PARIS.- Paris Tableau 2013 was very successful, with 6000 visitors enjoying works presented by 24 carefully selected French and International exhibitors. Attendance has grown steadily since the fairs inception and its profile is increasingly international. The attendance of curators from numerous museums including the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum from New York, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Kunstmuseum in Basel indicate the fair’s growing reputation. A survey of visitors to the fair indicated Paris Tableau is now an indispensible event in the international art market.
The 4th edition will take place in the elegant setting of the Palais Brongniart on the 13-16th November, and will bring together 26 specialist dealers. Newcomers to the fair include Thomas Agnew and Sons (London), Matteo Grassi (New York), Maurizio Nobile (Bologna) and Dario Porcini (Naples).
The ten founding members, Maurizio Canesso, Herve Aaron, Eric Coatalem, Betrand Gautier, Bob Haboldt, Jean-Francois Heim, Goerges de Jonckheere, Jacques Leegenhoek, Giovanni Sarti, and Claude Vittet had a particular vision for the fair, in that each exhibitor must meet a level of excellence, whilst keeping the scale intimate. Collectors can be assured of the best quality, integrity and expertise.
The fair enjoys excellent relationships with the major art institutions, and a further priority of the fair is to promote the understanding and importance of Old Master paintings. To this end each year the fair presents a symposium and specialist exhibition. In 2011, the artist Jeff Koons loaned part of his personal Old Masters Collection to the fair. In 2012, a festival of films inspired by Old Master paintings and painters took place and in 2013, a fantastic exhibition of paintings donated to the Louvre by means of sujet d’usufruit delighted visitors and collectors.
This year, the fair will present a joint exhibition and symposium, based on Utrecht, and the International Caravaggesque movement, which will take place on Thursday November 13th. The symposium will be illustrated by the exhibition ‘Three Collections, A Single Passion’. Three paintings from the Caravaggio school will be loaned by the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, with further loans from the P&N de Boer Foundation in Amsterdam, and the collection of Axa Art, the art insurer. The exhibition will take place at the Custodia Foundation in Paris.
Visitors to the fair can expect the best Old Masters from the Middle Ages to the late nineteenth century. Highlights from the 2014 fair include works from the Northern School such as Interior of Jan Frans van Dael’s Studio at the Sorbonne by Philippe Van Bree (Antwerp 1786 – Brussels 1871)(with Talabardon and Gautier), Portrait of a Young Boy as Cupid by Bartholomeus van der Helst (Haarlem 1613 – Amsterdam 1670) (with Haboldt & Co) and Portrait of a Habsburg Officer c. 1600 by Frans Pourbus the Younger (1569 – 1622) (with The Weiss Gallery). Highlights from the Italian School include The Holy Family and Saint Augustine by Gaetano Gandolfi (Bologna 1734 – 1802) (with new exhibitor Maurizio Nobile) a view of the Piazza del Popolo by Canaletto (Venice 1722-Warsaw 1780) (Charles Beddington Gallery) and an oil on copper, Christ Appearing to Magdalene by Francesco Albano (Bologna 1578 – 1660) (with Galerie Canesso). The French School is well represented, with a portrait of Ferdinando Nerli by Louis Gauffier (La Rochelle 1761 – Livorno 1801), presented by newcomer The Grassi Studio. Eric Coatalem will be showing a delightful trompe l’oeil by Louis-Leopold Boilly (La Bassée, 1761 – Paris 1841). Derek Johns will present a remarkable William Larkin (1580-1619) portrait of Elizabeth Drury, Countess of Exeter c.1615 from the English School, and a personal and original canvas from the Swedish School Peter Christian Skovgaard leaning against a low wall in a barn 1843 by Johan Thomas Lundbye (Kalundbporg 1818 – Bedsted 1848) will be on view at the Jean-Francois Hiem Gallery. The fair welcomes back two frame dealers Montenari Gallery (Paris) and Enrico Ceci (Italy).
