Yves Lavallette: Liquid Light

For the Autumn-Winter issue staging East Asian design in close dialogue with the Nordic design scene, fashion editor and photographer Yves Lavallette shot Liquid Light series in the tea pavilion garden in the former Hotêl d’Heidelbach in the premises of Musée Guimet in Paris.

Musée Guimet – The National Museum of Asian Arts is historically connected to its founder, Émile Guimet (1836–1918), a wealthy industrialist from Lyon. The collection he brought together included items from Egypt, the classical world and different Asian countries. His wish was to create a museum devoted to the different religions of the world.

After a short display in Paris, during the Universal Exhibition in 1878, the collection was open to the public in Lyon in 1879 and transferred to Paris in its present building in 1889. Even before Guimet died, the new museum became mostly devoted to the art of Asia. Khmer, Tibetan, Korean works were collected on a large scale. After the First World War, collections brought from Central Asia and China were displayed at Guimet as well as works from the Indochina museum of the Trocadéro.

In 1945, Guimet became home of the national collection of Asian art when objects from the Asiatic department of the Louvre were transferred to the museum. In return, the large collection of Egyptian works belonging to Guimet was send to the Louvre. Now the museum is the largest institution especially devoted to Asian art and archaeology in Europe. The 60.000 objects of the museum give a complete overview of 5.000 years of history and creation from Eastern, Central and South-Eastern Asia. The collection of photography preserved by the museum from the late 19th and early 20th century is by far the largest of its kind.

Travel through the Asian cultures

Reopened in 2001 after several years of renovation, the museum has a permanent collection exhibited in more than 30 galleries, each devoted to a different country of Asia. Several masterpieces are on public view: an extraordinary group of Chinese porcelain from the Grandidier and Calmann gifts, the second largest collection in the world of Khmer art as well as exquisite paintings and prints from Japan.

Close to the main building of the place d’Iéna, the Hôtel d’Heidelbach is a former private residence, home of an extraordinary collection of Buddhist sculptures. On the avenue Foch, at 15 minutes walking distance, the Hôtel d’Ennery houses many Japanese treasures brought by Clémence d’Ennery in the late 19th century, they are still exhibited in galleries specially designed for them. Both collections belong to the Musée Guimet.

The museum is located in the western part of central Paris, ten minutes walking distance from the Trocadéro (Eifel tower) on one side, the Champs-Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe on the other side. Some of the best Paris palaces are situated in the neighbourhood, such as the George V, the Peninsula or the Shangri-La. •

Main image
Cape David Vincent Camuglio
Skirt Philippe Perisse
Socks Falke
Pumps Walter Steiger

Photography Yves Lavallette
Style Aurore Donguy
Starring Elena Verjus
Make-up Stéphane Dussart
Hair Laétitia Crouzillac
Style Assistant Thomas Moussin
Photo Assistant Allan Walsh

Production Director
Philippe Thoumire at Yves Lavallette Studio

Special thanks to
The Musée Guimet in Paris and to all of its staff for their assistance

Sincere thanks  to
Madame Sophie Maire
Madame Hélène Lefevre
Monsieur François Hénin de chez JOVOY