abstraction with artists like Nicolas de Staël and Vieira da Silva. Dina Vierny is a bastion of Modernism, founded by sculptor Aristide Maillol’s famous model of the same name. Rue Louise-Weiss has become an area for cutting-edge creativity and innovation known as “Scène Est.” The Air de Paris gallery is also popular. In the Marais try Yvon Lambert, Galerie Templon – specializing in American art, Galerie Sit Down, and Galerie du Jour Agnès B, and in the Bastille, Lavignes-Bastille and L et M Durand-Dessert, also a fashionable place to buy catalogs on new artists, if not their actual works.

AUCTIONS AND AUCTION HOUSES
The great Paris auction center, in operation since 1858, is Drouot-Richelieu. Bidding can be intimidating since most of it is done by dealers. Beware of the auctioneer’s high-speed patter.
La Gazette de L’Hôtel Drouot tells you what auctions are coming up when. Drouot- Richelieu has its own auction catalog as well. The house only accepts cash and French checks, but there is an exchange desk in house. A 10–15 percnt commission to the house is charged, so add it on to any price you hear. You may view from 11am to 6pm on the day before the sale, and from 11am to noon on the morning of the sale. Items considered not good enough for the main house are sold at Drouot-Nord. Here auctions take place from 9am to noon and viewing is just 5 minutes before the sales begin. The most prestigious auctions are held at Drouot-Montaigne.
The Crédit Municipal holds around 12 auctions a month, and almost all the items on sale are small objects and furs offloaded by rich Parisians. The rules follow those at Drouot. Information can also be found in La Gazette de L’Hôtel Drouot.
Service des Domaines sells all kinds of odds and ends, and here you can still find bargains. Many of the wares come from bailiffs and from Customs and Excise confiscations. Viewing is from 10am to 11:30am on the day of the sale in St-Maurice, southeast of the city.

DIRECTORY

ART GALLERIES
Adrian Maeght
42 Rue du Bac 75007.
Tel 01 45 48 45 15.

Air de Paris
32 Rue Louise-Weiss
75013.
Tel 01 44 23 02 77.

Dina Vierny
36 Rue Jacob 75006.
Tel 01 42 60 23 18.
www.galeriedinavierny.com

Galerie 1900–2000
8 Rue Bonaparte 75006.
Tel 01 43 25 84 20.

Galerie Jeanne Bucher
53 Rue de Seine 75006.
Tel 01 44 41 69 65.

Galerie du Jour Agnès B
44 Rue Quincampoix
75004.
Tel 01 44 54 55 90.

Galerie Lelong
13 Rue de Téhéran
75008.
Tel 01 45 63 13 19.

Galerie Sit Down
4 Rue Ste-Anastase
75003.
Tel 01 42 78 08 07.

Gallerie Templon
30 Rue Beaubourg
75003.
Tel 01 42 72 14 10.

Open by appt only.
L et M Durand-Dessert
28 Rue de Lappe 75011.
Tel 01 48 06 92 23.

Lavignes-Bastille
27 Rue de Charonne
75011.
Tel 01 47 00 88 18.

Louise Leiris
47 Rue de Monceau
75008.
Tel 01 45 63 28 85.

Rue Louise Weiss
75013.
Tel 01 45 63 20 56.

Yvon Lambert
108 Rue Vieille-du-Temple
75003.
Tel 01 42 71 09 33.

AUCTION HOUSES
Crédit Municipal
55 Rue des Francs-
Bourgeois 75004.
Tel 01 44 61 64 00.
www.creditmunicipal.fr

Drouot-Montaigne
15 Ave Montaigne
75008.
Tel 01 48 00 20 80.
www.drouot.fr

Drouot-Nord
64 Rue Doudeauville
75018.
Tel 01 48 00 20 20.

Drouot-Richelieu
9 Rue Drouot 75009.
Tel 01 48 00 20 20.

Service des Domaines
Tel 01 45 11 62 62.

EXPORTING
Comité National
Conseillers du Commerce
Extérieur de la France
22 Ave Franklin Roosevelt
75008.
Tel 01 53 83 92 92.
www.cnccef.org

Centre des Renseignements des Douanes
Tel 08 11 20 44 44.
www.douane.gouv.fr

MODERN CRAFTS AND FURNITURE
Cappellini
4 Rue des Rosiers 75004.
Tel 01 42 78 39 39.
www.cappellini.it

Sentou
24 Rue du Pont-Louis-
Philippe 75004.
Tel 01 42 71 00 01.

Le Viaduc des Arts
Ave Daumesnil 750012.
Tel 01 43 40 75 75.
This comprises a series of shops on the Avenue.

ANTIQUES AND OBJETS D’ART
Anne-Sophie Duval
5 Quai Malaquais 75006.
Tel 01 43 54 51 16.
www.annesophieduval.com

L’Arc en Seine 31 Rue de Seine 75006.
Tel 01 43 29 11 02.

La Calinière
68 Rue Vieille-du-Temple
75003.
Tel 01 42 77 40 46.

Didier Aaron
118 Rue du Faubourg-St-Honoré 75008.
Tel 01 47 42 47 34.
www.didieraaron-cie.com

Louvre des Antiquaires
2 Pl du Palais Royal
75001.
Tel 01 42 97 27 27.

Verreglass
32 Rue de Charonne
75011.
Tel 01 48 05 78 43.

Village St-Paul
Between the Quai des Célestins, the Rue St-Paul and the Rue Charlemagne
75004. Le Village Suisse
78 Ave de Suffren 75015.
www.levillagesuissparis.com

REPRODUCTIONS,POSTERS, PRINTS
Artcurial7 Rond Point des
Champs-Elysées 75008.
Tel 01 42 99 16 16.

Galerie Documents
53 Rue de Seine 75006.
Tel 01 43 54 50 68.

La Hune
170 Blvd St-Germain 75006.
Tel 01 45 48 35 85.

History of Paris

History of Paris

about france Unknown   10:26 AM

THE HISTORY OF PARIS

The Paris conquered by the Romans in 55 BC was a small flood-prone fishing village on the Ile de la Cité, inhabited by the Paris tribe. A Roman settlement soon flourished and spread onto the Left Bank of the Seine. The Franks succeeded the Romans, named the city Paris and made it the centre of their kingdom.

During the middle Ages the city flourished as a religious centre and architectural masterpieces

Such as Sainte-Chapelle were erected. It also thrived as a centre of learning, enticing European scholars to its great university, the Sorbonne.

Paris emerged during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment as a great centre of culture and ideas, and under the rule of Louis XIV it also became a city of immense wealth and power. But rule by the monarch gave way to rule by the people in the bloody Revolution of 1789. By the early years of the new century, revolutionary fervour had faded and the brilliant militarist Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed himself Emperor of France and pursued his ambition to make Paris the centre of the world.

Soon after the Revolution of 1848 a radical transformation of the city began. Baron Haussmann’s grand urban scheme replaced Paris’s medieval slums with elegant avenues and boulevards. By the end of the century, the city was the driving force of Western culture. This continued well into the 20th century, interrupted only by the German military occupation of 1940 – 44. Since the war, the city has revived and expanded dramatically, as it strives to be at the heart of a unified Europe.

The following pages illustrate Paris’s history by providing snap-shots of the significant periods in the city’s evolution.

PARIS AT A GLANCE

There are nearly 300 places of interest described in the Area by Area section of this book. A broad range of sights is covered: from the ancient Conciergerie and its grisly associations with the guillotine, to the modern Opera National de Paris Bastille; from the oldest house in Paris, No. 51 Rue de Montmorency to the exotic Musée du Quai Branly. To help make the most of your stay, the following 20 pages are a time-saving guide to the best Paris has to offer. Museums and galleries, historic churches, spacious parks, gardens and squares all have a section. There are also guides to Paris’s famous personalities. Each sight has a cross-reference to its own full entry. Below are the top tourist attractions to start you off.

By virtue of its strategic position on the Seine, Paris has always been the economic, political and artistic hub of France. Over the centuries, many prominent and influential figures from other parts of the country and abroad have come to the city to absorb its unique spirit. In return they have left their mark: artists have brought new movements, politicians new schools of thought, musicians and film makers new trends, and architects a new environment.

Remarkable Parisians In the early 18th-century, Jean-Antoine Watteautook the inspiration for his

Paintings from the Paris theatre. Half a century later, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, popular painter of the Rococo, lived and died here, financially ruined by the Revolution. Later, Paris became the cradle of Impressionism.

Its founders Claude Monet (1840–1926), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) and Alfred

Sisley (1839–99) met in a Paris studio. In 1907, Pablo Picasso Hugh Capet, count of Paris, became king of France in 987.

His palace was on the Ile de la Cité. Louis XIV, XV and XVI lived at Versailles but Napoleon preferred the Tuileries. Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642), the power

behind Louis XIII, created the Académie Française and the Palais-Royal. Today the president lives in the Palais de l’Elysée. (1881–1973) painted the seminal work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon at the Bateau-Lavoir, where Georges Braque (1882–1963), Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) and Marc Chagall (1887–1985) also lived. Henri de Toulouse-

Lautrec (1864–1901) drank and painted in Montmartre. So did Salvador Dalí (1904–89) who frequented the Café Cyrano, center of the Surrealists. The Paris School eventually moved to Montparnasse, home to sculptors Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957) and

Ossip Zadkine (1890–1967).

POLITICAL LEADERS

Paris has always been at the heart of French film. The prewar and immediate post-war classics were usually made on the sets of the Boulogne and Joinville studios, where whole areas of the city were reconstructed, such as the Canal St-Martin for Marcel Carné’s Hôtel du Nord. Jean-Luc Godard and other New Wave directors preferred to shoot outdoors. Godard’s A Bout de Souffle (1960) with

Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg was filmed in and around the Champs-Elysées.

Simone Signoret (1921– 1985) and Yves Montand (1921–1991), the most celebrated couple of French film, were long associated with the Ile de la Cité. Actresses such as Catherine Deneuve (b.1943) and Isabelle Adjani (b.1955) live in the city to be near their couturiers.

FILMS AND FILMMAKERS

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764), organist and pioneer of harmony, is associated with St-Eustache. Hector Berlioz (1803– 69) had his Te Deum first performed there in 1855, and Franz Liszt (1811–86) his Messe Solemnelle in 1866. A great dynasty of organists, the Couperins, gave recitals in St-Gervais– St-Protais.

The stage of the Opéra has seen many talents, but audiences have not always been appreciative. Richard Wagner (1813– 83) had his Tannhäuser booed down. George Bizet’s Carmen

MUSICIANS

(1838–75) was booed, as was Peléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy (1862–1918). Soprano Maria Callas (1923–77) gave triumphal performances here. The composer and conductor Pierre Boulez

(b.1925) has devoted his talent to experimental music at IRCAM near the Pompidou Centre, which he helped to found.

The diminutive chanteuse Edith Piaf (1915– 63), known for her nostalgic love-songs, began singing in the streets of Paris and then went on to tour the world. The acclaimed film about her life, La Vie en

Rose, was released in 2007.

Gothic, Classical, Baroque and

Modernist – all coexist in Paris. The most brilliant medieval architect was Pierre de Mon-treuil, who built Notre-Dame and

ARCHITECTS

French has been dubbed “the language of Molière”, after playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, alias Molière, (1622–73), who helped create the Comédie-Française, now situated near his home in Rue

Richelieu. On the Left Bank, the Odéon Théâtre de l’Europe was home to playwright Jean Racine (1639– 99). It is near the statue of Denis Diderot (1713–84), who published his Sainte-Chapelle. Louis Le Vau (1612–70) and Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646–1708) designed Versailles. Jacques-

Ange Gabriel (1698–1782) built the Petit Trianon and Place de la Concorde.

Haussmann (1809–91) gave the city its boulevards.

Gustave Eiffel (1832–1923) built his tower in 1889. A century later, I M Pei added the Louvre’s glass

pyramid, Jean Nouvel created the Institut du Monde Arabe and the Musée

du Quai Branly, while Dominique Perrault is behind the new Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

WRITERS

L’Encyclopédie between 1751 and 1776. Marcel Proust (1871–1922), author of the  13-volume Remembrance of Things Past, lived on the Boulevard Haussmann. To the existentialists, the district of St-Germain was the only place to be. Here Sylvia Beach welcomed James Joyce (1882–1941) to her bookshop on the Rue de l’Odéon. Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) and  F Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) wrote novels in Montparnasse. Paris has a Quartier Pasteur, a Boulevard Pasteur, a Pasteur

metro and the world-famous Institut Pasteur, all in honor of Louis Pasteur (1822–95), the great French chemist and biologist. His apartment and laboratory are faithfully preserved. The

Institut Pasteur is today home to Professor Luc Montagnier, who first isolated the AIDS virus in 1983. Discoverers of radium, Pierre (1859–1906) and Marie Curie (1867–1934), also worked in Paris. The Curies have been the subject of a long-running play in Paris, Les Palmes de M. Schutz.