Caillebotte, luxury product at Louis Vuitton

Museum visitors are consumers like any others: after contemplating works of art, they feel, and rightly so, the need to buy socks, umbrellas, notebooks, pencils, and other keychains. Consequently, most cultural institutions have developed shops within their premises, which not only cater to the aspirations of their clients but also help fill their coffers.
The reverse phenomenon is observed in stores: consumers being museum visitors like any others, they feel, between purchases, the need to contemplate works of art, giving their credit cards a moment to cool down and appeasing their shopping fever. Is the best way to rest their eyes, strained by so many objects of desire, not to fix them on a beauty that has no (longer has) a price?

1. The painting Boat Party by Gustave Caillebotte
exhibited at Louis Vuitton in New York
Photo: P. Rho/Louis Vuitton

See the image in its page

What other argument could justify the exhibition at Louis Vuitton, in New York, of two paintings by Gustave Caillebotte (ill. 1 to 3)? One, Young Man at His Window, is on long-term loan from the Getty, the other comes from the Musée d’Orsay and is titled Oarsman In A Top Hat or The Boating Party. And indeed, it will take some rowing to explain such a communication operation. Admittedly, it was thanks to LVMH that The Boating Party, classified as a National Treasure by the French State and sold for 43 million euros, could join public collections in 2022 (see the news item). Can a patron therefore exhibit a painting in a shop because they contributed to its purchase? That’s a bit short, young man.

2. Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894)
Boat Party, called Boater with Top Hat, c. 1877-1878
Oil on canvas - 90 × 117 cm
Paris, Musée d’Orsay
Photo: Musée d’Orsay

See the image in its page

The project is presented as the result of a collaboration between the Fondation Vuitton, the Getty Museum, and the Musée d’Orsay, following the monographic exhibition devoted to…