Paris meets Ruhr

Folkwang Museum and E.ON Ruhrgas presented French impressionists

In Essen, the industrial and cultural center of the Ruhr region of Germany, French was spoken more often these days than at any time in recent years. On Saturday, here at the world-famous Folkwang Museum, the exhibition “Paintings of a Metropolis - Impressionists in Paris” was opened to a large crowd, which became a landmark event not only for this region, which was declared the European Capital of Culture 2010 by the European Commission. The first visitors came to see masterpieces of French painting from 1860-1900 on the eve of the 20th anniversary of German reunification, celebrated last Sunday. It is known that two decades ago, it was in the Elysee Palace in Paris that there were serious concerns about the increasing weight of Germany in Europe. There is no trace of the former German-French interstate quarrels, and the presentation of unique creations by French masters in the center of the Ruhr region is taking place under the patronage of German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The history of the two European neighboring countries also contained pages of a different kind. In 1923, the region was occupied by French-Belgian forces, paralyzing its economy for years. The occupation authorities evicted 130 thousand inhabitants from the Ruhr region to the unoccupied part of Germany, imposed fines, and imposed death sentences. The occupation of the Ruhr brought Germany to the brink of economic disaster and caused deep social upheaval. It is curious that at one time only the Soviet government protested against the occupation of the Ruhr region. Now, presenting the exhibition at Folkwang, museum director Hartwig Fischer with undisguised pleasure voices entire passages of his speech in excellent French.

The exhibition, which features 80 paintings and 120 original photographs depicting Paris in the second half of the 19th century, was curated by Françoise Cachin, founding director of the Orsay Museum, and Françoise Reynaud of the Carnavalet Museum of the History of Paris. Most of the works brought to Essen by the masters of impressionism Edouard Manet, Auguste Renoir, Paul Signac, Camille Pissarro and Gustav Caillebotte are shown in Germany for the first time. The Folkwang halls also display works by lesser-known French artists, who also subtly captured the Parisian urban flavor of that time.

These were the decades of Parisian perestroika in the truest sense of the word. In 1850, the prefect of the capital department of Seine, Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann, undertook to carry out the order of Emperor Napoleon III to rebuild the city. The baron began to build wide boulevards on the site of the ancient crooked streets, which later became the hallmark of the imperial capital. Night lighting appeared on the streets, stations and subways were built. The “businessman” baron, on whose direct orders 25 thousand old houses were demolished and 40 thousand new buildings appeared, also set to work to clean the city - a sewage system that was modern at that time was installed in Paris. Over these decades, the city hosted four world exhibitions, the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Opera building and one of the most beautiful churches in Paris - Sacre Coeur (Church of the Heart) were built. Artists of that time preferred to settle in Montmartre, where apartment rents were still affordable. Walking along the wide sidewalks or spending leisure time in one of the 27 thousand Parisian cafes, their works reflected the changes in everyday life. But the career of the Parisian perestroika Georges-Eugene Houseman ended ingloriously. In 1870, he was removed from the post of the capital's mayor for numerous bureaucratic sins. By that time, a billion-dollar debt mountain had formed in the city treasury of Paris, which the French managed to get rid of only by 1929.

Folkwang director Hartwig Fischer is convinced that the Parisian experience of “change through culture” in the mid- and late 19th century can greatly benefit the Ruhr region in the 21st century. Klaus Schäfer, Chairman of the Board of the sponsor of the exhibition “Paintings of a Metropolis - Impressionists in Paris” E.ON Ruhrgas, agrees with this. “We are going through a similar process of new self-discovery thanks to the fact that the Ruhr region became the European Capital of Culture 2010,” said the chief of the largest German gas company. Mr. Schäfer, who took charge of E.ON Ruhrgas about a month and a half ago, considers it both a “challenge and a fascination” to work in this region. “53 completely different cities, the third largest urban agglomeration in the European Union - and this whole region has been named a cultural capital,” he says. -- This is how the slogan “We are the metropolis” arose in the Ruhr 2010, reflecting the desire of the Ruhr region to create its new image in Europe and use culture for sustainable economic development and urban planning. We want the cultural change we strive for to be successful.”

E.ON Ruhrgas also made a real contribution to urban planning changes in Essen. True, in the capital of the Ruhr region things did not reach the scale of the fight against architectural antiquity launched by the Parisian mayor Hausmann. At the opening of the exhibition, the gas company presented to the guests of honor its new administrative building on Brussels Square, which is to become a noticeable architectural accent in the city.

Yuri Shpakov, Essen