The green armchairs of the immortals will be auctioned at the beginning of October, during the very first sale of this type organized under the Cupola of the Institut de France.
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The Institut de France will offer individuals the opportunity to acquire the 39 academy chairs during the sale scheduled for Thursday, October 8.
For each armchair sold, the auctioneer will give the name of one of the immortals who have been able to sit there since the 1980s.
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Because green is the color of the French Academy.
The armchairs, like the sword and the costume, are adorned with emerald because they are embroidered with green olive branches.
The writer Henri Lavedan, who sat in chair 15, justified this choice with wit:
“The red was of a violent and warlike mood incompatible with our honest work.
Blue ?
Out of anticipated gallantry, it was reserved for ladies wearing stockings of the same shade, for the day when they too would become members of the Institute.
The white, so messy, smelled too much of its king.
The purple was too churchy, the orange with a vain noise and the yellow would have made people smile.
So ?
So there was only the green that really qualified for a garment that unleashes so many lusts, disdain, sarcasm, ambitions and dreams, the green which is precisely the color of absinthe, of bile. and hope ... "
The sums received during these auctions carried out by the auction house AuctionArt-Rémy Le Fur will be paid to the Minerve Foundation, which contributes to the missions of the Academies and works to promote their heritage.
Created in 1795, the Institut de France, on the banks of the Seine, houses five academies including the French Academy, that of sciences and fine arts.
The last work under the Cupola dated back to July 1981. Major renovation work must be undertaken this year, including the replacement of all the armchairs, the ochres of the public and the greens of the academics ...
