Pick of the week

Now that travel is once again possible, it is good to be able to recommend overseas events. The organisers of BRAFA are staging, as a taster, a Brussels Art Walk this weekend, with 37 exhibitors, including several from overseas. The sculpture dealer Galerie Desmet will be host to another of my favourites, Finch & Co from Britain, with a wide range of curiosities. Desmet’s choices include a marble bust of the Roman Emperor Nerva, dating from about 1800 (www.brafa.art/en/brusselsartwalk).

Two recently opened shows in Geneva have caught my eye. The firm of Lignereux was founded in Paris and London shortly before the French Revolution to produce luxurious objets d’art; it was, effectively, the first interior decorator. In 2015, its name and spirit were revived by Gonzague Mézin, a French designer. He works with 25 French and British specialist artisans to create contemporary objects that blend luxurious tradition and innovation (Mighty Fountains, above). The results are often exciting, as the show ‘Important Nothings by Lignereux’ at the Espace Muraille in Geneva will prove (until May 7, www.lignereux.com).

I know the Galerie Grand-rue only through its stands at BRAFA and the Salon du Dessin. It deals in 18th- and 19thcentury works on paper in an admirably inclusive manner. There may be prints by Piranesi or David Roberts, Neapolitan gouaches, Swiss-mountain watercolours or Near Eastern subjects. The current show is more of the same and includes a group of watercolours (right) by the Maltese Count Amadeo Preziosi (1816– 82), rather a favourite of mine (until March 12, www.galerie-grand-rue.ch).