A great reason to visit Deauville before the summer crowds arrive: Discover the exhibition “Vu(e) du dos” [“Seen from Behind”] at Les Franciscaines.
It was upon discovering this small painting by André Hambourg that Annie Madet-Vache, director of the Les Franciscaines museum in Deauville, had the idea to organize this exhibition.
André Hambourg (1909–1999) was a prolific artist and, for many years, a painter for the French Navy. In 2011, Nicole Hambourg-Rachet, his widow, donated the majority of his work to the City of Deauville. Les Franciscaines displays this collection on a rotating basis, with a new exhibition on a different theme installed every six months. Currently, works from his early career are on display.
But let’s return to Vu(e) de dos. It is true that few painters depict backs and that it was not until the 16th century that certain artists began to pay attention to them. Yet these works invite the viewer to imagine what the figure or figures might be seeing before them or to imagine what they are feeling.
The Gentlemen, 1839
Les Gentilshommes du Duc d’Orléans dans l’habit de Saint-Cloud, 1839
Paris, musée Nissim de Camondo
This exhibition features around a hundred works — paintings, sculptures, and drawings – created by renowned artists such as Tiepolo, Goya, Boudin, Rodin, Jacques-Émile Blanche, and Félix Vallotton, as well as by lesser-known artists like Pieter Codde, Henri- Michel Lévy, and Paul Albert Baudouin.
The exhibition consists of two parts.
The first part, where the works are hung in chronological order, features paintings dating from the 12th century to the present day.
Young Man Copying a Painting, undated
Jeune homme copiant un tableau, non daté
London, Guildhall Art Gallery
The second part presents works organized by theme:
❁ Daily Life
The Washerwoman, 1860
Lavandière, 1860
Paris, musée d’Orsay
❁ Social life
The Evening, 1878
Une soirée, 1878
Paris, musée d’Orsay
❁ The Mirror
The closed shutters, 1910
Les Volets clos,1910
Paris, musée d’Orsay en dépôt au
musée franco-américain du château de Blérancourt
❁ “Reinterpretations and reworkings” by contemporary artists of two famous works:
Ingres’s The Bather by Man Ray and Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Elina Brotherus.
The exhibition concludes with this work by Raoul Dufy, who winks at you — though you can’t see it (!) — and invites you to return to discover the next temporary exhibition:
“Raoul Dufy: The Sound of Music”
from June 27 to September 20, 2026.
The Model in the Studio, 1949
Le Modèle dans l’atelier, 1949
Le Havre, musée d’Art moderne André Malraux – MuMa