Masterpieces from the Musée de l’Orangerie, Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection

Overview

In celebration of its 30th Anniversary, the Yokohama Museum of Art is presenting “Masterpieces from the Musée de l’Orangerie, Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection.”

The elegant Musée de l’Orangerie, housed in a redesigned orangery on the bank of the Seine, is renowned for its collection of Impressionist and École de Paris works amassed by the art dealer Paul Guillaume. Containing such masterpieces as Renoir’s "Young Girls at the Piano" as well as famed works by Matisse, Picasso, and Modigliani, it is regarded as one of Europe’s finest painting collections.

Paul Guillaume began to acquire works for his own collection while working as an art dealer in early 20th-century Paris, a gathering place for talented young artists. Guillaume died at the height of his career without realizing his plan of founding a private art museum, and his wife Domenica continued to build and transform the collection. On acquiring the collection, named the “Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection” by Domenica in honor of Guillaume and her second husband, the French state established it in the Musée de l'Orangerie.

This exhibition featuring about 70 works by 13 artists, selected from among the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection’s 146 paintings, will be the first major showing of the Collection in Japan in 21 years. It will thus be a rare opportunity to experience the Collection and learn hidden stories behind it, while enjoying paintings by famed masters loved throughout the world.