News from the Kraemer
COLLECTOR STORIES
Christian Dior, a regular at the Galerie Kraemer and a lover of the 18th century.
The first time Christian Dior came to the gallery, he was looking for two large pieces of furniture. He came out after buying a small console and a vase so big that he couldn’t even put it on top!
COLLECTOR STORIES
“For the 18th century of high quality,
the Kraemer Gallery is my favorite”
Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld, a great fan of the 18th century.
The famous stylist was passionate about decoration: another way to express his creativity.
EVENTS
Lafayette’s restaurant,
a place that spans the ages
For several weeks now, a selection of works of art from our gallery is exhibited in the sumptuous period rooms of Lafayette’s restaurant, 8 rue d’Anjou, Paris 8, recently inaugurated.
150 years of the Galerie Kraemer,
through the arts and ages
The Kraemer house is always very discreet, even if it is full of anecdotes since 1875.
Here is one that we reveal…
Henry Ford II,
major industrialist and 18th century art collector.
One Saturday evening, in the 1960s, around 6 p.m., while Philippe and Françoise Kraemer were going out to go to the cinema on the Champs-Élysées, they saw a man walking around their car, a Ford.
He introduces himself: Henry Ford II. “I don’t know the European model of the Zodiac”.
Ford was about to press the bell button to open the door of the gallery at 43, rue de Monceau.
Obviously, the Kraemer couple did not go to see the Brigitte Bardot film that evening, and during the visit to the Mansion, Mr. Ford was interested in several pieces of furniture and important objects in the Gallery.
You should know that we were in the 1960s: The house was being rebuilt after the spoliation of the war, and the major objects were our best advertisement.
Philippe said to him: “maybe that’s enough for today,” after his insistent purchasing interest in many important pieces of furniture.
Henry Ford thought it was an extraordinary business argument to say that!
He immediately suggested to Philippe, after purchasing this furniture, seats and objects, to hire him to come and work with him in the United States, in the management of the car manufacturer!
Philippe Kraemer preferred to become, alongside his father Raymond, one of the great antique dealers of his time!
18th century potpourri vase
in white Chinese porcelain,
acquired from Kraemer by Henry Ford II
in the 1960s, today at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Henry Ford II en 1968 devant la Ford GT40
La Ford Zodiac
Jayne Wrightsman,
major patron of the MET
Jayne Wrightsman, always elegant and refined, regularly visited us in our private mansion each time she came to Paris, with great kindness, to expand her collection.
The MET received the fleuron of its 18th-century furniture collections from Charles and Jayne Wrightsman.
In the photo on the right side, a magnificent vase mounted as a lamp. The pair is now exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
They were acquired from us by Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, then by the Wrightsman couple before joining the collections of this prestigious institution.
Jayne Wrightsman was a great lady, as well as a loyal customer of our Gallery, until her passing in 2019.
When Galerie Kraemer
is exhibited…
Dior exhibition
at Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow
(April 28 to July 24, 2011).
Organized at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, the exhibition was imagined as a dialogue between the most beautiful dresses created by Christian Dior and contemporary works of art as well as from the 18th century.
This exhibition showed that contemporary haute couture occupies an increasingly important place in the world’s major museums.
But the essential idea is that of the relationship between the past and the future.
Christian Dior has always explained that he kept an eye towards the past to create his collections, drawing inspiration from high French traditions, particularly in art.
To illustrate the richness and style of the 18th century so dear to the creativity of the couturier of 30 avenue Montaigne, the Pushkin Museum exhibited furniture from the Kraemer Gallery, such as the famous Louis XVI chair in the shape of a medallion so emblematic of the house of Dior .
Picture : Vue de l’exposition “inspiration Dior” au musée Pouchkine, Moscou, 2011, mobilier Kraemer.
