2023-11-07 12:00:25
“The Basket of Wild Strawberries” (1761), by Jean Siméon Chardin, exhibited at the Turquin auction house, in Paris, January 20, 2022. STÉPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP
The Louvre wanted it. He should be able to buy it soon. The Wild Strawberry Basket, by Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), could join the walls of the Parisian museum which, on Tuesday November 7, launched a public subscription under the title “All patrons! » to complete the financing.
The Louvre already has the most important collection of Chardin still lifes in the world, forty-one works. But he lacks this icon from his late period, painted in 1761, when the artist was at the height of his career, the only one where this motif of bright red strawberries appears. “It’s the perfect picture of exceptional execution”enthuses Laurence des Cars, president of the Louvre, recalling the fascination that this painting had on 19th century artists. “Manet saw this painting. We then see this strawberry motif appear in his home and then in Renoir’s work.”she details, inexhaustible.
The work had also caught the eye of the Goncourt brothers, who wrote in 1863: “And this is the miracle of the things that Chardin paints: modeled in the mass and around their contours, drawn with their light, made, so to speak, from the soul of their color, they seem to stand out from the canvas and come to life, through some marvelous optical operation between the canvas and the spectator, in space. »
“National treasure” label
Since the 19th century, this still life has been in the possession of the descendants of Eudoxe Marcille (1814-1890), a great collector keen on French painting. For decades now, the Louvre has been aiming to buy it. When the still life appeared in March 2022 at Artcurial, the Parisian museum was taken by surprise. The Wild Strawberry Basket was awarded for 24.3 million euros on behalf of the Kimbell Art Museum, located in Fort Worth, Texas. Impossible for the Louvre to preempt it: its acquisition budget caps at 13 million euros per year. The Ministry of Culture then suspended the sale and blocked its export by awarding it the “national treasure” label. The State then has thirty months to raise the sum.
Read the story: Article reserved for our subscribers “The Basket of Wild Strawberries”, by Chardin, classified as a “national treasure” by the State
Laurence des Cars turns to the LVMH group, whose name stands out as soon as the works are calculated in tens of millions. When she chaired the Musée d’Orsay, she had already asked him to purchase another “national treasure”, the Boat party (around 1877-1878), by Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), with a tidy value of 43 million euros.
Read the story: Article reserved for our subscribers The Musée d’Orsay is enriched with a painting by Caillebotte estimated at 43 million euros
In the case of Chardin, Laurence des Cars only asked Bernard Arnault’s group for two thirds of the necessary sum, or 15 million euros. Did the Louvre wish to debunk criticism of the law on “national treasures”, which allows a company to benefit from a corporate tax reduction equal to 90% of its payments and a strong media coverage with regard to the amount actually paid?
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