Claire Tabouret’s Stained-Glass Windows for Notre-Dame Divide French Society, with a Legal Threat Looming
A controversy has erupted in France over plans to replace six undamaged 19th-century stained-glass windows at Notre-Dame de Paris—designed by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc during his 1844–1864 restoration—with new windows by contemporary artist Claire Tabouret. After the cathedral’s 2019 fire, President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich announced in late 2023 a “contemporary gesture” to commission new windows for six of the seven south-side nave chapels, and Tabouret was selected from eight finalists in late 2024. Her six Pentecost-themed designs, shown as life-size models at the Grand Palais, are to be fabricated in stained glass with artisans at Atelier Simon-Marq. Supporters, including restoration leader Philippe Jost, argue the 19th-century grisailles are not medieval and that a new figurative cycle would add “meaning” and “beauty,” while critics object to removing intact historic windows, with legal action threatened.
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This story was covered in Collectors Unboxed, Stained-Glass Uproar at Notre-Dame