In 1913, the Parisian artist Jules-Alexandre Grün created ‘Fin de Souper’, a painting glowing with light and colour, now in the fine arts museum MUba Eugène Leroy, in Tourcoing. It shows in sumptuous detail an animated company in conversation at the end of a soirée. Paris, the fabled 'City of Light' has long been synonymous with the luxury arts. For centuries, dazzling jewels, objets de vertu, elegant clothing, furnishings and other precious works of art crafted in the city’s myriad workshops, have delighted the eye of the most discerning and esteemed patrons. By the 19th Century, Paris was celebrated as a destination for fashionable shopping with revered couture houses and prestigious jewellers established on the Rue de la Paix and Place Vendôme. Jules-Alexandre Grün’s painting draws us into the world of Parisian "beau monde". Paris, its luxury arts, designers and royal and noble patrons, all take centre stage in this study day, celebrating a thousand years of luminous splendour.

Paris, the fabled 'City of Light' has long been synonymous with the luxury arts. For centuries, dazzling jewels, precious objets de vertu, exquisite furnishings and elegant bespoke couture have been crafted in the city’s myriad workshops, delighting the eye of the most discerning and esteemed patrons. The three lectures follow the story of the luxury arts of Paris over a thousand years of luminous splendour from the Medieval period to the 20th Century.