Where Gauguin leads should Trident follow?

It was an unusual request. Would I help raise sponsorship from London’s French business community to support the planned blockbuster Gauguin exhibition at Tate Modern. I had just completed eight years as a Trustee of the Tate.

My French is irregular to put it kindly. My knowledge of Gaugin one of emotion rather than fact. Nevertheless I found myself, some six months ago, at a gathering of prominent French financiers at the home of one of their number in West London. The conversation was intellectual, stimulating, and gentle. The food was a sensation, the wine, as good.

Last night I attended a dinner at Tate Modern to celebrate the opening of the Gauguin. The French financiers and the European arm of Bank of America had parted with their money, and show truly is one of the biggest landmark splashes that even Tate Modern has achieved in its 10 year life.
It is reported that there are presently some 100,000 French people working and living in London. Despite the recession their number has not decreased. London proves hugely popular with the French. Anglo French relations, from business to marriage have boomed in recent years. The arts minister revealed that he even has a French cultural advisor, paid for by the French, in his office.

This perhaps reveals a rarely discussed truth. That Britain and France share far more in common than divides them.

We used to typify Anglo French relations by referring to President Mitterrand’s stand off with “la femme fatale” – Margaret Thatcher, to you and me. But these days the entente is remarkably cordial. Our two countries indulge in biannual bilateral summits – the next is on 2 November.

“Expect something big”, the French Ambassador whispered to me, referring to the forthcoming meeting. We are already dependent upon France for power generation, and much else, we may soon develop other interdependent strands. Not the least remains the nuclear deterrent.

Gordon Brown described President Sarkozy’s offer earlier this year of ‘shared nuclear submarine patrols’ as politically undeliverable. I’d be surprised if such a deal turned a hair in Britain.

France and Britain are both Atlantic powers experiencing post colonial downsizing. We both have dependent colonies and an over hang of empire. Our culinary tastes, sadly like theirs, have been undermined by junk food stores. But at the high end, our cuisine is compatible with theirs.

We both drink too much and carry too much public debt. We are almost certainly better working together than apart. Last night I found I was not alone in being mystified as to why we don’t take advantage of this and use it for our own betterment and to revolutionise the power structures than render the EU so stodgy.

Gauguin’s granddaughter is comfortably English, she lives in Oxfordshire. Grandpa’s paintings speak a language of multiculturalism that European exhibitions can rarely reflect.

In short his show at Tate Modern is remarkably accessible to a Brit, despite the fact that he was really just a French stock broker who loved painting. But hell, if we didn’t have stockbrokers, we wouldn’t have a Surrey, let alone a Tate.

And if we didn’t host a load of French stock brokers we wouldn’t have a Gauguin blockbuster.