Every season has its highlights, and in spring, cultural nocturnes are in full bloom with the return of Nuitdes Musées. The 20th edition of this not-to-be-missed event is scheduled for Saturday, May 18, 2024, and promises a host of good deals in every corner of Paris and the Île-de-France region.
On this occasion, museums, monuments, castles, cultural centers, art foundations and other exciting venues invite us to enjoy night-time visits, often free of charge, sometimes accompanied by special events including concerts, workshops and other surprises for young and old alike. Every year, a vast program awaits us, to the delight of enthusiasts and the curious!
This is your chance to conquer the heritage of the Paris region. At Val-de-Marne, in the town of Nogent-sur-Marne, you can take advantage of this event to discover the Bibliothèque Smith-Lesouëf, which has been awarded the " Maison des Illustres" label. Here, you'll find yourself in a timeless setting, at the heart of the world of Auguste Lesouëf, a collector, bibliophile and philanthropist who amassed an impressive collection of books, prints and manuscripts over the course of his life.
In 1906, Auguste Lesouëf died, bequeathing his entire collection of 18,000 works, including very rare manuscripts and incunabula, to his nieces. Sisters Madeleine and Jeanne Smith, in turn, decided to bequeath the collection to the Bibliothèque nationale de France, while commissioning the construction of a building to house these precious works.
The construction work, which took place between 1913 and 1917, was entrusted to Théodore Dauphin and his son-in-law Paul Marion.
The brick façade and high slate roof are a reference to Louis XIII architecture. Due to the difficulty of finding materials during the war, the interior woodwork and ironwork were salvaged from older buildings such as the Hôtel des Conseils de Guerre and the convent of the Filles de l'Assomption in Paris. Despite its old-fashioned appearance, the Bibliothèque features innovative features such as zenithal ceilings made of glass paving stones, which allow light to enter the three levels of elevation, while preserving rare works.
The building opened its doors to the public in 1919 under the name "Bibliothèque Smith-Lesouëf", and was managed by BnF until the 1980s, when the collections were moved to the central storerooms. It became part of the Fondation des Artistes endowment on January 9, 2004.
Today, the building houses the books of former residents of the Maison nationale des artistes - the adjoining house that became a retirement home for artists in 1945 - as well as a collection of furniture and objets d'art (miniatures, furniture, santons, drawings, paintings and sculptures) by Auguste Lesouëf, deposited with the Fondation des Artistes by the BnF in 2019, following an extensive restoration campaign.
In 2023, the French Ministry of Culture awarded the Smith-Lesouëf Library the Maison des Illustres label, in honor of Madeleine Smith-Champion and her sister Jeanne Smith, both artists and patrons of the arts.
On the occasion of European Museum Night, the Fondation des Artistes invites two researchers to present the personality and commitments of Rose Valland, famous for her role in the identification and restitution of works of art looted by the Nazis during the Second World War.
A major figure in 20th-century museums, Rose Valland worked for many years from the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, the Paris headquarters of the Fondation des Artistes, and was well acquainted with Maurice Guy-Loë, the first director of the Maison nationale des artistes in Nogent-sur-Marne.
Rose Valland (1898-1980) is best known for her resistance to Nazi looting of art during the Second World War. However, her commitment to heritage was not limited to the period of the conflict: in 1945, she left for Germany to recover French works that had crossed the border during the hostilities.
She remained there for eight years, after which the Beaux-Arts administration entrusted her with the responsibility of a new department, the SPOA, on her return to France.
Thanks to this Service de protection des œuvres d'art, Rose Valland was able to maintain her collaboration with the fledgling Federal Republic of Germany, which was now responsible for art restitutions.
In the absence of available premises at the Louvre, the SPOA moved into the Hôtel particulier Salomon de Rothschild, not far from the Arc de Triomphe, now administered by the Fondation des Artistes. Staffed by just over five people, the department was responsible for responding to the numerous requests from spoliated owners and ensuring the protection of French museums in the event of a third world conflict. In particular, it was necessary to find depots capable of housing thousands of works, and to draw up plans for safeguarding and evacuating collections, a task to which Rose Valland devoted the rest of her career.
Little known to historians, the work of the curator of the SPOA is the subject of this conference, which will present recent discoveries in Rose Valland's administrative and personal archives.
Speakers:
Ophélie Jouan is an art historian and graduate of the École du Louvre. Author of Rose Valland, une vie à l'œuvre (2019), she has been curator and scientific advisor for several exhibitions, in particular the one devoted by the Musée dauphinois to the Isère Resistance fighter in 2019-2020. Since 2020, she has been preparing a doctoral thesis at the Centre d'histoire de Sciences Po (Paris) on the artistic recovery and purification of the Paris art market during the Liberation.
Romane Spirin graduated from the École du Louvre with a degree in art history and museology; she is currently studying the geopolitics of art and culture at the Sorbonne Nouvelle. In this context, she has been researching French policy on the protection of heritage in the event of armed conflict since the 1950s. At the same time, she works on the protection of heritage in conflict zones, within civilian and military institutions, notably the French Army and UNESCO.
Dates and Opening Time
On May 18th, 2024
Location
Smith-Lesouëf Library
14 Rue Charles VII
94130 Nogent sur Marne
Official website
www.fondationdesartistes.fr
