Enfilade

From the Sydney Intellectual History Network:

Melissa Hyde, Painted Women in the Age of Madame de Pompadour
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 10 June 2014

Co-presented with the Art Gallery Society New South Wales

François Boucher A young lady holding a pug dog (presumed portrait of Madame Boucher) mid 1740s

Professor Melissa Hyde considers the role cosmetics played in the court politics and social identities of women at the court of Versailles. For artists like François-Hubert Drouais and Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, who portrayed Pompadour, Du Barry (and Marie-Antoinette after them), the problem of depicting an unpainted, natural face through inherently artificial painterly means presented something of a paradox. This lecture will also look at how artists grappled with that paradox and will demonstrate how the painterly performance of the natural was a perfect vehicle for portraying Du Barry’s own performance as a natural woman.

10.00am Coffee
10.30–11.30 Lecture

More information is available here»