Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen at the Musée de l’Orangerie

The Museum Berggruen had been on my list for my next trip to Berlin, but the museum is closed for renovation until 2025. Masterpieces from the collection are currently on an international exhibition tour and were previously on show in Tokyo, Osaka, Shanghai, Beijing and Venice. The last stop is the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris.

Heinz Berggruen (1914-2007) was a German art dealer who, for many years, ran one of the most successful modern art galleries in Paris. Born into a Jewish family in Berlin, Berggruen left Germany for the United States in 1936, where he worked as an art critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, before moving to New York. After the second world war he settled in Paris where he opened his gallery specializing in modern art. Berggruen soon became a major player in the post-war Parisian arts scene. Like other gallery owners such as Ernst and Hildy Beyeler, thanks to his commercial success, Berggruen was able to assemble a large private collection of works by the artists he exhibited. Indeed, Berggruen liked to quip that he was his own best customer. In 1996 he returned to Berlin, bringing his private collection with him, which he sold to the German state in 2000.

Today, the Museum Berggruen houses one of the greatest private collections of classical modernism. The collection consists of more than 120 works by Picasso, some 60 works by Klee as well as works by Matisse, Braque, Cézanne and Giacometti. Berggruen was fascinated by Cubism and the collection is particularly strong on what is often referred to as analytical and synthetic cubism. 

The exhibition currently at the Musée de l’Orangerie opens with two wonderful still lifes “Cartes à jouer, paquet de tabac, bouteille et verre” (1914) by Picasso and ”Nature morte à la pipe (Le Quotidien du Midi)” (1914) by Braque. Turn around and there are several more amazing still lifes, including “Nature morte sur un piano” (1911-12) and “Guitare et journal” (1916) by Picasso. In these early works you can clearly see how Picasso and Braque deconstructed the image. In later works such as Picasso’s “Seated Woman” (1938) the image, in this case the body, has been completely fragmented to the point where it is unrecognizable.

I don’t really care much for the late Picasso, but I love his still lifes and portraits from the 1910s until the 1940s. A postcard of “Dora Maar with Green Fingernails” (1936) now graces my desk. It is unusually beautiful and almost classical, with only hints of Cubism. It is hard to believe, but it is indeed the same woman as in the equally wonderful “Yellow Sweater” (1939). “Large reclining nude” (1942) is also unusual in that it is completely devoid of eroticism. It could be a corpse or a person seeking shelter. Like “Guernica” (1937) it shows how well-suited Cubism as a visual language is to rendering scenes and emotions that are by nature chaotic and agonizing.

Berggruen was an early champion of the work of Paul Klee, whom he considered one of the great masters of modern art, alongside Picasso and Matisse. They never met, Klee died in Switzerland in 1940 at the time when Berggruen lived in the United States, but Berggruen’s first purchase was a drawing by Klee and his first exhibition at his Paris gallery was also dedicated to the artist.

Klee took a great interest in children’s drawings and many of his paintings, drawings and watercolors exhibit the same joyful spirit. I love works such as “Landscape in Blue” (1917), which borders between abstraction and figuration. “Lieu dans le Nord” (1923) reminded me of “Fugue” (1952-53) by Nicolas de Staël with its composition of colored blocks, except that De Staël used different material and technique.

The works from the Museum Berggruen beautifully complement the own collection of the Musée de l’Orangerie making this a perfect time to visit. I now look forward to visiting the Museum Berggruen itself once it reopens. 

Heinz Berggruen: A Dealer and his Collection is at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris through 27 January 2025.