FOREWORD Since 1985, the Dallas Museum of Art has been the home of the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, which includes masterpieces of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and decorative art. Obtained for the Museum thanks to the foresight of then-director Harry S. Parker III, the Reveses’ transformative gift greatly enhanced the collection of European art at the Museum and gave a powerful boost to its European art program. Today, thirty years later, we extend our renewed gratitude and admiration to Harry Parker, the late Board President George Charlton, and former Board Chairman Irvin L. Levy for their leadership and vision, and to the late Gerard van der Kemp, who first presented this idea to them. Although Wendy and Emery Reves assembled a collection of art that was thoroughly impressive in its own right, scholars have recently begun uncovering an added layer of fascination and richness in the history of La Pausa, the villa Emery bought from Gabrielle Chanel in 1953, and where the Reves Collection was first showcased. Spanning some eighty years, and casting new light on such luminaries as Chanel, Winston Churchill, and Salvador Dalí, this volume traces the evolution of La Pausa and the implausible journey of the Reves Collection, which traveled more than five thousand miles from the South of France to a dedicated wing in the Dallas Museum of Art. A debt of gratitude is owed, of course, to Wendy Reves, for her selfless act of generosity in facilitating the gift of this remarkable collection to the Dallas Museum of Art, thus making it available for residents of Dallas and out-of-town visitors alike. In addition—and in particular—we would like to offer our heartfelt thanks to Olivier Meslay, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, Senior Curator of European and American Art, and The Barbara Thomas Lemmon Curator of European Art, for his meticulous scholarship in studying the Reves Collection; for discovering the part played in this history by Chanel, including her ownership of all of the original furniture and decor at La Pausa; and above all for the fresh perspective and aesthetic appreciation he brings to a trove of objects that share an exceptional provenance. We would also like to thank Martha MacLeod, Curatorial Administrative Assistant for the Department of European and American Art, for her role in conducting extensive research on the history of the Reves Collection and the Villa La Pausa, and for coauthoring this publication with Olivier Meslay. A project of this scope and ambition necessarily relies on the skills of a talented group of professionals. Queta Moore Watson, the DMA’s Senior Editor, is to be commended for her attentive and perceptive copyediting of the text, and I am grateful to Rebecca Winti, Director of Creative Services at the DMA, for the volume’s elegant design.
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