Fine Arts Paris
Grand Palais, Paris – Booth S.29
September 19–23, 2026
Eviradnus is a poem by Victor Hugo whose title we borrowed to name the concept behind our exhibition for Fine Arts Paris.
Our aim is to present a collection of works spanning different disciplines and various eras, thereby creating an environment that tells a story through the more or less direct relationships that emerge between the objects and the paintings we have selected.
Beyond their aesthetic affinities, we are particularly drawn to the historical connections that have developed between some of these works through the ties that, in their time, bound their creators to one another.
Our large painting by Jean-Charles Cazin (1841 – 1901), La Pluie (1895), will be hung next to the sculpture Le Cabotin by Jean Carriès (1855 – 1894) – a portrait of Coquelin (1848 – 1909), a famous actor who was above all a childhood friend of Cazin’s in the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer where they grew up, and who was also a major collector of his paintings. Not far from it, a significant vase by Michel Cazin (1869 – 1917), who was Jean-Charles’s son, illustrates their relationship as well as their shared interest in ceramics.
French pre-Impressionist paintings of the second half of the 19th century, sculptures by Jean Carriès, ceramics and furniture of the late 19th century including works by the leading figures of the French Art Nouveau movement: Hector Guimard (1867 – 1942), Louis Majorelle (1859 – 1926), and Émile Gallé (1847 – 1904), a few medieval pieces, and, as a conclusion, a lamp featuring amphorae and an easel from the 1970s by Claude de Muzac (born in 1934).
Most of the pieces on display were produced during the second half of the 19th century but we do not however intend to create a period room nor do we feel the need to structure our exhibition around an overly specific theme that would limit its interpretation even though it should be understood as an evocation of nature in the decorative arts and painting.
In Victor Hugo’s poem, Eviradnus is an old Breton druid who became a warrior in order to fight the Roman invaders. In our story, he is a city dweller, a collector who has lost his special connection to nature but who gradually rediscovers it through his passion for art and the decorative arts.
His quest then leads him to cover several fields, beginning with 19th-century French paintings, which he collects passionately, especially the works of a group of painters considered as the innovators of landscape painting in France who are historically associated with what was then known as the ‘School of 1830’ and who are, in some cases, geographically and stylistically associated with the famous Barbizon School.
These artists set out to explore the French countryside, forests, and coastlines in order to capture their unsuspected beauty and share it through their paintings with the art lovers of the time.
Through their widespread circulation, these works helped city dwellers to rediscover the nature that surrounded them. This movement was also encouraged by the development of new means of transportation – particularly the train, which made it easier to reach these regions that had remained isolated for centuries.
Featured artists include Georges Michel (1763 – 1843), Eugène Isabey (1803 – 1886), Narcisse Diaz de la Pena (1807 – 1876), Jules Dupré (1811 – 1889), Charles Jacque (1813 – 1894), Louis Français (1814 – 1897), Henri Harpignies (1819 – 1916), Antoine Vollon (1833 – 1900), Jean-Charles Cazin, and Georges Clairin (1843 – 1919).
ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE AND CERAMICS
This style, loosely inspired by Nature and its curved, sinuous shapes, offers a new aesthetic universe ideally made accessible to everyone through the widespread availability of these objects, and ceramics in particular. It also represents a return to craftsmanship and stands as a counterbalance to industrialization which, at the time, is depopulating the countryside and disconnecting the individual from his or her rural roots.
As a first foray into this field, we are showing several iconic pieces by Hector Guimard, including a iconic chair created for a concert hall in Paris in 1899, as well as rare pieces by Louis Majorelle, such as the Marronnier table, and a chair and desk by Camille Gauthier of the École de Nancy (1870 – 1963) and Paul Poinsignon (1872 – 1916).
The ceramics section will focus primarily on works chosen for their inspiration in direct link to nature, but also because they were created by versatile artists – painters, sculptors, and ceramists – such as Étienne Moreau‑Nélaton (1859 – 1927), best known for his numerous bequests to French museums; Michel Cazin; Paul-François Berthoud (1870 – 1939); Numa François Gillet (1868 – 1940); Edmond Lachenal (1855 – 1948) and Georges Hoentschel (1855 – 1915), a leading French architect and interior designer of the Belle Époque, a ceramist and a collector, but also a close friend and patron of Jean Carriès, whose studio collection he purchased upon his death in 1894 and which he subsequently bequeathed in 1904 to the Petit Palais museum in Paris.
This is the perfect transition to introduce our chapter dedicated to the sculptor and ceramist Jean Carriès, whose work we are exhibiting for the first time.
We are presenting here five sculptures – four glazed plaster pieces and one stoneware piece – in collaboration with galerie Mathieu Néouze. This allows us to bring back into the spotlight a magnificent artist who has actually been exhibited quite rarely, and to highlight once again, the relationship between sculpture and ceramics during that period as well as the interplay between the various techniques and materials used.
To round out our exhibition, we have included a few pieces from the High Middle Ages, including a spectacular medieval chest possibly commissioned by Chancellor Nicolas Rolin for the Hospices de Beaune in 1443, and an impressive oak sculpture depicting the Allegory of Spring, known as the Green Man, likely from the very early 16th century, and originating from England.
This archetype of European pagan worship resonates particularly with our history, for we should remember that Eviradnus, the character in Victor Hugo’s poem, is an old Breton druid.
Finally, we would like to thank the Jacques Lacoste, Philippe Perrin, and Oscar Graf galleries in Paris for lending us their works.