The Galerie Campana

The Galerie Campana

Today, I’ll be in the Sully wing for The Galerie Campana.

The Galerie Campana just reopened this July. Its succession of nine rooms produces a tremendous effect, with its dazzling empire-green walls and its ceilings decorated with historical scenes painted under the Restoration and the July Monarchy (Sully, rooms 651-659). The first rooms, highly instructive, show the various forms of Greek vases according to their use. Some children, about ten years old, are speaking in front of a map of the Mediterranean. One of them asks why they can’t see France. “It’s over there,” answers a classmate, pointing towards northwestern Italy. The following rooms, filled with all kinds of vases, are quicker to pass through. A woman has her friend take a picture of her crouching beneath a vitrine. No one steps in to tell her it’s a bit bold. We look at the Seine, the Pont des Arts, and the Institut de France through the dark blinds (they have been replaced since my earlier visit last winter). The Galerie Campana, formerly the “Galerie au Bord de l’Eau,” is a gallery in the true sense, a place for walking.