Notre-Dame-de-Paris. Claire Tabouret, this figurative artist who was chosen for the future stained glass windows of the cathedral

“It made sense, at this moment in my life, to put my work at the service of people greater than myself, of a magnificent cause. » So says Claire Tabouret, the artist who has just been chosen by the artistic committee responsible for examining the applications to create six large contemporary glass roofs at Notre-Dame de Paris.

Born in 1981 in Provence, the young woman studied at the fine arts school in Paris before becoming an internationally recognized painter. She has, in fact, exhibited in Italy as well as in Japan and the United States. She has lived in Los Angeles since 2015 but announced during this press conference on December 18, 2024, her plan to return to France in the spring of 2025. A decision, she says, taken before knowing that she was a winner for Notre- Lady. However, his return will allow him more easily to work on his designs in conjunction with the master glassmakers from the Simon-Marq workshop in Reims, who will carry out their transposition onto glass. Before their installation in the cathedral, planned for the end of 2026. Technically speaking, the painter underlines the interest for her in working with glass “a living material, which allows you to renew your gaze, at every hour of the day, with every cloud who passes.”

An artistic project between light and references to Viollet-le-Duc

Claire Tabouret’s painted work is figurative and therefore responds well to the constraints of the commission. She excelled in the art of portraiture and often painted groups, in colors that were sometimes muted, sometimes almost garish, but always imbued with a rather mysterious atmosphere. However, in this project, the sketch presented for the first of the chapels, dedicated to Saint Joseph, shows that she has evolved her style which here is closer to the pointillism of her landscapes, with a certain “erosion of forms” explains the artist, even if it is a circle of men in prayer, holding hands “which translates the quest for interiority”.

Because the iconographic program of these glass roofs, each 7 meters high, must evoke Pentecost: “the theme of unity, of inclusion already runs through my work,” she explains. And Pentecost tells of the unity of men among themselves and with Heaven. » The successive windows, which illuminate the south aisle of the nave, will then evoke “a landscape with clouds and sun, because the Revelation is also a source of concern – the disciples were afraid” (Sainte-Clotilde chapel), then “a tree with leaves that fly away to evoke the great wind” (Saint-Vincent-de-Paul chapel), “these same leaves which become, further away, tongues of fire” (chapel Sainte-Geneviève). For the Saint-Denis chapel, we will find “people in ecstasy, on their knees” and finally, in the last chapel, Saint-Paul-Chen, “a group portrait will blend with the sky”.

Claire Tabouret also evolved her palette to meet the rules of the competition which required that we find “the white light” of the stained glass windows with geometric patterns by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. While these – although freshly restored – will have to be removed to make way for the project, the artist integrates them into his drawing of the Saint-Joseph chapel, in a sort of mise en abyme. “In homage to Viollet-le-Duc,” she explains simply, “I sought to make the link with the history of this cathedral. » Heritage defenders, who refuse the removal of an element in good condition and consistent with the rest of the building’s decor, underline the irony of this choice. An association has already planned to file an appeal against the removal of the old stained glass windows. Faced with this debate which she finds “fascinating”, Claire Tabouret responds: “I asked myself a lot of questions at the start. But I found that there was audacity in bringing a contemporary movement inside this monument and in trusting our country, in our time. »

The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, and the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Laurent Ulrich, at the origin of this initiative financed by the Ministry of Culture, to the tune of 4 million euros, will appreciate, with the defenders of contemporary gestures in historic monuments, the enthusiasm and talent of the artist.