756 visitors on average go each day to this exhibition

Today the exhibitions are one "business" (almost) like any other. Marketing requires their title must contain one or more big names artists. Two operations in their genus evidenced at this time in Paris. The first took place at the Foundation Jacquemart-André under the title "Bruegel, memling, Van eyck" followed in smaller, of the original tables: "the Brukenthal collection". From a Romanian Museum, fifty works exposed, mainly Flemish, had been met by a favourite of the Empress of Austria, Samuel von Brukenthal (1717-1780), which transformed his home into a museum.

There are certainly several major works exposed to Jacquemart-André, but we are far from the collection of priceless masterpieces announced. And yet the many public pay without hesitation the 10 euros of entry. The cramped rooms devoted to temporary exhibitions of the particular hotel are crowded and it is almost impossible to approach the paintings. The displacement is mainly for a sumptuous Van Eyck, "The man in the blue chaperon" painted around 1430, and considered according to cata-logue as the first modern portrait in the history of painting.

Nice shot

There are also two portraits of Memling representing donor and made to 1480, certainly in a marriage. Yet surprisingly, a cabinet of curiosities represented by John Goerg Hinz in 1666 as a sham and large format. According to the organisers, 1.756 visitors on average go each day to this exhibition.

Same excitement at the Pinacothèque de Paris with, it is true, the announcement of still more attractive content. "The Age of Dutch gold, from Rembrandt to Vermeer with treasures from the Rijksmuseum" shows of works from one of the most illustrious museums of Dutch art, that of Amsterdam, currently in work. That said, the "treasures" of the Rijksmuseum - a large amount of the most famous Rembrandt, a selection of portraits of Franz Hals, sublime "small street" of Vermeer or his famous "milk Verseuse" become the icon of an advert for yoghurt n ' have not been moving. But Rembrandt and Vermeer are the "magic" words, and according to the picture gallery, not less than 3,500 to 5,000 people per day visit the establishment whose right of entry is here as of 10 euros.

Geniuses and followers

The venue of the exhibition private, which is installed in June 2007 the Madeleine place, made, it is true, a nice coup by collaborating with one of the most famous museums in old paintings. 129 Works shown in Paris were locked in the Rijksmuseum 10 years reserves. Among them the "love letter" of Vermeer. His coming is a great feat. The tables in the master of Delft are particularly fragile while the corpus of his work does not exceed 34 paintings...

Rembrandt, was, of course, much more verbose and the exhibition shows five paintings and an engraving of the specialist of chiaroscuro. One of the more mature of the group is a portrait of 1635 Oriental, representing a man wearing a huge white turban attracts light. Rembrandt has cleverly worked the effects of shadows on the face of his character. Catalogue speaks about his execution, "technical extravagance" which would have doubt, time, specialists of its authenticity.

Unfortunately the Art Gallery hosts works much lower interest. Example: in the part reserved for landscape painting there is a plate painted, harmless, blue décor by Frederik van Frytom. Dutch art is "geniuses" who invented a genre and followers, many. One who painted the first brilliantly scenes showing the joys of skating ice on the Lakes is Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634). The Rijksmuseum exposes three in Amsterdam between 1608 and 1615. The picture gallery there are two landscapes of winter. They are not Avercamp. And are later. Aert Van der Neer, one, date of 1641. The other, of Jan Van de Capelle, and during the 1650s.

Exposure more concentrated on the works would have more force, undeniably.

Find the show of "The Age of Dutch gold" on

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