"PEARLS OF FRANCE" IN BAKU

Each of us wants to visit France - see the famous Eiffel Tower, stroll round Montmartre and view the masterpieces of world art in the Louvre and Orsay Museums. But as it turned out, you do not need to go to France for this. All this can be seen in Baku today - from March to May, Bakuvians will have a fantastic opportunity to see outstanding works of art by French masters without leaving Azerbaijan.

To do this, you simply need to visit an exhibition that has become a very important event in the cultural life of Baku - "Pearls of France". The exhibition that opened at the National Museum of Art was organized with the support of Azerbaijan's first lady and president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Mehriban Aliyeva, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism and French Minister of Culture and Communication Frederic Mitterrand. The exhibition was prepared by the Azerbaijan National Museum of Art and the Association of National Museums of France - the Grand Palais - with the participation of the Louvre and Orsay Museums, the French National Library, the national furniture and the national tapestry manufactories, manufactories of Beauvais and Savonry, the State Agency for Castles, the Palace of Versailles and other French museums.

The exhibition, which includes about 400 unique pieces, allows us to see and appreciate the taste, ideas, and the subtleties of the French creative world. The exhibition organizers have done everything possible for the visitors to feel the spirit of France in Baku. Each of the halls reflects the art of one century - from the Renaissance to the present day. Here you can see not only great works of French masters, but also listen to the music of any era. To do this, you just need to put on your headphones and immerse yourself in beautiful melodies.

The continuity of good taste

Exhibition visitors can get acquainted with the works of such renowned artists as Edgar Degas, Auguste Rodin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, Eugene Delacroix and Auguste Renoir. Bakuvians also have an opportunity to admire the works of French designers and authors of well-known brands, photographers and famous historical posters. Among the works brought to Baku, there are those that have never been exhibited outside of their museums before. The exhibition is unusual because it presents a long period of French history. It exhibits unique works that reflect French culture from the Renaissance to the present. After the exhibition in Baku, the rich collection will go to its next destination - Kazakhstan.

The chief curator of the exhibition, Phillippe Costamagna, director of the Fesch Museum in Corsica, the second largest collection after Louvre, said the following in answer to the question about the objectives of this project: "France is a country where creative work goes on continuously. The French have always invariably prioritized a delicate taste everywhere. And yet it was the French Revolution that was a watershed moment for our country and for many others. With our exhibition, we wanted to invite the viewer himself to understand the causes of this revolution and the complex ways that led us to the modern democratic society."

Visitors to this ambitious exhibition are first "met" with the incredible beauty of a tapestry dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and a picture by an unknown artist of the famous School of Fontainebleau "Lady at her Toilet". The School of Fontainebleau is the name of a group of painters, architects and jewellers who worked at the Palace of Fontainebleau, which was the centre of the Renaissance in northern Europe under King Francois I and his successors. The tapestry made in a golden-blue range was woven for the Duchess of Tuscany.

The name of the author of the paintings "Lady at her Toilet", which shows a half-naked young woman near the mirror, has long sunk into oblivion. We only know that the artist's 'model' had royal blood. This is evidenced by the necklace and accessories of the young model.

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) is the best-known French painter of the 17th century. Although he lived outside his home country nearly all his life, it's hard to find a more French artist. He was depressed by Paris vanity, and in Italy, away from the despotic court, he could easily surrender to creative work, expressing the idea of centralization and enlightened monarchy in conventional "all-human" forms that permeated French culture in those years. It is impossible to talk about all the works of Poussin in the Louvre. The collection of Louis XIV alone contained about thirty-one paintings by Poussin. Since then, the museum has been enriched by a good dozen works.

The next room, which made us fall in love with France even more, includes "the possessions" of the Rococo period and Louis XIV de Bourbon, who was distinguished by his special love for everything beautiful and refined. During his reign, the French nation reached unprecedented heights with its achievements in arts, science, industry and trade. The Court of Versailles (Louis moved the royal residence to Versailles) became an object of envy and admiration for nearly all modern rulers who tried to emulate the great king even in his weaknesses. Strict etiquette was introduced in the court, governing the whole life of the court. Versailles became the centre of all the high life, which was dominated by the tastes of Louis and his many mistresses. Endless balls, which were held in Versailles, lasted for several days. The king was so anxious to impress and leave the greatness of his palace in history that he instructed his court painters to make landscape sketches of Versailles. The exhibition also includes prints, thanks to which we can judge the fashion and style of the time. This is sort of a fashion magazine, which tells us what was fashionable at court.

One of the paintings that deserve attention is "The Dancer Camargo" by the most famous artist of the time Nicolas Lancret. In 1719, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture as a "master of gallant scenes". Lancret painted "gallant scenes", landscapes, genre and theatrical compositions and portraits in the spirit of Rococo, which stood out for their exquisite colour and decorative and soft brushwork.

The woman the master painted on his canvas - Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo - was one of the most famous ballerinas of her time. In the painting, the artist focused all his attention on the light, graceful figure of the dancing actress, while the secondary characters, so as not to distract the viewer from the heroine, are drawn in a generalized way. Yet the picture has features of genre scenes and theatrical spectacle at the same time. This mixture of real life and theatre is very typical of the 18th century. A ballerina in a golden gown, richly decorated with artificial flowers, dances before the audience. Lancret picks up a beautiful and resonant chord of green, blue, yellow, brown and pink tones. By its picturesque subtleties "The Dancer Camargo" stands out among his other works, and of course, belongs to the best examples of 18th century French painting.

The Royal Lily

The incredibly beautiful tapestry, which decorates the walls of the rococo hall, is simply mesmerizing. This work of art must be seen with one's own eyes! The colourful picture full of light tells how the Sun King visited the tapestry manufactory together with his brother Philippe and Colbert. There are workers showing him fine furniture, carpets and paintings. Incidentally, the word "Gobelin" originated in France in the 17th century. In 1662, the Royal Manufactory of the Gobelin brothers opened here, combining all the tapestry workshops of Paris. Thus, the first industrial production of tapestries appeared. The ancestor of this family and dyer Giles Gobelin, arriving in Paris from Reims under French King Francois I, founded a dye-house for wool on the Bievre brook near the city. His successors in the 16th century continued to run this place and added it to a carpet weaving shop like the ones for which Flanders was famous.

Louis XIV bought a dye-house and weaving shop for the treasury, gave them a statute, rich finances and a new building, and thus created the "Royal Tapestry Manufactory", whose works, owing to their high cost, were almost exclusively used to decorate royal palaces and as gifts and were rarely available for sale. Despite the magnitude of the costs that were required to run the manufactory and were not rewarded by any income, it continued to exist under all the successive governments of France and still exists as an artistic institution that is the pride of this country. The hallmark of the products of the manufactory is the royal lily woven in the corners or in the centre near the upper edge.

Another famous painting, which we first saw in history books, is "Rouget de Lisle Singing the Marseillaise for the First Time" by painter Isidore Pils. It turns out that Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, the author of the most famous song of the French Revolution, which became the anthem of the revolutionaries, was an ordinary military engineer.

Next to this patriotic canvas, you can see a copy of the most important document of the Great French Revolution, which defines individual human rights - the Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This declaration was adopted by the National Constituent Assembly in 1789. The basis of the ideas of the Declaration of Human Rights of Man and of the Citizen is the concept of equality and liberty that belongs to everyone from birth. Individual liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and the right to resist oppression were proclaimed natural human and civil rights. By the way, the declaration still forms the basis of French constitutional law.

No less interesting is a picture by Eugene Delacroix "Talma as Nero", which will tell visitors a lot of interesting facts. For example, the Louvre has a special Delacroix picture hall. Pictured on the canvas, Francois Talma was the most popular actor of the time. At the time of the French Revolution, he participated in the creation of the "Theatre of the Republic". Napoleon Bonaparte himself adopted his manner of speech and movement from him.

Embodiment of love

One of the most famous French painters, whose work can be seen at the "Pearls of France" exhibition in Baku is Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The French side brought to Azerbaijan his painting "Woman with a mirror". As the tour guide told us, Renoir was the son of a Limoges tailor who moved to Paris with his family. From the age of thirteen, he was forced to make a living by painting china, and later he painted fans and screens. And who could have known that after a while, the boy would become one of the most famous artists of France?

In the next hall, we find colourful posters of more than a century ago. The author of these original masterpieces is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He was the only child in one of the most famous aristocratic families in France. Toulouse-Lautrec's pedigree went a thousand years back. Henri's childhood was marred by illness. Marriages of close relatives, common in aristocratic circles, could not but affect the health of the offspring. In adulthood, Lautrec's height barely reached 150 centimetres, but since in those days people were on average about ten centimetres lower than our contemporaries, the artist was not considered a dwarf (with such a height, they were even drafted into the army). His head was disproportionately large, and the impression was that the body of an adult male had been put on a child's legs. Yet Lautrec was incredibly talented. He made a great contribution to the genre of posters, and his creative work was highly appreciated by his contemporaries. During his life, Lautrec drew about 30 posters.

In the very centre of the hall stands Rodin's famous sculpture "The Kiss". Looking at the pair hugging each other, it's hard to imagine a more eloquent embodiment of the love theme. How much affection, chastity, sensuality and passion did this pair feel in this position?! The model for "The Kiss" was Rodin's mistress Camille Claudel. This beautiful and intelligent girl from a good family dreamed of becoming a sculptor. The sculptor Alfred Boucher introduced her to Rodin, from whom she took lessons in sculpture. Their romance was very emotional and passionate.

The French Museum Fashion and Textiles presented at the exhibition in Baku several elegant gowns from the collections of Coco Chanel, Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent. Just imagine that the most eminent French fashion designers - trendsetters of world fashion - worked on the design of these rarities. By the way, despite the already considerable age of the dresses, they are still in fashion.

Nearby are stands with no less rarity pictures. The collection includes 140 photographs dated from 1848, i.e. from the time of Daguerre and Niepce, the founders of French photography. The 1970s generation will recognize familiar faces in the photographs - Gerard Philipe, Alain Delon, Brigitte Bardot, Jean-Paul Belmondo and other stars of French cinema. All are just as young as ever...