Monaco revives the enigmatic Christian Bérard

Special Envoy to Monaco

Who is Christian Bérard, this unclassifiable artist, jack-of-all-trades nicknamed “Bébé”, a slightly devilish baby face, subject of “Excentric Baby”, a masterful exhibition at the New National Museum of Monaco (NMNM). Bérard, better known in the 1930s and 1940s as a theater and cinema costume designer and fashion designer than a true painter, is a whole world. And, to bring it back to life, a decorator with a sensitivity close to his time was needed, like Jacques Grange, the close friend of the late Marie-Laure de Noailleswhose portrait Bérard painted enthroned above the mica fireplace in the grand salon of the private mansion on the Place des Etats-Unis in Paris.

He knew how to marvelously stage the secret universe of this magician who died suddenly in 1949, during a rehearsal of Scapin’s trickery, at the Théâtre Marigny. And this because, very young, he immediately understood the dimension of Bérard’s art and his endearing personality, by…