The gallery was established in 1950. Daroi Boccarat, its founder, was a major art historian and author of several monographs. His private collection of tapestries, one of the world's largest, made a greater part of exhibits. The gallery went over to Didier Marien, 1994. The new proprietor gave its expositions an international scope.
With more than two hundred items, the gallery is for today one of the world's top five private tapestry collections, and a worthy rival of the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum and the Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg.
The Moscow exposition will come as an exhaustive retrospect of tapestry art, starting from the best 16th century endeavors and on to items based on original sketches by top-notch 20th century artists.
Bruges masterpieces of the 1520s-"Millefleur" and "Les Allegories de la musique"-are gems of the show. A major part of it belongs to works of the 17th and 18th centuries, when tapestry making reached its peak. Among the most precious gallery possessions to appear in Moscow are two tapestries from the world-renowned set, "The Four Continents"-"Asia" and "Africa". Of tremendous interest is "Renault et Armide" from the Goblin manufacture, based on a romance popular in the 16th century, love story of a crusader knight and an Oriental sorceress, which ascends to Torquato Tasso's epic, "Rinaldo". Also to appear on show is an early 16th century tapestry from the series, "La Chasse de Maximilien". A number of items from the 16th century into the 20th will also be of major notice. A tapestry that resounds the works of famous Russian avant-garde painter Vassili Kandinsky (1866-1944) will certainly awaken great public interest.
