Paul Signac

Claude and Georges Pompidou, Paris

Alain Pompidou, Paris

Thence by descent to the present owner

“A work of art is like the Archangel’s sword: it must pierce us through.”

Le Figaro littéraire, 1966

In 1964, while Georges Pompidou was serving as Prime Minister of France, his ministers were expected, in keeping with tradition, to present him with a New Year’s gift. Asked what he would most like to receive, the future President answered without hesitation: “A painting by Georges Mathieu.”

It is with particular pleasure that we present this work today, alongside some twenty other pieces from the former collection of Claude and Georges Pompidou. Together, they offer a portrait of a couple whose lives were profoundly shaped by culture in all its forms and reveal the close, personal relationship they maintained with the artistic currents of their time.

Georges Pompidou acquired his first work of art at the age of eighteen while studying at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris: La Femme 100 têtes, Max Ernst’s pioneering Surrealist collage novel. His passion for culture and instinctive sensitivity to art emerged early, as recalled by Léopold Sédar Senghor in the catalogue of the exhibition Hommage au Président Georges Pompidou, un homme de culture. In this text Senghor describes the museum visits they shared on Sundays as students in Paris. Although Pompidou continued to cultivate these interests throughout his life, it was only some twenty years later, following his appointment to the leadership of Rothschild Bank, that he and his wife Claude began to assemble the collection from which Sotheby’s is honoured to present a selection today.

Entirely personal in character, the collection was never assembled with investment in mind. Each work was chosen for its ability to move, challenge and enrich the intellectual life of the couple. The first acquisition of this new chapter was a work by Youla Chapoval, purchased from Galerie Jeanne Bucher in 1947. It was followed by watercolours by Rodin and Signac, paintings by Hans Hartung and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, and several sculptures by Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, which found homes both in the Pompidous’ apartment on the Quai de Béthune in Paris and at their retreat in Orvilliers. Works by Yves Klein, Arman, Eduardo Arroyo, Mimmo Rotella and Raymond Hains also entered the collection, reflecting the couple’s keen interest in the Nouveaux Réalistes.

From his arrival at Matignon in 1962, Georges Pompidou made no secret of his enthusiasm for modern art. In his office he hung a painting by Pierre Soulages alongside works by Jean Fautrier, Max Ernst and Nicolas de Staël. Their admiration for de Staël was particularly strong: in the summer of 1972, Claude and Georges Pompidou visited the artist’s retrospective in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Earlier, in 1958, Claude had given Georges Les Toits de Paris, a small masterpiece painted in 1952 that would become one of the most treasured works in their collection.