At the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris for the ‘Icons of Modern Art – Sergei Shchukin’ exhibition. The exhibition shows 130 works on loan from museums in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, one of the most significant collections of modern art of the early twentieth century, with works by Monet, Matisse, Picasso, Gauguin, Cézanne, Rousseau and Derain. It is incredible that one man could have built such a collection as Sergei Shchukin and it must have been devastating to lose it when it was appropriated by Lenin after the Russian Revolution.

Claude Monet ‘Dejeuner sur l’Herbe’ (1866)

Paul Gauguin ‘What, Are you Jealous?’ (1892)

Pablo Picasso ‘Portrait of Soler’ (1903)

Henri Matisse ‘Red Room (Harmony in Red)’ (1908)

Kazimir Malevich ‘Woman with a Rake’ (1930 – 32)

At the Musée d’Orsay, Paris for the exhibition ‘Frédéric Bazille: The Youth of Impressionism’. Bazille was a key figure at the birth of Impressionism, but he died tragically at the age of only 28 during the Franco-Prussian War.

Frédéric Bazille ‘Réunion de Famille’ (c.1867)

Frédéric Bazille ‘La vue de Village’ (1868)

Frédéric Bazille ‘Summer Scene’ (1869)

Frédéric Bazille ‘Jeune femme aux Pivoines’ (1870)

At the Louvre in Paris to view the Italian and Northern Renaissance collections.

Giotto ‘Saint Francis receiving the Stigmatization’ (c.1295 – 1300)

Fra Angelico ‘Coronation of the Virgin’ (c.1430 – 32)

Paolo Uccello ‘The Battle of San Romano’ (c.1435 – 40)

Andrea Mantegna ‘Saint Sebastian’ (c.1480)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘Portrait of Lisa Gherardini’ (c.1503 – 19)

Jan van Eyck ‘Madonna of Chancellor Rolin’ (c.1435)

Rogier van der Weyden ‘Annunciation’ (c.1434)

Jan Provoost ‘Allegory of Christianity’ (1510 – 15)

Hans Memling ‘Portrait of an Old Woman’ (1470 – 72)

R.I.P Leonard Cohen, who has died aged 82.   I was introduced to his music when I was a teenager by the wonderful ‘Songs of Leonard Cohen’ album and to his writing by his novel ‘Beautiful Losers’.

I was lucky enough to be able to see him live on his famous 1979 tour, backed by the excellent Texas band ‘Passenger’, and immortalized on the ‘Field Commander Cohen’ album. He was a wonderful songwriter and poet.