Lot 37

In 1991, Wanda Koop received funding for a studio in Paris from the Canada Council, where she spent six transformative months near Notre-Dame. As she navigated the city, she consistently oriented her work in relation to the cathedral, ultimately filling ten small sketchbooks. Koop’s artistic exploration soon extended to glassine, the delicate paper commonly used to wrap flowers in Paris. This material became the foundation for larger drawings created in her studio, where she transitioned to creamy paper and India ink, producing over a hundred pieces derived from her original sketches.

During a challenging personal period, the cathedral became a source of solace. The initial drawings were intensely personal and intimate, never before shown, but the series gained new significance after the catastrophic fire, revealing the fragility of both the cathedral and the human experience. In 2019 Koop exhibited the original drawings alongside a new series of paintings that explored the fire. Notre-Dame evolved into a metaphor for human fragility, representing not only a religious symbol, but also the heart of something larger – an embodiment of collective memory and a reflection of humanity’s shared vulnerabilities.