Last April, legendary fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy approached Christie’s with a drawing in hand. The pen-and-ink sketch depicted an 18th-century drawing room filled with antique furniture, tapestries, and iron busts. Givenchy's vision will come to life at Christie’s Paris from September 11 to 26 with the help of the couturier’s own formidable collection of 17th- and 18th-century sculpture. “It has been Givenchy’s dream to realize this exhibition,” Isabelle Degut, head of European sculpture for Christie’s in Paris, told ARTINFO in an interview.

The display is inspired by a 1708 series of engravings by Louis XIV’s court sculptor François Girardon. The 18th-century master depicted his own collection — as well as a few works he wished were in his collection — artfully arrayed in sumptuous interiors. Givenchy’s exhibition, which will run alongside Paris’s Biennale des Antiquaires, attempts to bring those engravings to life. (September, it seems, is the time for art and fashion crossovers in the City of Lights. While Givenchy is holding court at Christie’s, another fashion icon, Karl Lagerfeld, will be art directing the biennale.)

Among other works, Givenchy’s display will include a bronze sculpture of Bacchus recently attributed to Girardon and two 18th-century statues of bronze river gods that are directly mirrored in the artist's 1708 engravings. (Givenchy chased the sculptures for three decades before finally acquiring them several years ago from Guy Wildenstein, according to the Wall Street Journal.) All the pieces will be arrayed in front of massive, wall-size tapestries featuring reproductions of Girardon’s original sketches. The designer, 85, isn’t officially offering the pieces for sale, but may consider selling the collection as a whole to the right buyer. 

Girardon and Givenchy are, in a way, kindred spirits. Like Girardon himself, Givenchy “has been buying his whole life,” Degut said, defying genre and strict categories of collecting. “He has great taste — he’s not one of those collectors who only collects 18th-century furniture. He collects art deco, modern art, things from the 17th, 18th and 20th centuries.”

For Degut, the most exciting development to come out of the exhibition is the discovery of two bronze figures of Venus and Venus Marina that she was able to attribute to the French sculptor Le Lorrain. (Lorrain was a student of Girandon and today is one of the more underappreciated sculptors of the period, she said.) “These bronzes haven’t been seen on the market for 15 years, and nothing has been written about them,” Degut added.

Bronzes from this period have become more interesting to museums and collectors in recent years, according to experts. In June, the Louvre hosted a four-day symposium on the techniques and materials of bronze sculpture from the 16th to 18th centuries. “For people who collect sculpture, bronzes from that time are very important,” said Degut. “But they are rarely signed, which makes them more difficult for us as experts.” The Givenchy exhibition, she noted, only will serve to make such bronze pieces more desirable. Leave it to a world-famous fashion designer to help bring something vintage back in vogue.

To see highlights from Hubert de Givenchy's collection that will be on view at Christie's Paris from September 11 to 26, click the slide show.

A version of this story originally appeared in the September issue of Art+Auction magazine.