Monet, cabaret and absinthe: Paris yearns for 'la
belle époque'
French national confidence is
in sharp decline – but Paris 1900, an exhibition at the Petit Palais devoted to
the capital's golden age, might reclaim some pride
Kim Willsher in Paris
The Observer, Saturday 15 February 2014 / http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/15/paris-1900-belle-epoque-exhibition-petit-palais
It is 1900
in Paris and the "city of light" is at its
most glittering. The "long depression" of the late 19th century is
over, the horrors of the Great War are yet to come and la belle époque – as it
would come to be known – is in full swing.
Fauré, Saint Saëns, Debussy and Ravel are making music;
Rodin is working on The Thinker. Renoir, Monet, Cézanne, Pissarro and Degas are
busy painting scenes depicting everyday life in the city; Pablo Picasso,
recently arrived from Spain, is about to embark on his Blue Period.
By day, the Dreyfus affair still divides France and throws
up new political movements. By night, the cabarets of Pigalle entertain
absinthe drinkers and card players and Sarah Bernhardt captures hearts in the
short "talking movie" Le Duel d'Hamlet.
Emile Zola is writing Travail (published the following year
when his compatriot, Sully Prudhomme, was to win the first Nobel prize for
literature) but has turned his hand to photographing the Universal Exhibition,
the event that will capture the spirit of the new century and France's idea of
itself as the cultural, innovative and inspiring centre of the new world. It is
a period of peace and prosperity; France is confident, optimistic and looking
outward on a sizeable empire (second only to Britain's).
This is still the city many foreigners imagine when they
think of Paris. But it is a far cry from Paris 2014. The "temporary"
Eiffel Tower, a relative novelty in 1900, may still be standing. There is peace
and a certain prosperity in the Haussmann boulevards of chic arrondissements
with their designer shops and Michelin-starred restaurants. But France is
morose, inward looking, pessimistic by nature, unsure of itself and so lacking
in confidence that even a teasing, if unflattering, photograph of its president
on the front page of the Guardian can cause a national trauma and accusations
of "le French bashing".
Enter Christophe Leribault, 49, the energetic new director
of the Petit Palais and the man behind a new exhibition that will take the
French capital back to its glorious past. Who? Where? Leribault is not a
household name, even in France, and Le Petit Palais, officially the Paris
Museum of Fine Arts, is only marginally so.
The museum, a stunning edifice built on the right bank of
the Seine in 1900, is, as its name would suggest, overshadowed by its big
sister next door, Le Grand Palais. Leribault, described by colleagues as
looking like an "eternal adolescent", arrived at Le Petit Palais a
year ago and decided that the very select and specific exhibitions it had
organised until then were not going to put it on the tourist map, despite its
location yards from the Champs Elysées.
The Paris 1900 exhibition, which will run from 2 April to 17
August, is the culmination of Leribault's efforts to get the museum noticed at
home and abroad. This week he will travel to London to meet journalists to
"create a buzz" around the event.
Leaping up from his desk to delve among the piles of
catalogues in his office, Leribault hopes he will still have time to visit the
Tate, the National Gallery and buy some art books during his cross-Channel day
trip.
Paris 1900 will feature 600 exhibits as eclectic as la belle
époque itself. There are, of course, the paintings, but also clothes, posters,
photographs, films, furniture, jewellery, sculptures and even restaurant menus
from the era.
It also promises "scientific and technical innovations,
cultural effervescence and Parisian elegance".
The exhibition is arranged around the theme of the Universal
Exhibition, entitled Paris, Window on the World.
Leribault admits that it has become a mythical era, but
adds: "Paris is still living off that image. If you go to Japan or China,
that is the picture people have of the city."
He added: "There was an atmosphere of optimism and life
being one big party at the time. Of course, nobody imagined what would happen
afterwards with the outbreak of the first world war. If they thought war would
happen, they imagined it would be over quickly.
"French gastronomy was becoming more widely known and
Paris was showing not just its cultural and inventive side, but its festive
side. There was opera, theatre, circuses and Paris by night, including the
maisons closes [brothels] and fashion.
"Paris was one great party. There was a spirit of
confidence, of joie de vivre, with so many things going on at the same time.
Even the future king of England came to Paris to enjoy himself. It was the
capital of everything. It was one big party with elements of the funfair about
it," Leribault adds.
Leribault is coming to London not just to sell the
exhibition, but also Le Petit Palais itself, situated on Winston Churchill
Avenue and long overlooked as a museum despite a major renovation seven years
ago.
The Beaux Arts style building, designed by Charles Girault,
was intended to be a temporary structure, like the Eiffel Tower, but won over
Paris residents who refused to let it be torn down.
It has been nicknamed a "mini-Louvre" but without
the crowds and the school groups, and with the bonus of free entry to the
permanent exhibition, as well as a peaceful cafe and a beautiful garden.
Leribault says that the new exhibition will remind Parisians, and foreign
visitors, of what was, perhaps, one of the city's finest hours.
"La belle époque was very fluid artistically; there
were lots of different movements and excesses. People were saying, 'we don't
know where we are going but lots of things are happening and we are going to
have pleasure and fun. We may even mock ourselves, that's how fun it is.'
"Of course, everything collapsed 14 years later with
the outbreak of war. But in 1900 nobody had any idea of what was going to
happen. In that sense it's a fascinating period."
He added: "And if the myth of la belle époque has
endured until now, it's not just because of the contrast with the horror of the
Great War that came after it, but because it is founded on a real cultural
abundance."
L’exposition « Paris 1900, la Ville spectacle » invite le
public à revivre les heures fastes de la capitale française au moment où elle
accueille l’Exposition Universelle qui inaugure en fanfare le 20e siècle. Plus
que jamais la ville rayonne aux yeux du monde entier comme la cité du luxe et
de l’art de vivre. Plus de 600 oeuvres – peintures, objets d’art, costumes,
affiches, photographies, films, meubles, bijoux, sculptures… - plongeront les
visiteurs du Petit Palais dans le Paris de la Belle Epoque. Les innovations
techniques, l’effervescence culturelle, l’élégance de la Parisienne seront mis
en scène comme autant de mythologies de ce Paris dont la littérature et le
cinéma n’ont cessé depuis de véhiculer l’image dans le monde entier.
Dans une scénographie inventive intégrant le tout nouveau
cinématographe au fil du parcours, le visiteur est convié à un voyage semblable
à celui des 51 millions de touristes qui affluèrent à Paris en 1900.
Le parcours organisé autour de six « pavillons » débute par
une section intitulée « Paris, vitrine du monde » évoquant l’Exposition
Universelle. A cette occasion, les nouvelles gares de Lyon, d’Orsay et des
Invalides sont construites tout comme la première ligne du « métropolitain ».
Des projets architecturaux, des peintures, des films mais aussi de pittoresques
objets souvenirs et des éléments de décors sauvegardés, rappelleront cette
manifestation inouïe.
Mais Paris 1900 ne saurait se résumer à l’Exposition
Universelle : la Ville lumière proposait bien d’autres occasions
d’émerveillement et de dépenses. Dans les magasins de luxe et les galeries
d’art, les amateurs pouvaient découvrir les créations des inventeurs de l’Art
Nouveau, présenté ici au sein d’un second pavillon dédié aux chefs-d’oeuvre de
Gallé, Guimard, Majorelle, Mucha, Lalique…
La troisième section dévolue aux Beaux-Arts démontre la
place centrale de Paris sur la scène artistique. À cette époque, tous les
talents convergent vers la capitale pour se former dans les ateliers, exposer
dans les Salons et vendre grâce aux réseaux montants des galeries d’art. Des
toiles du finlandais Edelfelt, de l’espagnol Zuloaga ou de l’américain Stewart,
évoqueront ce climat international. Mais l’accrochage confronte aussi les
oeuvres de Cézanne, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Vuillard, avec celles de Gérôme,
de Bouguereau ou Gervex, gloires acclamées tant de l’Académisme que de
l’Impressionnisme enfin reconnu, du Symbolisme tardif ou de figures plus
nouvelles, comme Maillol ou Maurice Denis, tandis que triomphe l’art d’un
Rodin.
Le visiteur découvre ensuite les créations d’une mode
parisienne triomphante qui affichaient son succès dès l’entrée de l’Exposition
Universelle dont la porte monumentale était surmontée d’une figure de
Parisienne habillée par Jeanne Paquin. Les maisons de couture de la rue de la
Paix attirent un monde cosmopolite et richissime, qu’imitent les midinettes.
Les plus beaux trésors du Palais Galliera, telle la célèbre cape de soirée
signée du couturier Worth, seront accompagnés de grands portraits mondains par
La Gandara ou Besnard, et d’évocation du monde des modistes et des trottins
sous le pinceau aussi bien de Jean Béraud que d’Edgar Degas.
Les deux derniers pavillons offriront une plongée dans le
Paris des divertissements : des triomphes de Sarah Bernhardt à ceux d’Yvette
Guilbert, de Pelléas et Mélisande de Debussy à l’Aiglon de Rostand, de l’opéra
au café-concert, du cirque à la maison close. Autant d’illustrations des côtés
brillants et obscurs d’une cité qui se livrait sans compter afin de conforter
l’idée qu’elle demeurait la capitale du monde et la reine des plaisirs. Les
lieux mythiques comme le Moulin Rouge ou le Chat Noir, deviennent les sujets
favoris d’artistes comme Toulouse-Lautrec. Des grandes demi-mondaines Liane de
Pougy ou la belle Otero à l’enfer de la prostitution et de la drogue,
l’exposition montre l’envers du décor, thèmes qui se révéleront être des sujets
porteurs de révolutions esthétiques.
Si le mythe de la Belle Epoque a perduré jusqu’à
aujourd’hui, ce n’est pas seulement par contraste avec l’horreur de la Grande
Guerre qui lui succéda, c’est bien parce qu’il repose sur un foisonnement
culturel réel dont cette exposition veut rappeler la force inégalée. Plus beau
joyau architectural subsistant de l’année 1900 à Paris, le Petit Palais
consacre enfin à cette époque phare une grande exposition, accompagnée d’un
programme événementiel et d’un parcours complémentaire dans les galeries
permanentes enrichies de toiles inédites des collections : un juste hommage
comme jamais Paris ne l’avait encore proposé.
Commissaires :
Christophe LERIBAULT, directeur du Petit Palais
Alexandra BOSC, conservateur au musée Galliera
Dominique LOBSTEIN, historien de l’art
Gaëlle RIO, conservateur au Petit Palais
The birth of the first International Exhibition in 1855 was fueled by a desire to re-establish pride and faith in each nation after a period of war. The succession of exhibitions followed in the same pattern; the regeneration of nationality after war. Eight years before the launch of the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle the Republic of France announced the exhibition to be one which welcomed and celebrated the coming of a new century. Countries from around the world were invited by France to showcase their achievements and lifestyles; the Exposition Universelle was a uniting and learning experience. It presented the opportunity for foreigners to realize the similarities between nations as well as the unique differences. New cultures were experienced and an overall better understanding of the values each country had to offer was gained. The learning atmosphere aided in the attempts to increase cultural tolerance, necessary after a period of war. The early announcement and the massively positive response disenchanted the interest that had been circling around the first German International Exposition. The support for the exhibition was widespread, countries immediately began to plan their exhibits, but despite the enthusiasm the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle was not a financial success as only two thirds of the expected public was in attendance. It is suspected that the Exposition Universelle did not do as financially well as expected because the general public did not have the funds to participate in the fair.
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