What I really love Paris for, is for the unexpected surprises it makes for its guests from year to year. For the reason, that even just passing through it’s possible to come across an improbable exhibition, having just rounded the corner in the right day.
This is what happened to me this summer when I have decided to take a break from absolutely hectic rhythm of the big city at the Musée Maillol. To be honest, I had no choice – the sign hanging in front of you says: Emil Bührle Private Collection, one of the world's most illustrious private collections. Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Gauguin, Modigliani and Picasso. And all those are not the most famous works, not the ones that we studied backwards and forwards in the large museums of the world, what makes them even more attractive. Seeing Manet's works hidden in a private collection. How is that? I still wonder, how come that whole Paris did not scream out loud about this exhibition. This is what this city is about, it wants to be wandered and discovered without any billboards and advertisements.
Musée Maillol is a private arts museum. The building of the museum was partially redeemed in 1955 by the girlfriend of the sculptor and the artist Aristide Maillol. Subsequently in 1985 she managed to redeem the mansion completely and to begin preparation of expositions of the created by her fund. Today the museum belongs the Tecniarte company and exhibitions are created with assistance of the famous French experts from CultureEspaces. Therefore, it is possible to watch not just Maillol's works in the museum, but also regularly exhibited private and semi-private collections.
This time the exclusive collection by Emil Bührle is presented here – the Swiss entrepreneur, arms dealer and, to our happiness, also a devoted painting collector. Coming from Germany, Bührle settled in Switzerland in 1924 and during the period from 1961 to 1956 collected more than 600 works of art. In a relevant exhibition in the Musée Maillol about 50 works in several directions are represented – works of the largest impressionists (Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Degas, Renoir and Sisley) and postimpressionists (Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec), works of the beginning of the twentieth century of Nabi (Bonnard and Vuillard), Fauve (Braque, Derain and Vlaminck) and also the School of Paris (Modigliani) and, finally, several works of Picasso.
Musée Maillol is situated on the left coast of Paris, by the address 59-61 Rue de Grenelle, 7th district.
