A very charming art on paper museum : Fondation Custodia
A very charming art on paper museum :
▎Fondation Custodia
▎Jacky Lau
Some years ago, during a long stay in Paris. I was looking for a cozy museum after those Musée du Louvre, Musée d’Orsay and Centre de Pompidou (revision of art history in three days, quite heavy)! Over a coffee with my friend Cindy who married to a French collector in Paris, she suggested me to go to Fondation Custodia which houses an important collection of art on paper. Immediately, I jumped at this idea. I love prints and drawings, especially drawings even they’re not finished for the simple reason that they are the traces of an analytical art process and the seeds of artists’ unique journeys of joy and sadness, acclaims and rejections! Through drawings, we reveal artists’ laborious study and painstaking pursuits, kind of artistic diary, light in its content and simpler in its ‘plastique’ form.
Cindy‘s suggestion didn’t fail but exceeded my expectation! Located in city centre, not far from la Seine, an 18 century mansion, Hôtel Turgot, very well preserved, a bit crowded with visitors but not ‘tourists’! Not surprised for a good museum in a Sunday afternoon! It was, in fact, founded by Frits Lugt, a famous Dutch art historian and collector whose main collection was drawings and prints of old masters of northern school, Belgium and the Netherlands at its Golden Age, not excluding excellent works from France, Italy, Germany, and Britain from 15th to mid 19th century. I was really thrilled to see the special exhibition ‘The Pushkin Museum: 500 years of Master Drawings’. So if you are interested in exploring art on paper, you would be very delighted to see etchings from Rembrandt, Claude Lorrain, Domenico Beccafumi, etc.
After this joyful visit and still not so tired, I would suggest you to visit the café inside L’Hôtel, in the 6 arrondissement, an adorable, chic hidden gem, just 20-minute walk from the museum.
Bon voyage!
'Sketch for a frieze with two cariatides (1546-1554) Artist: Lelio Orsi
