I recently visited the Grand Palais to see D’un seul souffle (“In a Single Breath”) by Claire Tabouret. The exhibition offers an early look at her designs for six new stained glass windows commissioned for Notre-Dame Cathedral, scheduled for installation in 2027.
Tabouret, widely known for her portraiture—particularly of children—creates paintings that feel both intimate and searching. Her subjects often seem to look back at you. Standing before them, you feel seen as much as you are observing.
I entered the exhibition without much context, but knowing that Tabouret had been selected—among more than one hundred applicants—for this historic commission by the French Ministry of Culture. It’s difficult not to imagine the moment she received that news: what it felt like, how she responded, and who she told first.
The exhibition reveals not only the window designs, but the process behind them. Preparatory monotypes, recreated studio tables, hand-cut stencils, and samples of blown glass offer insight into the making. Tabouret describes this balance of color as a “dance in the studio.”
Displayed at full scale, the six windows are presented without light passing through them—held in suspension, waiting for their final form inside the cathedral.
The windows interpret the story of Pentecost—the moment, fifty days after Christ’s resurrection, when the Apostles are said to have received the Holy Spirit. Across the six compositions, Tabouret evokes prayer, sound, wind, fire, and ultimately, harmony. Her imagery moves from turbulence to stillness, from fragmentation to connection.
Figures gather in circles of prayer. Trees bend in unseen gusts. Light becomes both force and presence. Children lead a diverse procession forward. Without words, the narrative unfolds.
And what remains is a feeling—one of peace, unity, and love.
Leaving the exhibition, I stepped back into the noise of the city. A world where those qualities are not always present. And yet, for a moment, they felt possible—held within the experience of the work.
Tabouret’s vision of Pentecost offers something quietly profound: a sense of shared understanding, a unity within diversity, a collective movement toward the light.
—Cherry Dickinson
