Top, Maquette recreating Albert Kahn’s holdings, Musée Albert Kahn; lower left, Albert Kahn action figures, Musée Albert Kahn; lower right, a rare portrait of Albert Kahn outside his office, Archives of the Planet, Musée Albert Kahn
Not many bankers get their own action figure! But French financier Albert Kahn (1860–1940) richly deserves his. Up until the Wall Street crash of ‘29, Kahn was a mover on the scale of Louis Quatorze. He bankrolled early colour photographs and films, helped renew ties between Europe and Japan, ran his own newspaper and spearheaded the fights against syphilis and tuberculosis.
In 1893, Kahn also rented a house on the Seine. Two years later, he bought it and started re-doing the garden. But Albert Kahn couldn’t stop. Over the next 30 years, he gobbled up more and more of the neighbourhood. Each acquisition marked the start of a new initiative: an Around the World Foundation, his ‘Archive of the Planet’, the personal newspaper, and a ‘Foundation for Local and Political Studies’. Other buildings turned into housing for his employees.
Top, Japanese garden, Musée Albert Kahn, pic: Steve Sampson; lower lower left, autochromes, Archives of the Planet, Musée Albert Kahn, pic: Musée Albert Kahn Musée Albert Kahn; lower right, Moulin Rouge, pic: Stéphane Passet, June, 1914, Musée Albert Kahn
None of Khan’s collaborations were small ones. For photographs, his partners were the Lumière brothers. With 72,000 snaps, their ‘Archive of the Planet’ remains the world’s largest hoard of early colour photography. And what a treasure: turn-of-the-century snaps and footage from more than 50 countries! Kahn’s advisors included Colette, Rudyard Kipling, Albert Einstein and Auguste Rodin. Although he knew everyone, the banker remained discreet – there are only ten images of him. What endures are Khan’s collections and his gardens.
Musée Albert-Kahn lets the visitor sample all of them. Here, you can gawk at both still and moving images: vintage snaps from around the world and footage of things like hand-to-hand fighting in World War I War. (I liked the 1919 eruption of Mauna Loa). Kahn also funded breakthrough time-lapse photography; some, by Jean Comandon, is on display.
Then, of course, there are the gardens.
Gardens, Musée Albert Kahn, pics: Steve Sampson
These created landscapes echo Kahn’s life. Seemingly modest, they soon reveal themselves as more. You enter through a spacious, tranquil Japanese garden. But step through its wooden gate and there are bigger vistas. To your left is a rose garden; in the middle, a tall ‘Palmarium’. On the right, is a jardin à la française.
That’s just the beginning. Wandering will take you through an aromatic “blue forest”, the scenic Marais (swamp), a “prairie”, a winter garden, a mountain forest and an English garden. To re-enter the museum, you even pass through a Japanese village. All this time, you’re never more than a few hundred yards from Paris sidewalks.
Top, Eiffel Tower and Trocadero, pic: Stéphane Passet, Musée Albert Kahn; middle, rosarie, Musée Albert-Kahn, pic: Steve Sampson; bottom, Porte Sainte-Denis, Paris, July 1914, pic: Stéphane Passet, Musée Albert Kahn
This winter, Musée Albert Kahn starts renovations. In a couple of years, it will be a state-of-the-art museum designed around the incredible holdings. Yet Kahn’s legacy already seems perfect. Half of it remains futuristically virtual. Yet the other half is totally – literally – down-to-earth.
Top, gardens, Musée Albert Kahn, pic: Steve Sampson; below, rue Saint-Jacques, Paris, 1914, pic: Musée Albert Kahn
• We saw very few tourists at Musée Albert-Kahn – and detected even fewer Anglophones. The handful we saw were British. It turned out all found the somewhat secret museum thanks to the BBC DVD Wonderful World of Albert Kahn: Archives of Planet. This is sold out in Europe but our copy arrived from BBC America. It’s AMAZING.
• Kahn was such a Renaissance man he has three action figures! On sale in the boutique, they’re made by CBG Minot (“Makers of fine lead soldiers since 1825”).