Picasso, Matisse, Giacometti: masterpieces of the 20th century come to the Musée de l’Orangerie

It is an incredibly rich collection. The Orangerie Museum in Paris will host masterpieces by Matisse, Picasso, Klee and Giacometti, emblematic figures of modern art, belonging to the collection of Heinz Berggruen (1914-2007) from Wednesday. This German dealer-collector has put together an exceptional collection of his 20th century masters.

Until January 27, some 90 paintings, including almost half by Pablo Picasso, rare paper cutouts and a few paintings by Henri Matisse, numerous works on paper by Paul Klee, as well as sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, are on display. exposed. Almost all come from the Berggruen/Neue Nationalgalerie museum in Berlin, which houses the 300 works in the dealer’s collection, and loans from his family. The collection, transferred to the German state in 2000, has been installed there since the end of the 1990s.

Nuggets from Picasso or Matisse

Among the gems on display are a few pastels and a large cubist nude by Picasso and paper cutouts by Matisse, “among the most beautiful and rarest”according to Claire Bernardi, director of the museum and general curator with Gabriel Montua, her counterpart at the Berggruen Museum.

“It’s the kind of gift you don’t refuse.”rejoices Claire Bernardi. This “Parisian stopover” can also be explained because Heinz Berggruen, a German Jew born in 1914 in Berlin and exiled to California during the Second World War, “opened a gallery on his return to Europe, a stone’s throw from the Musée de l’Orangerie”she explains. This German collection also echoes that of the French merchant Paul Guillaume, exhibited at the Orangerie and “established 30 years before, between the two wars”she emphasizes.

A passionate collector

Heinz Berggruen “had magnificent 19th century works (Cézanne, Seurat, etc.) which he sold to gradually narrow his collection to the great figures of modern art like Picasso, whom he met and worked with, after purchasing a very first drawing by Paul Klee in 1940 in the United States, which he long considered a talisman. He will then offer several Klee to the modern art museum at the Center Pompidou, as well as to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

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The exhibition itinerary is designed around large sections such as the world of things, the face, the human figure or abstract territories, approximately half of the works (45) being by Picasso, bought and resold from the 1950s, but especially after the 80s.

A “Large Reclining Nude” by the Spanish master, dating from 1942, is the largest work in the collection. It echoes a statue, “large standing woman III” by Giacometti, probably the last work purchased by the dealer. A digital device, telling numerous anecdotes, also allows you to discover more precisely its friendly and artistic networks.