Privates Collections. A journey from the Impressionists to the Fauves

Private Collections: From the Impressionists to the Fauves, presented at the musée Marmottan Monet, Paris (13 september 2018 - 10 feb. 2019).

The exhibition itinerary opens with nineteen works by Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Degas, and Caillebotte. Landscapes executed at Bordighera, Belle-Ile, Rouen, and Varengeville, bouquets of chrysanthemums and other still lifes, elegant portraits of women, and genre scenes feature in this section, which is organised around Gustave Caillebotte’s spectacular Pont de l’Europe, the artist’s last monumental masterpiece held in a private collection. The neo-Impressionist section includes rare works by Seurat, Signac, Van Rysselberghe, and Van Gogh.

The itinerary continues with Gauguin and the École de Pont-Aven, brilliantly highlighted through major works by Emile Bernard, including Le Printemps (‘Spring’)and Les lutteurs (‘The wrestlers’), which are being presented for the first time in Paris. The exhibition also includes three major paintings by the emblematic Toulouse-Lautrec.

In the sculpture section, Camille Claudel stands out with four works, including a previously unseen plaster entitled La petite chatelaine (‘The little chatelaine’). Also on display is a marble piece by Rodin, Tête de Saint Jean Baptiste(‘Head of John the Baptist’), and Bourdelle’sTête d’Apollon (‘Head of Apollo’) in gilded bronze.

These are followed by the Nabis: Bonnard, Vuillard, and, lastly, Odilon Redon whose Le Quadrige, le char d’Apollon(Chariot of Apollo) is a major work in the exhibition. The itinerary continues with Matisse, one of whose early works,Côte sauvage, Belle-Ile-en -mer, is somewhat reminiscent of Monet’s Pyramides de Port Coton, effet de soleil(‘The Pyramids at Port-Coton, Sunlight Effect’), exhibited at the start of the exhibition itinerary. Fauve works by Derain, Vlaminck, Dufy, and Van Dongen complete the exhibition, which takes visitors on a journey through time and is an ode to colour—a truly dazzling itinerary.