At the Louvre, Paris, for the spectacular exhibition of the works of Leonardo da Vinci on the five-hundredth anniversary of his death. Although Leonardo was born in Italy in 1452, he died in Amboise in the Loire Valley, France in 1519, where he was in the service of Francis I, King of France.

The exhibition was presented chronologically, beginning with exquisite drapery studies drawn during Leonardo’s apprenticeship in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, and then followed his career from Florence to Milan to Rome and finally to France.

Whilst there are a limited number of paintings by Leonardo, the exhibition used other means to fill out his story. For example, infrared reflectograms and preliminary drawings allowed the process of his artistic technique to be examined. However, it was the inclusion of amazing notebooks such as the Codex Leicester and Manuscript B, with drawings and text in Leonardo’s hand, which best illustrate his extraordinary talents – with their designs for a helicopter and a tank, studies of the bones and muscles of the human body, drawings from the natural world and the findings of his scientific experiments.

Leonardo da Vinci ‘Benois Madonna’ (c.1480 – 82)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘Saint Jerome in the Wilderness’ (1480  – 90)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘Portrait of a Musician’ (c.1483 – 90)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘Virgin of the Rocks’ (c.1483 – 94)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘Manuscrit B’ (c.1487 – 89)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘Vitruvian Man’ (c.1490)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘La Belle Ferronniere’ (1490 – 97)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne’ (c.1503 – 19)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘Codex Leicester’ (1506 – 10)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘Saint John the Baptist’ (c.1508 – 19)

At the Grand Palais for the first major retrospective of the work of El Greco in France. Domenico Theotokopolous, known as El Greco, was born in Crete in 1541. He travelled to both Venice and Rome before setting in Toledo, Spain, where he made his name.

Whilst his extreme Mannerist style with elongated figures was puzzling to his contemporaries, he was very influential with later artists, including Picasso, who is said to have based some of the figures in ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ on El Greco’s ‘The Vision of Saint John’.

El Greco ‘The Disrobing of Christ’ (c.1579)

El Greco ‘Saint Dominic in Prayer’ (c.1585 – 90)

El Greco ‘Saint Martin and the Beggar’ (1597 – 99)

El Greco ‘Portrait of Cardinal Niño de Guevara’ (c.1600)

El Greco ‘Saint Luke’ (c.1605)

El Greco ‘Laocoon’ (c.1610)

El Greco ‘The Vision of Saint John’ (1610 – 14)

At the Grand Palais in Paris for an extremely comprehensive and well-presented exhibition of the works of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, the chronicler of Montmartre life and culture in the late nineteenth century.

Toulouse-Lautrec was born in Albi in south-west France, into an aristocratic family. However, childhood injuries that did not heal properly left him extremely short. After recognising that he had some artistic talent his parents arranged for him to have training, although he soon began to rebel against academic art and he set up his own studio in Montmartre, then one of the poorest areas of Paris.

He painted his friends and models as well as singers and dancers he met in the Moulin Rouge. He also frequented the brothels of the region and painted the prostitutes he met there. He was also particularly talented at producing advertising posters, first for the night clubs and theatres and later for commercial companies.

Towards the end of his short life, he died aged thirty-six, he suffered from alcoholism and probably also syphilis and was confined to a clinic. He died from a stroke whilst on holiday on the Atlantic coast of France. Despite his short career Toulouse-Lautrec produced 737 canvases, 275 watercolours, 369 prints and posters and over 5000 drawings.

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec ‘Equestrienne at the Cirque Fernando’ (1887 – 88)

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec ‘The Redhead in a White Blouse’ (1889)

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec ‘At the Moulin Rouge’ (1892 – 95)

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec ‘Moulin Rouge, La Goulue’ (1891)

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec ‘Les Ambassadeurs, Aristide Bruant’ (1893)

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec ‘Jardin de Paris, Jane Avril’ (1893)

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec ‘At the Salon, rue des Moulins’ (1894)

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec ‘The Jockey’ (1899)

The Alana Collection is one of the most important private collections of Italian Renaissance art and is normally based in the United States. This was the first time it had been exhibited to the general public. Over seventy-five works from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century were on display, including paintings by Lorenzo Monaco, Fra Angelico, Paolo Uccello, Giovanni Bellini and Vittore Carpaccio.

Nardo di Cione ‘Annunciation’ (c.1350 – 55)

Lorenzo Monaco ‘Annunciation’ (c.1420 – 24)

Filippo Lippi ‘St. John the Evangelist’ (c.1432 – 34)

Filippino Lippi ‘St. Ubald and St. Frediano’ (1496)

Pontormo ‘Portrait of a Lute Player’ (c.1529 – 30)

At La Chapelle du Saillant in Voutezac in the Corrèze region of France, to see the beautiful stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall.

In Limoges in the Haut-Vienne region of France for a concert by the Orchestre de l’Opera de Limoges, conducted from the piano by François-Frédéric Guy. The first half contained Mozart’s ‘Piano Concerto no. 12’, followed by the world premiere performance of Aurélien Dumont’s fascinating ‘Ecoumène Concerto for Piano and Orchestra’, whilst the second half was a very well-received performance of Beethoven’s ‘Symphony no. 7’.

François-Frédéric Guy

Mozart: ‘Piano Concerto no. 12 in A major’ (K414); Aurélien Dumont: ‘Ecoumène Concerto for Piano and Orchestra’; Beethoven: ‘Symphony no. 7’.