Announced in January 2011, the donation subject to usufruct was shrouded in mystery at the time as the identity of the generous donor was not revealed. Today we know that it was Jean-Pierre Marcie Riviere (who passed away on January 6), who had, along with his wife Zeïneb (deceased in 2010), built a collection consisting of works by Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard over 30 years.
The donation to the musée d’Orsay consists of “24 paintings and 92 graphic works by Bonnard and 23 paintings and 2 pastels by Vuillard which were part of a décor project for a Parisian restaurant”. According to the museum, it is “the largest collection of an artist ever assembled by a collector”. In homage to the collector, the museum will dedicate a presentation of a dozen works from the donation in one of the museum’s rooms from March 1, a teaser of the big exhibition dedicated to the works from the Marcie Riviere collection in October 2016.
Edouard Vuillard, Self-Portrait (1889). National Gallery of Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs Paul Mellon (via Wikimedia Commons) | Pierre Bonnard, Self-Portrait
