Henri Matisse was by any standards a prolific portrait painter but, incredibly, he painted well over one hundred portraits of his daughter Marguerite from her childhood to adulthood. These portraits bear witness not only to the talents of Matisse but also the bond between father and daughter. This chronologically-organised exhibition, at the Musée d’art Moderne de Paris, displayed around one hundred of these portraits which show a fascinating insight into the life of a woman who played a leading role in her father’s career.

Marguerite and her father in 1921

Marguerite was born in 1894 in Paris, her mother being one of her father’s models. Matisse married Amélie Parayre in 1898 and they brought up Marguerite as part of their family. Marguerite was ill as a child and underwent a tracheotomy operation, the scar from which she often hid with a black ribbon, visible in many of her father’s portraits.

During World War II, Marguerite joined the Resistance without her father’s knowledge. She was arrested by the Gestapo in May 1944 and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. However, despite being tortured, she managed to escape.

Marguerite spent much of her life cataloguing her father’s work and had nearly completed the task when she died of a heart attack in 1982.

Henri Matisse ‘Marguerite lisant’ (1906)

Henri Matisse ‘Marguerite’ (1906 -07)

Henri Matisse ‘Marguerite au chat noir’ (1910)

Henri Matisse ‘Tête blanche et rose’ (1914 – 15)

Henri Matisse ‘Marguerite au ruban de velours noir’ (1916)

Henri Matisse ‘Portrait de Marguerite’ (1918)

Henri Matisse ‘Marguerite au chapeau bleu’ (1918)

Henri Matisse ‘Le Thé (dans le jardin) (1919)

Henri Matisse ‘Marguerite endormie’ (1920)

Henri Matisse ‘Le paravent mauresque’ (1921)

Marguerite Matisse Self-Portraits (1918)

At the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris for an exhibition of the works of German expressionist artist Gabriele Münter.

Gabriele Münter met Wassily Kandinsky in Munich in 1902 when she enrolled in Kandinsky’s art class at the Phalanx artists association that he had set up with other artist friends. By the following year they had become a couple and they travelled extensively and worked together until they eventually settled back in Munich in 1908. In Munich they met Russian artists Alexej Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin, a couple who had met at St. Petersburg Academy of Art. In the summer of 1908, the four of them left Munich for a stay in the countryside in the small town of Murnau, where they worked together and developed a new expressive style of painting.

In January 1909, the four artists, together with others, founded an association they called the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Artists Association Munich). The Association held annual exhibitions at Galerie Thannhauser in Munich, although the critics’ reviews were scathing. In 1910, at the second exhibition, Franz Marc publicly gave his support and this led to him joining the group and Kandinsky and Marc soon became close allies. However, tensions within the Association eventually proved irreconcilable when, in December 1911, the jury of the group’s third exhibition rejected Kandinsky’s abstract painting ‘Composition V’. Kandinsky, Marc, and Münter resigned from the Association and organized their own show, the first exhibition of ‘Der Blaue Reiter’.

The Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris exhibition is the first retrospective in France devoted to Münter’s work. It shows around 170 works, including paintings, engravings, photographs and embroidered designs. It provides a detailed chronological journey through more than sixty years of her work and its importance for the history of twentieth-century art.

Gabriele Münter (1901)

Gabriele Münter ‘Portrait of Kandinsky’ (1906)

Gabriele Münter ‘Self-Portrait’ (1908)

Gabriele Munter ‘Habitante de Murnau (Roselle Leiss)’ (1909)

Gabriele Münter ‘Allée devant la montagne’ (c.1909)

Gabriele Münter ‘Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin’ (1909)

Gabriele Münter ‘Olga von Hartmann’ (c.1910)

Gabriele Munter ‘Femme dans ses pensées’ (1917)

Gabriele Munter ‘Rue principale de Murnau avec cheval et charrette (1922)

Gabriele Munter ‘Sténographie Suissesse in pyjama’ (1929)

Gabriele Munter ‘La lettre’ (1930)

Gabriele Munter ‘La maison de Munter a Murnau’ (1931)

Céntre Pompidou is holding the first monograph of the paintings of Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) in Paris since 1967. She was at the centre of the the Parisian modernist movements, first as a model and then as an artist in her own right. She grew up in poverty with her mother, who was an unmarried laundress in Montmartre. It is said that she taught herself to draw at a young age but that her ambition was to be a circus performer. Whilst she fulfilled this ambition, her circus career only lasted a year due to a back injury after a fall from the trapeze.

In 1883, aged 18, Valadon gave birth to a son, Maurice Utrillo, who also became an artist. After modelling for ten years from 1880 for artists such as Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, she befriended Edgar Degas who encouraged her drawing and painting. With his support she was admitted to professional associations and was able to exhibit at the Salon d’Automne, the Salon des Independants and in the Salon des Femmes Artistes Modernes. In 1895 she married a wealthy banker, Paul Mousis, and was able to become a full-time painter. In 1909, she began an affair with the artist André Utter, who she married in 1914 after divorcing Mousis the previous year. Valadon and Utter regularly exhibited work together until they divorced in 1934.

Suzanne Valadon died of a stroke on 7 April 1938, at the age of 72. Among those in attendance at the funeral were her friends and colleagues Pablo Picasso, André Derain and Georges Braque.

Suzanne Valadon ‘Jeune fille faisant du crochet’ (c.1892)

Suzanne Valadon ‘Adam et Eve’ (1909)

Suzanne Valadon ‘Joie de vivre’ (1911)

Suzanne Valadon ‘Portrait de famille’ (1912)

Suzanne Valadon ‘Le Lancement du filet’ (1914)

Suzanne Valadon ‘Portrait de Mauricia Coquiot’ (1915)

Suzanne Valadon ‘Nu assis sur un canopé’ (1916)

Suzanne Valadon ‘La Poupée Délaissée’ (1921)

Suzanne Valadon ‘La Chambre bleue’ (1923)

Anonymous ‘Suzanne Valadon surrounded by two dogs’ (c.1930)

After the devastating fire of April 2019, it is amazing to be able to visit the restored Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris just six years later and witness the results of the incredible work that has been done to bring this gothic marvel back to life.

Notre Dame de Paris, April 2019

Notre Dame de Paris, before the fire

Construction of Notre Dame began in 1163 under the reign of King Louis VII and the cathedral was largely completed by 1345. The architecture of the new cathedral was in line with a new style known as ‘francigenum opus’, now known as gothic. The cathedral is said to hold some of the most important relics of the Christian church, the treasury housing reliquaries containing the Crown of Thorns, a fragment of the True Cross, one of Christ’s nails, and the linen shirt of Saint Louis. Before the 2019 fire, more than twelve million people a year visited the cathedral to marvel at the building and to see its treasures.

The fire destroyed the spire, much of the roof and caused extensive damage to the interior of the cathedral. The roof frame needed to be rebuilt by hand by carpenters who used one thousand oak trees to complete the task. To replicate the original frame as closely as possible, the tools used were based on those from the middle ages.

The restored roof structure above the nave

The cathedral encased in scaffolding during the restoration

The restoration of the vaults

The restored nave, Notre Dame de Paris

Altar, Notre Dame de Paris

The exhibition ‘La Collection’ at the Musée Picasso is a re-presentation of the museum’s collection offering a comprehensive overview of the works of the artist. The museum collection was created thanks to two donations, successively made to the State by the heirs of Pablo Picasso in 1979 and then by those of Jacqueline Picasso in 1990, which have been supplemented by other collections. The museum now holds 5000 works, including 300 paintings.

Pablo Picasso ‘Self-Portrait’ (1901)

Pablo Picassoi ‘Trois figures sous un abre’ (1908)

Pablo Picasso ‘Guitare’ (1912)

Pablo Picasso ‘Verre, bouteille de vin, paquet de tabac, journal’ (1914)

Pablo Picasso ‘Portrait d’Olga dans un fauteuil’ (1918)

Pablo Picasso ‘Paul en Arlequin’ (1924)

Pablo Picasso ‘La Nageuse’ (1929)

Pablo Picasso ‘Peintre à la palette et au chevalet’ (1928)

Pablo Picasso ‘Portrait de Marie-Thérèse Walter’ (1937)

A busy few days in Paris with lots to see, starting with a fascinating exhibition at the Musée Picasso.

In 1937, Adolf Hitler had an exhibition set up in Munich to display all the art that he believed degenerate.. ‘Entartete Kunst’ (‘Degenerate Art’) showed more than 650 paintings, sculptures and prints that had, until a few weeks earlier, been in the possession of thirty-two German public museum collections. The works were assembled solely for the purpose of clarifying for the German public by defamation and derision exactly what type of art was unacceptable to the Reich.

When the National Socialists came to power they began a systematic campaign to remove modern art from public museum collections. For Hitler, an attack on modernism was an opportunity to use the average German’s distrust of avant-garde art to further his political objectives against Jews, Communists, and non-Aryans. The charge of ‘degeneracy’ was also levelled at avant-garde or ‘un-German’ practitioners of music, theatre, film and literature, and their works were confiscated to purify German culture.

During the four months that ‘Entartete Kunst’ was open in Munich it attracted more than two million visitors; over the next three years it travelled throughout Germany and Austria and was seen by nearly one million more. On most days twenty thousand visitors saw the exhibition, and records show that on one day, Sunday 2 August 1937, thirty-six thousand people saw it. According to newspaper accounts, five times as many people visited ‘Entartete Kunst’ as saw ‘The Great German Art Exhibition’, an exhibition also running in Munich at the same time which showed officially-approved art.

Weimar Republic Germany had witnessed an explosion of modern art, literature, music and film created by individuals who would be labelled ‘degenerate’ in the 1930s. The emergence of artists’ groups such as ‘Die Brücke’ and ‘Der Blaue Reiter’ and the publication of radical periodicals to which these artists contributed, characterized German Expressionism. These Expressionist artists were influenced by the exotic; for example, the carvings and wall hangings of African and Oceanic peoples in the Dresden Volkerkunde-Museum. This was all ‘proof’ that German art was being infiltrated and tainted by degenerates.

‘L’art dégénéré – le procès de l’art moderne sous le nazisme’ at the Musée Picasso is the first exhibition in France devoted to so-called ‘degenerate’ art, It explores and puts into perspective the methodical attack of the Nazi regime against modern art.

Vincent van Gogh ‘L’Arlésienne’ (1888)

Pablo Picasso ‘La famille Soler’ (1903)

Oskar Kokoschka ‘La père Hirsch’ (1909)

Wassily Kandinsky ‘Landscape with Factory Chimney’ (1910)

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner ‘Street, Berlin’ (1913)

George Grosz ‘Metropolis’ (1916 – 17)

Pablo Picasso ‘Seated Nude drying her Foot’ (1921)

Marc Chagall ‘Le prise (Rabbin)’ (1923 – 26)

Otto Dix ‘Portrait of the painter Franz Radziwill’ (1928)

Back at the Halle aux Grains in Toulouse for a fascinating programme of works by Claude Debussy, Ernest Bloch and Gustav Mahler. I was particularly looking forward to seeing the performance of the wonderful Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta

The evening began with Debussy’s ‘Prelude à l’Après-midi d’un faun’. Inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem, it was composed in 1892 and premiered in 1894. It was originally intended to be part of a three-movement symphony but Debussy retained only the Prelude, which has since become a favourite part of the repertoire. It was beautifully played, with the flute part being particularly noteworthy.

The first part of the evening was completed by Ernest Bloch’s ‘Schelomo – Rhapsodie hébraïque pour violincelle’. It draws on Bloch’s Jewish heritage and is inspired by the biblical figure of Solomon, whose voice is said to be represented by the cello. I had never seen this live before and it was a special treat to see it being performed by Sol Gabetta, who played it with great feeling, bringing an enthusiastic response from the audience.

Sol Gabetta (photograph Julia Wesely)

Tarmo Peltokoski and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no. 1 in D major, composed in 1888, is one of my favourite works to see in concert. I have seen it many times but tonight’s performance was possibly the best of all. The orchestra were really on fire and played superbly. Woodwinds and percussion were particularly impressive but all sections played really well and conductor Tarmo Peltokoski was called back several times.

Claude Debussy: ‘Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune’; Ernest Bloch: ‘Schelomo, Rhapsodie hébraïque pour violoncelle et orchestre’; Gustav Mahler: ‘Symphony no. 1 in D major’.

A great musical start to the new year with an excellent performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony by the Orchestre Nationale de Toulouse under Tarmo Peltokoski, the joint choirs of l’Opera National du Capitole and l’Opera Orchestre National Montpellier and soloists Albert Dohmen (bass), Tuomas Katajala (tenor), Tuija Knihtilä (mezzo-soprano) and Elsa Dreisig (soprano).

The symphony was really well played throughout; however, I particularly enjoyed the joyous, fast moving second movement, one of my favourite scherzos, and, of course, the fourth, choral movement. The latter was well sung by all four soloists, with Albert Dohmen’s bass being clear and well-projected in introducing the Ode to Joy. However, it was the joint choirs of l’Opera National du Capitole and l’Opera Orchestre National Montpellier who stole the show – they sang wonderfully and with great intensity, bringing the work to a thrilling end.

Beethoven: Symphony no. 9 in D minor, Opus 125.

Giants

66 million years ago, all marine and flying reptiles as well as the dinosaurs, apart from the birds, were wiped out in a mass extinction caused by a meteorite colliding with Earth. This then allowed the development of small mammals who gradually filled the habitats left free. With few predators many of these grew to reach gigantic proportions. The Natural History Museum of Toulouse exhibition ‘Giants’ displays eight species from the Cenozoic era with a mixture of skeletons and 3D sculptures.  

Smilodon populator (Uruguay)

Although commonly known as the sabre-toothed tiger, Smilodon was not closely related to the tiger. It was one of the last-surviving machairodonts and lived during the Pleistocene epoch.

Gastornis laurenti (France)

Gastornis laurenti was a species of giant flightless bird that lived in the Early Eocene period, 52 million years ago.

Megatherium americanum (South America)

Megatherium is an extinct genus of giant ground sloth that lived in South America around 25 million years ago.

It was also an opportunity to see the Museum’s permanent collection celebrating the planet’s biodiversity. Particularly interesting was the collection of prehistoric fossils and an impressive display of tribal masks.

Fossils

Echinoderms and trilobites (Morocco)

Crinoid Hapalocrinus frechi (Germany)

Crinoids Jimbacrinus bostocki (Australia)

Ichthyosaur Ichthyosaurus tenuirostris (Germany)

Pygopterus Pygopterus humboldti (Germany)

Masks

Ejumba mask (Diola culture, Sénégal)

Eharo mask (Elema culture, Papua New Guinea)

Tamanoir mask (Kayapo culture, Brazil)

Yaka mask (Democratic Republic of Congo)

At the Halle aux Grains, Toulouse, for the opening concert of the 2024 – 25 season, with the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse under its new director, Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski.

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 is a massive work utilising an enormous orchestra, choirs and soloists that deals with massive subjects such as death and resurrection. In a way it is a continuation of the journey begun in his First Symphony, but on a much larger scale.

I found this evening’s first movement to be a bit patchy with the exposition lacking a little tension; however, things were not helped by a large section of the audience surprisingly deciding to applaud about three-quarters of the way through. At the end of the first movement Tarmo Peltokoski unusually took Mahler’s full stipulated pause before launching the Andante and from here on the performance was excellent and it got better as it went on. The inner movements were impeccably executed with the woodwinds, brass and percussion being particularly impressive.

The work gets its name, ‘Resurrection’, from the final movement when the choir enters singing “Aufersteh’n, ja aufersteh’n” (“Rise again, yes, rise again”). The joint choirs of l’Opéra national du Capitole and Radio France performed it superbly and the voices of the soloists, Finnish soprano Silja Aalto and German mezzo Wiebke Lehmkuhl, were clear and bright, even if their position in the middle of the orchestra meant that they didn’t soar above the brass as much as they might have done had they been at the front.

Overall, it was an extremely enjoyable beginning to the season and to Tarmo Peltokoski’s tenure, with much to look forward to.