ADLER – BRANCUSI – BRANDT – BRAQUE – BRETON – BUFFET – BURNE-JONES – COARD
COURNAULT – CSAKY – DE CHIRICO – DERAIN – DUCHAMP – DUNAND – FRANK – GÉRICAULT
GOYA – GRAY – GROULT – LALANNE – LAURENCIN – LÉGER – LEGRAIN – MANET – MALLARMÉ
MATISSE – MERGIER – MIKLOS – MIRÓ – MODIGLIANI – MONDRIAN – PENN – PICABIA
PICASSO – MAN RAY – ROUSSEAU – RUHLMANN – SEURAT – WARHOL
JACQUES DOUCET - YVES SAINT LAURENT
LIVING FOR ART
Grand Salon at 55 rue de Babylone, where Yves Saint Laurent lived between 1970 and 2008
Photograph by Nicolas Mathéus
EXHIBITION ON DISPLAY FROM
OCTOBER 15, 2015, TO FEBRUARY 14, 2016
PRESS RELEASE
JACQUES DOUCET - YVES SAINT LAURENT
LIVING FOR ART
For the bibliophile that I am, Jacques Doucet set the standard. For the collectors and
lovers of art that Yves Saint Laurent and I were, he set an example. It is hard to avoid
drawing parallels between Doucet and Saint Laurent, who were both couturiers and
collectors. For a long time I have wanted to show how these two artists mirror one
another. Today this has been accomplished.
Pierre Bergé
Curator: Jérôme Neutres
Set Designor: Nathalie Crinière, agence NC
Decorator Jacques Grange
PRESS CONTACTS
Laetitia Roux / Simon Freschard
+33 (0)1 44 31 64 17 / 19
[email protected]
[email protected]
LAYOUT OF THE EXHIBITION
INSIDE THE SALONS OF JACQUES DOUCET AND YVES SAINT LAURENT
Using a selection of masterpieces that were at one time collected by Jacques Doucet
(1853-1929) and Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008) as well as a few of which belonged to
both of them, the exhibition imagines a unique space dedicated to the cult of beauty as
way of paying tribute to these two major twentieth-century collectors.
The visitor is at once in Jacques Doucet’s final
home on the Rue Saint-James in Neuilly in
1928 and in the apartment owned by Yves
Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé on the Rue de
Babylone some fifty years later. The artistic
spirit of these places forms the subject
of this exhibition along with the underlying
aesthetic stance, which can be summed up in
a single phrase: the search for the perfect
space. With a set and decor inspired by the
atmosphere of these places, the exhibition
proposes a hybrid space that leads the visitor
from one salon to the author across a series of
five rooms that mirror each other.
In the visionary setting of a personal gallery
referred to as a “studio,” Doucet brought
together some of the most important
works in the history of modern art, from
the Douanier Rousseau’s La Charmeuse
de serpents to Picasso’s Les Demoiselles
d’Avignon in addition to Brancusi’s Muse
endormie II and Modigliani’s La Blouse rose.
Beginning in the 1960s, Saint Laurent and
Bergé established another collection of
masterpieces. At 55 rue de Babylone, they
constituted a new “living museum,” in
which the so-called “primitive” arts, the great
masters such as Goya and Picasso, and Art
Deco furniture by the likes of Jean-Michel
Frank coexisted alongside each other.
Saint-James studio, home of Jacques Doucet in Neuilly-sur-Seine, c. 1930
Image printed in L’Illustration, n° 4845
Grand Salon at 55 rue de Babylone, home of Yves Saint Laurent
Photograph by Nicolas Mathéus
A selection of paintings and furniture from both collections are placed in a set designed by Nathalie
Crinière and decorated by Jacque Grange, both of whom used the interiors of the Rue SaintJames and the Rue de Babylone as their inspiration. From one room to the next, Jacques Grange
has strived to evoke the particular atmosphere of both “exhibition spaces.”
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THE RELIGION OF ART
INSIDE THE HOMES OF JACQUES DOUCET AND YVES SAINT LAURENT
Jacques Doucet and Yves Saint Laurent were both creators of beauty and couturiers,
each working during one half of the twentieth century. They were also brilliant
collectors who composed extraordinary art collections for themselves. Both figures
embodied the notion of “taste” for their era.
Doucet and Saint Laurent, who were each
in search of a certain absolute, created
“collection spaces” in their homes, which
formed singular exhibitions, veritable
installations, and works in themselves. Many
artists and works could be found in both
apartments, including pieces by Braque,
Brancusi, Chirico, Coard, Csaky, Derain,
Duchamp, Gray, Legrain, Laurencin,
Manet, Matisse, Miklos, Modigliani,
Picasso, and Rousseau. In the way they
combined, confronted, and passed on works,
the art collections that Jacques Doucet and
Yves Saint Laurent constituted dialogue with
each other on a number of levels.
Giorgio de Chirico, Il Ritornante, Oil on canvas, 1917-1918
Work belonging to Jacques Doucet and later Yves Saint Laurent
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Purchased with funds from the French patrimony and the contribution of Mister Pierre Bergé, 2009
© Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Georges Meguerditchian
© ADAGP, Paris 2015
Édouard Manet, Sur la plage, Oil on canvas, 1873
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, donated by Jean-Jacques Dubrujeaud, 1953
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
Philippe Garner, who contributed to the sale
of the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé
Collection as an expert in 2009, has spoken
of how much Yves Saint Laurent “managed
to faithfully recreate certain parts of Jacques
Doucet’s apartment.” Three works even
figured in both of their homes. Indeed,
during the Jacques Doucet auction, Yves
Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé acquired a pair
of benches by Gustave Miklos (dated 1928),
which they placed in the middle of their grand
salon along with an African-inspired beechwood
stool by Pierre Legrain. Giorgio de Chirico’s Il
Ritornante, which Jacques Doucet had found
at Paul Guillaume’s gallery thanks to André
Breton, would later find its way to the Rue
de Babylone. While a number of connections
can be established between both collections,
each one nontheless remains unique, bearing
differences that are as striking as the details
they have in common.
4
JACQUES DOUCET
A CAPTIVATING COLLECTOR
On a bitter day, near a black fence, on land made of oyster shells, a painter was
painting the plain of Gennevilliers (I was crossing it on my way to Chatou): “How
curious your painting is, monsieur.”
“And yet,” he replied, “Nobody is interested in it, since nobody buys my paintings.”
“I’ll buy one.” And that is how I began my career as a collector—with a Raffaëlli ... My
old objects, now dispersed, have never given me as much pleasure as the fresh works
that surround me today.1
Henri Rousseau, La charmeuse de serpents, Huile sur toile, 1907
Paris, musée d’Orsay, legs de Jacques Doucet, 1936
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
In 1912, Jacques Doucet sold the classical collection of eighteenth-century French furniture and
paintings (by La Tour, Chardin, Watteau, Roentgen, Jacob, etc.) that he had amassed. He also owned
an imposing collection of reference works and an exceptional collection of literary works. In the early
1920s, at the age of 70, he created an art studio and gallery in a wing of his hôtel particulier for
displaying the modern works that he discovered, entrusting the avant-garde designers Legros and
Miklos with the scenography. He animated the creation of young designers and artists, exerting a
profound influence on their work that was sometimes similar to that of Pygmalion. Doucet wanted
to live vicariously through the young creators he oversaw on their artistic journeys. He acted as an
exhibition curator, commissioning frames, bookbindings, furniture, and rugs from his “collaborators.”
In this place dedicated only to art and books, there was not even a bed to sleep in. Paintings were
not there to decorate the space. Rather, the space took shape according to the works. In the
Saint-James studio, Doucet sought to create something “whole,” as André Suarès (with whom
Doucet corresponded on a regular basis) put it, meaning an artistic installation.
1. Jacques Doucet, observations recorded by Félix Fénéon in Bulletin de la Vie artistique, n°11, June 1, 1921
5
Saint-James studio, home of Jacques Doucet in Neuilly-sur-Seine
Image published in L’Illustration, May 3, 1930
Until rather recently, the only images of the SaintJames studio that were known were seven color
photographs taken after the collector’s death
published in the magazine L’Illustration in 1930. For
this exhibition, other images of this decor—
taken during Doucet’s lifetime by Pierre
Legrain, who created some of the furniture
and decided where it would be placed—will
be published for the first time, thus making it
possible to observe all the creativity behind the
way that Doucet chose to display his works, which
depended on what he was thinking and feeling.
Studying the photographs of the Saint-James studio’s
interior provides a fascinating art history lesson. The
fact that La Muse endormie II was, for example, placed in its
original cradle on the ground under Rose Adler’s gueridon
and supported by a sort of wooden cushion contradicts the
academic discourse maintaining that Brancusi’s polished
bronzes are inseparable from the pedestal on which they
were often presented in ateliers and galleries. Confirming the
conviction behind this exhibition that Doucet displayed his
work according to his ideas and curatorial creativity, Picabia
remembers having seen at the Rue Saint-James “a head
sculpted by Brancusi on a divan made of sumptuous furs; it
was dazzling and seemed to have been laid by a pharaoh-bird
from Upper Egypt: it almost frightened me with its guillotined
pose.”2 Whether placed on Marcel Coard’s sofa or under Rose
Adler’s gueridon, La Muse endormie II assumes its full meaning
in the layout created by Doucet.
Constantin Brancusi, La Muse endormie II 5/8, Polished bronze, 1910
Private collection
© ADAGP, Paris 2015
Contrary to what some curators think, one can see in
these photographs that Doucet did not create a simply
homogenous avant-garde space. He did not hang only
canvases from the 1910s and 1920s. Next to a crocodile mask
from Guinea, Sisley’s Paysage d’hiver à Louveciennes (1874) is
juxtaposed with Matisse’s La Femme à la fontaine (1919) in the
salon, just as the twelfth-century standing Buddha observes
Picabia’s and Miró’s canvases in the vestibule.
Standing Buddha from the Twelfth Century
Musée Cernuschi, Musée des Arts de l’Asie de la Ville de Paris
2. Francis Picabia, Paris-Journal, April 6, 1923.
6
THE IMAGINED MUSEUM
OF YVES SAINT LAURENT AND PIERRE BERGÉ
I remember the first acquisition we made together as if it was yesterday. We happened
to be walking along the Rue de Grenelle in front of Charles Ratton’s gallery, which
hasn’t been there for many years. Yves stopped in front of a large wooden sculpture—a
bird with outspread wings sculpted during the previous century by a Senufo artist
on the northern Ivory Coast ... Yves was struck by the strength of this work, and we
bought it. That was back in 1960.3
“African art was probably my first real artistic
shock,” explains Pierre Bergé, who does not
hesitate to to place the Senufo bird—“the first
thing that Yves and he acquired together”—
on the same level as Brancusi’s artistic
masterpiece Madame LR: “[It is] perhaps the
obvious parallel. The big difference in fact
comes from the anonymity of one and the
celebrity of the other. That’s all. But the gesture
behind it is the same.”4
Yves Saint Laurent in the salon of his apartment on the Place Vauban, with the Senufo bird
Photograph by Pierre Boulat / Cosmos / courtesy of the Association Pierre et Alexandra Boulat
Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent dared to mix
genres, taking the idea as far as possible.
They placed Goya next to Warhol, Eileen Gray
alongside African furniture, Burne-Jones with
Mondrian, Géricault near Matisse, and Roman
marble beside Art Deco marquetry. “From the
very beginning, we were extremely rigorous
in constituting our collection. Nothing was
left to chance ... All of the objects in our
collection are linked by a guiding thread...
It is both Yves’s and my taste.”5
Piet Mondrian, Composition with Blue, Red, Yellow, and Black, Oil on canvas, 1922
Louvre Abu Dhabi
3. Pierre Bergé, observations recorded by Véronique Prat in Le Figaro Magazine, June 31, 2009.
4.Laure Adler, Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent, Histoire de notre collection de tableaux, (Paris: Actes Sud, 2009).
5. Ibid
7
Along with only a few other collectors, Saint Laurent contributed to the rediscovery of Art Deco,
which he loved for its quality and style but which was completely outdated at the time. Following
World War II, nobody paid any attention to this type of furniture, despite how masterful it was. Saint
Laurent’s passion for Art Deco began with the acquisition of a pair of large vases by Jean Dunand in
1968-1969. Next came pieces by Legrain, Miklos, Gray, Frank, Groult, Brandt, Iribe, Rateau, Cheuret,
and Ruhlmann, which made the apartment resemble a monograph on 1925 style—a style that
Jacques Doucet was among the first to promote.
This African-inspired curule stool by Legrain,
which was purchased by Saint Laurent
and Bergé during the sale of Doucet’s
collection in 1972, borrows its shape from
the seats made for Ashanti chiefs (Ghana).
Their surface was traditionally decorated with
nails arranged in a geometrical shape. Legrain,
who was inspired by this technique, chose
not to faithfully reproduce it and innovated
by engraving the motifs directly onto the
beechwood.
Pierre Legrain, Tabouret curule, Hêtre teinté, c. 1920-1925
Œuvre ayant appartenu à Jacques Doucet puis à Yves Saint Laurent
Louvre Abu Dhabi
“Our collection was made using the paintings and
objects that we invited to live with us,” recalls
Bergé, since “being confronted with a work of
art means establishing a dialogue.”6 Like Doucet,
Saint Laurent lived with his works, spoke with
them, and made them communicate with each
other. He lived among art and for art. The
apartment was first meant to house his works,
which were like characters precisely arranged
and displayed in order to present a new type
of theater. The collection came to be like an
artistic installation and the collector a real artist.
Bergé, who confirms the creative aspect of their
approach, cites Marcel Duchamp (present in
both collections), who had the idea of an “artistic
gesture” that was distinct from the materiality of
a singular work of art. For both Saint Laurent and
Doucet, collecting was a creative medium.
Music room, 55 rue de Babylone
Photograph by Nicolas Mathéus
6. Ibid
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A FEW OF THE MASTERPIECES ON DISPLAY
Constantin Brancusi
Danaïde
Bronze, c. 1918
Tate Modern, London
© ADAGP, Paris 2015
Giorgio de Chirico
Il Ritornante
Oil on canvas, 1917-1918
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
© Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMNGrand Palais / Georges Meguerditchian
© ADAGP, Paris 2015
Former collection of Jacques Doucet
Former collections of Jacques Doucet and
Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
Jean Dunand
Two Monumental Vases
Dinanderie, lacquer, and marble 1925
Private collection
Théodore Géricault
Portrait d’Alfred et Élisabeth Dedreux
Oil on canvas, circa 1818
Private Collection
Former collection of Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
Ancienne collection Yves Saint Laurent - Pierre Bergé
Francisco de Goya
Portrait of Don Luis María de Cistué y
Martinez
Oil on canvas, 1791
Musée du Louvre, Paris
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) /
Stéphane Maréchalle
François-Xavier Lalanne
Bar «YSL»
Œuvre unique, 1965
Collection Carla Fendi et Candido Speroni
© ADAGP, Paris 2015
Former collection of Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
Ancienne collection Yves Saint Laurent - Pierre Bergé
Fernand Léger
Le Profil noir
Oil on canvas, 1928
Private collection
© ADAGP, Paris 2015
Pierre Legrain
Curule Stool
Stained beechwood, c. 1920-1925
Louvre Abu Dhabi
Former collection of Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
Former collections of Jacques Doucet and
Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
Édouard Manet
Sur la plage (On the Beach)
Oil on canvas, 1873
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) /
Hervé Lewandowski
Joan Miró
Paysage
Oil on canvas, 1924-1925
Folkwang Museum, Essen
© Successió Miró / ADAGP, Paris 2015 /
Artothek
Former collection of Jacques Doucet
Former collection of Jacques Doucet
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Amedeo Modigliani
La Blouse rose
Oil on canvas, 1919
Fondation Angladon-Dubrujeaud, Avignon
Piet Mondrian
Composition with Blue, Red, Yellow, and
Black
Oil on canvas, 1922
Louvre Abu Dhabi
Former collection of Jacques Doucet
Former collection of Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
Francis Picabia
Idylle
Oil on canvas, 1927
Musée de Grenoble
© ADAGP, Paris 2015
Former collection of Jacques Doucet
Pablo Picasso
Instruments de musique sur un guéridon
Oil and sand on canvas, 1914
Collection Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
© Succession Picasso 2015
Pablo Picasso
Homme à la guitare
Oil on canvas, 1912
Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
© Succession Picasso 2015
Henri Rousseau
La charmeuse de serpents
Oil on canvas, 1907
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée d’Orsay) /
Hervé Lewandowski
Former collection of Jacques Doucet
Former collection of Jacques Doucet
Georges Seurat
Le Cirque (Sketch)
Oil on canvas, 1891
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée d’Orsay) /
Hervé Lewandowski
Andy Warhol
Portraits of Yves Saint Laurent
Screen print on canvas, 1972
Fondation Pierre Bergé Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
Former collection of Jacques Doucet
Former collection of Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
Constantin Brancusi, La muse endormie II 5/8, Polished bronze, 1910, Private collection / Former collection of Jacques Doucet
Georges Braque, Nature morte à la pipe, Oil and sand on canvas, 1919, Nahmad Collection, Switzerland / Former collection of Jacques Doucet
Giorgio de Chirico, Composizione metafisica con giocattoli, Oil on canvas, 1914, Menil Collection, Houston, Texas / Former collection of Jacques Doucet
André Derain, Paysage au bord de la mer, , India ink on paper, 1905, Private collection / Former collection of Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
Jean-Michel Frank, Coffee Table, Mica veneer, c. 1929, Private collection / Former collection of Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
Claude Lalanne, Group of Mirrors with Branches, Bronze, 1974-1985, Private collection / Former collection of Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
François-Xavier Lalanne, YSL Bar, One of a kind, 1965, Carla Fendi and Candido Speroni collection / Former collection of Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
Henri Matisse, Nu au bord de la mer, Oil on canvas, 1909, Private collection / Former collection of Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé
Francis Picabia, Pompe, Watercolor and gouache on cardboard, 1922, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris / Former collection of Jacques Doucet
Standing Buddha from the Twelfth Century, Musée Cernuschi, Musée des Arts de l’Asie de la Ville de Paris / Former collection of Jacques Doucet
...
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REPRODUCTION RIGHTS
“All or part of the works figuring in this press release are protected by copyright. Works from the
ADAGP (www.adagp.fr) may be published under the following conditions:
- For press publications that have signed an agreement with the ADAGP: refer to the stipulations
stated in the agreement.
- For other press publications:
> Exoneration is granted for the first two works illustrating an article about a current event directly
related to these works and not exceeding a quarter page;
> Beyond this number or format, the reproductions will be subject to reproduction/representation
rights;
> For all reproductions on a cover or front page, an authorization request must be addressed to the
Press Department of the ADAGP;
> The copyright must be mentioned in all reproductions as follows: author’s name, the title of the
work, and the date of the work followed by © ADAGP, Paris 2015 and, for Joan Miró, mention of
the following specific copyright: © Successió Miró / ADAGP, Paris, 2015, all regardless of the
provenance of the image or place where the work is conserved.”
These conditions are valid for websites with an online press status, based on the understanding that,
for online press publications, the definition of the files is limited to 1,600 pixels (accumulated length
and width).
For works by Pablo Picasso, the reproduction rights will only be waived for reproductions of which
the format is inferior to a quarter page and which fall within the framework of articles reviewing this
presentation before and during three months beginning with the starting date of the exhibition.
For the audiovisual and online press, reproductions are exonerated during a period of three months
beginning with the starting date of the exhibition. In no case may the images be copied, shared, or
redirected.
For all reproduction requests, please contact:
Christine Pinault : [email protected] / 01 47 03 69 70
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EXHIBITION-RELARED
PUBLICATION AND CONFERENCES
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
Jacques Doucet - Yves Saint Laurent, Vivre pour l’art
Éditions Flammarion, 192 pages, 39€
Preface: Pierre Bergé
Texts : Jérôme Neutres, François Chapon, Patrick Mauriès, Barry Shifman,
Edouard Sebline, and Sophie Makariou
FREE APP
The Fondation has created a free application packed with illustrations to accompany
the visit. The app can be downloaded from « App Store » and « Google Play Store »
and is available in French and English. It gives visitors a more in-depth understanding
by offering additional content that develops the themes explored in the exhibition and
complements the works on display.
CONFERENCES
For each exhibition, the Fondation organizes related conferences that are open to the public.
Exhibition curators, historians, museum curators, film directors, and actors are among those
invited to deepen and enrich the public’s perspective on the topics covered in each exhibition.
Pierre Bergé : « Yves Saint Laurent, l’art de collectionner ». Tuesday 3 November - 7 pm
Jérôme Neutres : « Collections Jacques Doucet et Yves Saint Laurent, les vases
communicants ». Tuesday 17 November - 7 pm
Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier : « Collection Doucet, collection Yves Saint Laurent - Pierre
Bergé, les ventes du siècle ». Thursday 17 December - 7 pm
Thomas Seydoux and Alain Tarica : « La conception du chef-d’œuvre dans les collections de
peinture d’Yves Saint Laurent et de Jacques Doucet ». Thursday 7 January - 7 pm
Julie Blum : « Jacques Doucet, découvreur de Pierre Legrain. Yves Saint Laurent, re-découvreur
de Jean-Michel Frank ? » Thursday 21 January - 7 pm
Conferences are included in the price of the exhibition ticket.
Reservations: [email protected] or 01 44 31 64 00
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VISITOR INFORMATION
OPENING HOURS, TICKETS, AND ACCESS
EXHIBITION SPACE AND BOUTIQUE
3 rue Léonce Reynaud, Paris 16ème
Tél. +33 (0)1 44 31 64 31
Open everyday except Monday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (visitors admitted until 5:30 p.m.).
NEW: Late-night openings on Thursdays until 9.00 p.m. (last entry at 8.30pm)
Closed outside of temporary exhibitions as well as on January 1, May 1, May 8, July 14, August 15,
and December 25.
The exhibition is accessible for the physically disabled.
Full-price admission: 7€
Reduced admission: 5€ for students and visitors under 18 upon presentation of a valid card less than
one year old
Free admission for ICOM-ICOMOS cardholders, children under 10, and unemployed visitors upon
presentation of a valid card less than one year old
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