The façade of the Musée Cernuschi.
The Musée Cernuschi
Excerpts from the chapter of the same title in the
book
Little-Known Museums In and Around Paris
Paris Kiosque - June 1997 - Volume 4, Number 6
Copyright (c) 1997 Rachel Kaplan - used with permission
Of the thousands of people who frequent the Parc Monceau in Paris,
few realize that an elegant white stone mansion at the edge of the park,
built in the 1870s, now houses one of the most impressive
collections of ancient Chinese art in Europe.
Known as the Cernuschi Museum, it was left to the
City of Paris one hundred years ago, by the
wealthy Milanese financier and philanthropist Henri Cernuschi (1820-1896).
Today, only certain art connoisseurs know that Cernuschi was one
of the first collectors in France to have the aesthetic discernment to amass
an important collection of Chinese and Japanese art.
An atypical amalgam of innovative tycoon and romantic revolutionary, Cernuschi
became a serious collector partly through a series of inauspicious
circumstances.
As a prominent sympathizer with the insurgents of the 1871 Commune, he was
arrested, albeit briefly, and then released. Deeply shocked
and horrified by the wave of people (some of whom were his friends) who were
killed or imprisoned during this bloody popular uprising, in September 1871
he embarked upon an eighteen-month voyage around the world that would
take him to China and Asia by way of America.
One of Cernuschi's most unusual and obscure acquisitions was a
mammoth ancient molded bronze basin from the Warring States
period (475 B.C. - 221 B.C.), referred to as a
kien or "mirror," presumably because the water inside it
reflected the light from nocturnal cermonial torches.
Displayed prominently on the museum's ground flor, it remains the
largest known Chinese basin from that period.
The museums's undisputed masterpiece of early bronze art is
"The Tigress," a rather elaborate lidded jub in the form of a kneeling feline,
its open jaws protecting an ancestor of the clan.
Fashioned in Anyang (the China's capital) in the Hunan provice at the
end of the Shang dynasty (1600 B.C. - 1000 B.C.), the jug is
a marval of imaginative artistry: while the front
represents a mythical tiger holding beneath its menacing
jaws a small figure notable for the astonished
expression on its face, the rear is set off by
a tail that doubles as an elephant's trunk, and raised
designs that constitute the animal's features.
The famous Silk Route, between China and the eastern
part of the Mediterranean, is also represented at the museum through small terra-cotta
sculptures of caravanners, bearded merchants, and camels laden with goods.
One of the most remarkable figurines illustrating this era of trade
and outside exchange is The Barbarian Tribute Bearer
made of glazed terra-cotta and painted in delicate
shades of green, pink, black, and blue. With his prominent
protruding eyes, fur-trimmed cap and costume, and closely
clasped horn of plenty, he exudes a fetching joie de vivre
that seems to transcend space and time.
This unique figure, which dates back to the seventh century of our
era, appears as a messenger of peace and abundance. It is appealing
to think of him as the happy harbinger of riches awaiting visitors
who have the good fortune to discover this elegant and enthralling museum.
Le Musée Cernuschi
7, Ave. Vélasquez
75008 Paris
Telephone 45.63.50.75
Open: Tuesday - Sunday; 10h - 17h40
Villiers, Monceau
30,94
Rachel Kaplan, author and connoisseur of Paris,
was educated at the Lycée Français de New York and
at Northwestern University,. She is an
international correspondent who has written
articles for American, British, French, and Czech publications on a
wide range of subjects.
Her book Little-Known Museums In and Around Paris may be
ordered in quantity directly from the publisher
Harry N. Abrams in New York.
She also gives guided tours Paris,
and may be contacted at
kaplan@mail.club-internet.fr.
