To sign up for classes please  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  or call + 33 (0) 686 58 98 09 

 

 

Paris Art Studies – January - February 2020

 

Paris Temporary Exhibitions

 

Tuesday 14 January 2:30 – 4 pm

Toulouse-Lautrec Retrospective

Slide lecture on the exhibition at the Grand Palais (until 24 Jan. 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

This is the first major exhibition of the artist in France since the great Grand Palais retrospective of 1992. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was in many ways the last great realist painter of 19^th century Paris. His extraordinary drawing skills and sharp, observant eye made him the great visual chronicler of Belle Epoque Paris and particularly the popular dancers, singers and actors of Paris show business and the lurid night life of the Montmartre boulevards. Yet his vision also combined sympathy for the, often, down-and-out characters he depicted, a deep understanding of their psychology and the toughness of their existence with an extraordinary and still fresh sense of ironic humor. His was, in the end, a deeply humanist vision which he shares with the greatest literary observers of 19^th century Paris life, Balzac, Baudelaire or Maupassant. All but one of the artist’s best paintings and most of his famous etchings and posters are part of this not-to-be missed exhibition.

Place: Chris Boïcos apartment. 14, boulevard Saint-Martin 75010 Paris. 6th floor (building code: 69168)

Métros: Strasbourg-Saint Denis, exit 3: Porte Saint-Martin (lines 4, 8, 9) or République exit 6: rue René Boulanger (lines 8, 9 - fewer steps). 

Time: 2 pm for coffee and tea, lecture begins promptly at 2:30 pm.

Fee: 27 € (or reduced fee for series, please below)

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Thursday 16 January 10:30 am – 12 noon

Leonardo da Vinci 

Slide lecture on the exhibition at the Musée du Louvre (until 24 Feb. 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

2019 marked the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci in France, an anniversary of particular importance to the Louvre, which holds the largest collection in the world of da Vinci’s paintings, as well as 22 drawings. The museum has seized this opportunity to gather as many of the artist’s paintings as possible around the five core works in its collections: The Virgin of the Rocks, La Belle Ferronnière, the Mona Lisa, the Saint John the Baptist, and the Saint Anne. The objective is to place them alongside a wide array of drawings as well as a small but significant series of paintings and sculptures from the master’s circle. This unprecedented retrospectiveof da Vinci’s painting career will illustrate how he placed the outmost importance on painting in his multifarious career, and how his  investigation of the world, which he referred to as “the science of painting,” sought nothing less than to bring painting as close to life as possible. The exhibition is the culmination of more than ten years of work, including new scientific examinations of the Louvre’s paintings, and the conservation treatment of three of them, allowing for better understanding of da Vinci’s artistic practice and pictorial technique. New biographical elements have also emerged through the exhaustive reexamination of archival documents. The exhibition will paint the portrait of a man and an artist of extraordinary freedom, originality and inventiveness. 

Place: Chris Boïcos apartment. 14, boulevard Saint-Martin 75010 Paris. 6th floor (building code: 69168)

Métros: Strasbourg-Saint Denis, exit 3: Porte Saint-Martin (lines 4, 8, 9) or République exit 6: rue René Boulanger (lines 8, 9 - fewer steps). 

Time: 10 am for coffee and tea, lecture begins promptly at 10:30 am.

Fee: 27 € (or reduced fee for series, please below)

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Thursday 23 January 11:45 am – 1:15 pm

Otto Wagner, Master of Viennese Art Nouveau

Visit to the exhibition at the Cité d’Architecture (until 13 March 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

 

The most celebrated pioneer of modern architecture in turn-of-the-century Vienna is undoubtedly Otto Koloman Wagner. This is the first exhibition ever held in France celebrating his career organized in collaboration with the Vienna History museum and the Musée d’Orsay. Reconstituted original interiors, and an exceptional collection of the master’s drawings as well as period photographs illustrate most of his creations and his most famous designs: the Vienna Metropolitan railway the celebrated Post Office Savings Bank and the church of Saint Leopold at Steinhof, Vienna’s famous mental hospital. The exhibition also presents Wagner’s close relationship with the artistic currents of his period with the artists and designers of the Vienna Secession and the Vienna Wersktäte - Gustav Klimt, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Josef Hoffman and Koloman Moser.

Place: Meet in lobby of Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine. 1 place du Trocadéro 75016. 

Métro: Trocadéro (lines 6 and 9). 

Time: 11:30 for 11:45 am entry. Please bring 8 € for the exhibition ticket in exact change.

Fee: 27 € (or reduced fee for series, please below)

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Thursday 30 January, 12 noon - 1:30 pm

Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris 

Visit to the permanent collections just refurbished and re-opened to the public. With Chris Boïcos.

Recently renovated, re-hung and expanded, this the second great collection of modern art in Paris after the Centre Pompidou. Located in an elegant neo-classical building from the 1937 Paris World’s Fair it is a spacious, luminous museum usually empty of crowds. The collections include masterpieces by Matisse (including the two first “Dances” for the Barnes collection), Derain, Delaunay, Léger, Dufy, Braque, Picasso, Picabia, Fautrier and the post-war School of Paris. A great Paris museum to discover or re-discover if you haven’t’ been recently!

 

Place: Musée de l’art moderne de la ville de Paris. 1 avenue du Président Wilson 75016. Meet in lobby.

Métro: Iéna (line 9).

Time: 11:45 for 12 pm entry. 

Fee: 27 € (or reduced fee for series, see below)

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Monday 3 February 4-5:30 pm

The Golden Age of British Painting

Visit to the exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg (until 16 Feb. 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

This is the greatest exhibition in a long time in France of the stars of British painting from the founding  of the Royal Academy of Art in 1768 to the beginning of the Romantic period in the 1820s. Celebrated portraits by the first president of the Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds and his rival, Thomas Gainsborough, define the rise of the upper classes of Britain at the beginning of colonial expansion, the “Grand Tour” and the founding of the British Empire. John Hoppner, William Beechey and Thomas Lawrence further contribute to the evolution of the British portrait at the turn of the 19^th century by introducing an increasingly free and flowing painterly manner in their art - in opposition to European Neoclassicism - that will greatly inspire the Romantic School.  George Stubbs and George Morland are also showcased as the depicters of a typically British taste for country life and horses. The exhibition ends with the shift to more eccentric, personal and exalted artistic visions at the dawning of the Romantic age in the works of Henri Fuseli, John Martin and J.M.W. Turner. This is a unique opportunity to discover in France, just after Brexit (!), some of the finest paintings of the era from the collections of the most prestigious museum of British art.

Place: Outside entrance of Musée du Luxembourg – 19 rue de Vaugirard 75006. 

Métro : Saint-Sulpice (line 4) or Odéon (lines 4 and 6).

Time: 3:40 for 4 pm entry. Please bring 16 € for the exhibition ticket and 2€ for the headphones (18 € total) in exact change.

Fee: 27 € (or reduced fee for series, see below)

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Course Fee:  120 € for 5 sessions, 100€ for 4 sessions, or 27 € per session.

Museum fees are additional to course fees. The fee reductions are only for the bimonthly series and cannot be applied to future programs.

You can sign up for individual sessions or a series by sending an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

or by calling Chris Boïcos on +33 (0) 686 58 98 09 and by sending a check made out to “Chris Boïcos” to Chris Boïcos, 14 boulevard Saint-Martin 75010 Paris. Museum fees are additional to course fees.

Please register for classes in advance to ensure that group visits are not full.

 

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Coming up in the Spring of 2020:

 

Thursday 27 February, 10:30 – 12 noon (time and day to be confirmed)

Niels Hansen Jacobsen – A Dane in Paris

Visit to the exhibition at the Musée Bourdelle (29 Jan. – 31 May 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

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Thursday 12 March, 10:30 – 12 noon (time and day to be confirmed)

Petit Palais – Courbet and the Permanent Collection of 19^th Century Masters

Visit to the Musée du Petit Palais (29 Jan. – 31 May 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

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Thursday 19 March 10:40 am – 12:10 noon

Cézanne and the Masters: A Dream of Italy.

Visit to the exhibition at the Musée Marmottan (27 Feb. – 5 July 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

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Thursday 26 March 10:30 – 12 noon

James Tissot

Slide lecture on the exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay (24 March – 19 July 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

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Thursday 2 April 12:15 noon – 1:45 pm

Turner – Paintings and Watercolors from the Collection of the Tate Gallery

Visit to the exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André (13 March – 20 July 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

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Thursday 23 April 10:30 – 12 noon

Giorgio de Chirico – Metaphysical Painting

Slide lecture on the exhibition at the Musée de l’Orangerie (1 April – 13 July 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

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Thursday 30 April 10:30 – 12 noon

Albrecht Aldorfer

Slide lecture on the exhibition at the Musée du Louvre (23 April – 3 August 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

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Thursday 7 May 10:30 – 12 noon

The Power of Drawing – Masterpieces from the Prat Collection (French drawings 1500-1900)

Slide lecture on the exhibition at the Petit Palais (24 March – 12 July 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

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Thursday 28 May 10:30 – 12 noon

Body and Soul – Renaissance Sculpture from Donatello to Michelangelo

Slide lecture on the exhibition at the Louvre (6 May – 17 Aug. 2020) with Chris Boïcos

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Thursday 4 June, 10:30 – 12 noon

Matisse

Slide lecture on the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou (13 May – 31 Aug. 2020) with Chris Boïcos.

 

 

 

Myths and Legends, Gods and Lovers in Art III

Tuesday 14 January 10:30 am – 12 noon

Myths and legends in 19^th century French art 

Visit to the Musée d’Orsay with Chris Boïcos.

 

19^th century academic and Salon painters continued painting the myths and legends of the ancient world as part of the high art tradition and classical styles in which they had been trained right up to 1910. Ingres, Gerôme, Bouguereau and Cabanel, among others, were celebrated for valiantly upholding these traditions against the assaults of the modern artists of their time. The modernists themselves, however, also used mythological references in their own work, either as a way of subverting their classical rivals by introducing  a dose of robust reality into trite classical themes (Courbet, Manet), or by reviving the vitality of myth and legend trough new and original interpretations and styles, as in the work of Puvis de Chavannes, Gustave Moreau or Paul Gauguin.

 

Place: Inside the Musée d’Orsay: Meet past the ticket control and down the steps in front of the statue of Liberty. 

Métro: RER Musée d’Orsay (line C) or Solférino (line 12).

Time: 10:15 for 10:30 am start. Please buy your own ticket on line.

Fee: 27 € (or reduced fee for series)

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Tuesday 21 January 10:30 am – 12 noon

Bacchus, Satyrs and Bacchantes - Slide lecture with Chris Boïcos.

 

Dionysius/Bacchus is the god of wine and revelry also associated with nature, the forest and spring rites. He is an Earth god and the complement and opposite of Apollo the Sun god. Our lecture will trace his importance in art of all periods from the cult statues of antiquity to the mythological paintings of the Renaissance, the Baroque age, the 19th century and up to his presence in the art of Pablo Picasso in the 20^th century. His companions - Satyrs or fauns, Silenus, leopards and his female worshippers, the Bacchantes - are the participants in the Bacchanal, the orgiastic spring dance that is one of the most popular mythological subjects in art.

 

Place: Chris Boïcos apartment. 14, boulevard Saint-Martin 75010 Paris. 6th floor (building code: 69168)

Métros: Strasbourg-Saint Denis, exit 3: Porte Saint-Martin (lines 4, 8, 9) or République exit 6: rue René Boulanger (lines 8, 9 - fewer steps). 

Time: 10 am for coffee and tea, lecture begins promptly at 10:30 am

Fee: 27 € (or reduced fee for series, please below)

 

Tuesday 28 January 10:30 am – 12 noon

Athena the Supreme Goddess - Slide lecture with Chris Boïcos.

 

Athena/Minerva is like Artemis/Diana a virgin goddess, daughter of the King of Gods, Zeus, protectress of cities, particularly ancient Athens which is named after her, and goddess of wisdom, handicraft and warfare.  One of the greatest cult statues of antiquity the gold and ivory sculpture by Phidias in the Parthenon on the Athens Acropolis was devoted to her. She is often portrayed with the Muses and becomes in the Renaissance and Baroque periods also a symbolic figure for learning, education and statesmanship. One of the most interesting uses of her in the modern period is as symbolic figure of the rebellious art movement of the Vienna Secession in the paintings and the famous Art Nouveau poster by Gustav Klimt.

 

Place: Chris Boïcos apartment. 14, boulevard Saint-Martin 75010 Paris. 6th floor (building code: 69168)

Métros: Strasbourg-Saint Denis, exit 3: Porte Saint-Martin (lines 4, 8, 9) or République exit 6: rue René Boulanger (lines 8, 9 - fewer steps). 

Time: 10 am for coffee and tea, lecture begins promptly at 10:30 am

Fee: 27 € (or reduced fee for series, please below)

 

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Wednesday 5 February 11:30 – 1 pm 

Gustave Moreau and Mythology in Symbolist art

Visit to the Musée Gustave Moreau with Chris Boïcos 

 

Gustave Moreau is one of the most original French artists of the 19^th century. Though he befriended Degas as a student at the Ecole des Beaux Arts he chose a completely different artistic path form that of the Realist and the Impressionist painters of his time. He was fascinated by ancient myths, destructive female figures like Helen of Troy or Medea and legendary poets and heroes like Orpheus, Hesiod, Prometheus and Jason. He used them all to create his own private repertory of symbolic images – paintings, drawings and exquisite watercolors – in which the mythic figures illustrate his personal musings and obsessions with poetry, artistic creativity, suffering, and sacrifice. His museum is located in his own home and was created by the artist at the end of his life in the 1890s. Its wonderfully period atmosphere and the bizarre nature of the works on display seduced the founder of Surrealism, André Breton, who as a young man hid in the museum after closing time so as to spend the night with Moreau’s fascinating femmes fatales.

 

Place: Meet in Gustave Moreau museum lobby - 14, rue de la Rochefoucauld 75009.

Métro: Trinité (line 12)

Time: 11:15 for 11:30 am entry. Please bring 7€ in exact change for the museum ticket.

Fee: 27 € (or reduced fee for series, please below)

 

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Course Fee:  100€ for 4 sessions, or 27 € per session.

Museum fees are additional to course fees. The fee reductions are only for the bimonthly series and cannot be applied to future programs.

You can sign up for individual sessions or a series by sending an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

or by calling Chris Boïcos on +33 (0) 686 58 98 09 and by sending a check made out to “Chris Boïcos” to Chris Boïcos, 14 boulevard Saint-Martin 75010 Paris. Museum fees are additional to course fees.

Please register for classes in advance to ensure that group visits are not full.