Exhibition | Ceci n’est pas un portrait: Figures de fantaisie
Opening next month at the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse:
Ceci n’est pas un portrait: Figures de fantaisie de Murillo, Fragonard, Tiepolo…
Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, 21 November 2015 — 28 February 2016
Curated by Melissa Percival and Axel Hémery
Le Musée des Augustins, musée des beaux arts de Toulouse présentera, à partir du 21 novembre 2015, une exposition totalement inédite sur les figures de fantaisie en Europe du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle. Encore peu étudiées comme un sujet à part entière dans l’histoire de l’art, les figures de fantaisie regroupent des peintures illustrant la fascination qu’ont pu exercer la figure et le corps humains sur l’art européen pendant plus de deux siècles.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Cavalier assis près d’une fontaine, ca. 1769 (Barcelone, MNAC, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya de Bellas Artes)
Centrées sur les émotions et les passions humaines, elles offrent au regard une intimité au plus près du sujet et abordent des thèmes universels, toujours étonnement modernes, comme l’apparence des sentiments, l’ambivalence des êtres humains ou la question du genre. Loin de l’art du portrait contraint par la commande ou la mode, cette exposition est un véritable éloge à la liberté, à l’invention et à la virtuosité en peinture.
Quatre-vingt tableaux provenant de musées français et européens seront réunis au musée des Augustins pour évoquer cet art intemporel en marge des traditionnelles classifications et mouvements de l’histoire de l’art. Les plus grands comme les plus attachants des peintres y seront représentés comme Annibal Carrache, Van Dyck, Jordaens, Hals, Murillo, Fragonard, Greuze, Tiepolo, mais aussi Dosso Dossi, Sweerts, Schalcken, Giordano, Piazzetta, Grimou, Ceruti, Morland… Cette sélection d’œuvres exceptionnelles sera présentée sous un angle inhabituel mélangeant provenances, époques et écoles pour se concentrer sur des sections dynamiques.
Les thèmes développés par le parcours de l’exposition seront les suivants : Jeux de regards ; Musiciens ; Vies intérieures ; Dormeurs ; Rires et sarcasmes ; Le laboratoire du visage ; L’atelier du costume. Tous ces sujets permettront de mettre en valeur l’originalité profonde de cette peinture et la cohérence de ces œuvres à travers le temps et l’espace.
Commissariat de l’exposition
Melissa Percival : professeur d’histoire de l’art et de français à l’université d’Exeter, auteur de Fragonard and the Fantasy Figure (auteur pour le catalogue qui accompagnera cette exposition de l’essai principal et des notices sur le XVIIIème siècle)
Axel Hémery, Co-commissaire : Directeur du musée des Augustins de Toulouse, conservateur en chef du patrimoine spécialiste de peinture du XVIIème siècle (auteur pour le catalogue d’un avant-propos et des notices XVIème et XVIIème).
Pour plus d’information, téléchargez le communiqué de presse.
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The catalogue is published by Somogy:
Melissa Percival and Axel Hémery, ed., Figures de fantaisie du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, Somogy éditions d’Art, 2015), 288 pages, ISBN: 978-2757209981, 35€.
Figures de fantaisie du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle explore les recherches et inventions des artistes européens autour de la figure humaine, sur presque trois siècles. Le rapprochement d’œuvres jusque-là rattachées aux catégories usuelles de l’histoire de l’art (peinture d’histoire, portrait, scène de genre, etc.) éclaire de façon saisissante la récurrence de certains types de figures, dans différents pays et à différentes périodes de l’histoire : ici, les mendiants italiens se comparent aux vagabonds d’Espagne, les courtisanes de la Renaissance rencontrent les bergères du Nord du XVIIe siècle, les tronies nordiques renvoient aux figures caravagesques, les têtes d’expression de Tiepolo, aux figures de fantaisie de Fragonard, et Greuze répond aux fancy pictures anglaises. Il s’en dégage un ensemble d’une cohérence inattendue, véritable éloge de la liberté et de la virtuosité en peinture.
S O M M A I R E
Avant-propos
• Les figures de fantaisie. Un phénomène européen / Melissa Percival
• Sensualité des figures à mi-corps et théâtralité de la peinture / Bronwen Wilson
• Pathos et mystère : la figure de fantaisie endormie / Petra ten-Doesschate Chu
• La tête de vieillard dans l’art européen : sacrée et profane / Martin Postle
• Les fenêtres du possible : la figure de fantaisie et l’esprit d’entreprise au début du XVIIIe siècle / John Chu
Œuvres exposées
Jeux de regards, cat. 1–15
Musiciens, cat. 16–22
Vies intérieures, cat. 23–34
Dormeurs, cat. 35–41
Rires et sarcasmes, cat. 42–55
Le laboratoire du visage, cat. 56–69
L’atelier du costume, cat. 70–83
Annexes
Index des artistes exposés
Bibliographie
Study Days | Fancy‒Fantaisie‒Capriccio: Diversions and Distractions
From the conference programme (in conjunction with the exhibition Ceci n’est pas un portrait: Figures de fantaisie) . . .
Fancy‒Fantaisie‒Capriccio: Diversions and Distractions in the Eighteenth Century
Musée Paul-Dupuy, Toulouse, 3–4 December 2015
Organized by Muriel Adrien, Melissa Percival, and Axel Hémery
Associated with the imagination and not reason, fancy (fantaisie) in the eighteenth century was a sort of whimsical distraction from the everyday. For Voltaire it was ‘a singular desire, a passing whim’ (‘un désir singulier, un goût passager’), while for Samuel Johnson it was ‘something that pleases or entertains without real use or value’. Together with its near-synonym caprice (capriccio), fancy was part of a rich semantic network, connecting wit, pleasure, erotic desire, spontaneity, improvisation, surprise, deviation from norms, the trivial and inconsequential. Unpredictable and quirky, it offered many outlets for artistic creativity.
These study days will explore the expressive freedom of fancy (fantaisie, capriccio) in European culture during the eighteenth century—in figure and landscape painting, architecture, and garden design, philosophy and fiction, theatre and music.
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T H U R S D A Y , 3 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5
14:00 Welcome and introduction
14:15 Chair: Melissa Percival
• Keynote Speaker — Martin Postle, Modelling for the Fancy Picture: Fact, Fiction, and Fantasy
• Frédéric Ogée, Fancying Nature: The Posterity of Joseph Addison’s’ Pleasures’ in English Enlightenment Culture
15:30 Tea and coffee
16:00 Chair: Xavier Cervantes
• John Chu, ‘The Many Peopled Wall’: Fancy Pictures and Annual Exhibitions in Eighteenth-Century London
• Isabelle Baudino, Picturing the Past: The Fancy Picture and the Historical Imagination in Britain
• Hélène Ibata, British Capricci: From the Picturesque to the Sublime
18:30 Viewing of the exhibition Fantasy Figures at the Musée des Augustins
20:30 Dinner
F R I D A Y , 4 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5
9:15 Chair: Muriel Adrien
• Keynote Speaker — Guillaume Faroult
• Emmanuel Faure-Carricabururu, Figures de fantaisie de Jean-Baptiste Santerre et limites des cadres génériques d’interprétation
10:30 Tea and coffee
11:00 Chair: Frédéric Ogée
• Christophe Guillouet, La production gravée parisienne au cœur de L’invention d’un genre? Les «fantaisies» de Poilly et Courtin (1710–1728)
• Bénédicte Miyamoto, ‘As Whimsical and Chimearical as their Forms Are’: Ornamental and Fanciful Motives in English Drawing Books
• Pierre-Henri Biger, De la fantaisie des éventails aux éventails de fantaisie
12:30 Lunch
14:00 Chair: Isabelle Baudino
• Vanessa Alayrac, ‘A Butterfly Supporting an Elephant’: Chinoiserie in Eighteenth-Century England, or ‘the Luxuriance of Fancy
• Xavier Cervantes, Réminiscences vénitiennes et hybridité culturelle dans les vues et capricci anglais de Canaletto
• Adrián Fernández Almoguera, Du cabinet privé à la villa suburbaine: caprices et fantaisies artistiques dans la capitale des Lumières espagnoles
15:30 Tea and coffee
16:00 Chair: Hélène Dachez
• Laurent Châtel, Fancy a Garden? The Hortulean Pleasures of Imagination and Virtuality
• Nathalie Vincent-Arnaud, Cappricioso, Or a New ‘Grammar in Motion’ in Music and Ballet
• Alice Labourg, ‘Fancy Paints with Hues Unreal’: Pictorial Fantasy and Literary Creation in Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic Novel
Peggy Fogelman Named Director of the Gardner Museum
From the Gardner:
Peggy Fogelman Named Next Director of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum announced today that Peggy Fogelman is the next Norma Jean Calderwood Director, succeeding Anne Hawley as the fifth director in the Museum’s history. Hawley will step down after 26 years at the end of the year, and Fogelman will assume the directorship in January 2016.
“I am overjoyed to be entrusted with leading the Gardner, a unique and treasured museum where visitors feel so closely connected to the collection,” Fogelman said. “Being located in this creative and intellectual hub makes the potential enormously exciting as we continue to reach the next generation of museum-goers. It is truly a privilege to apply all my experience to a place that is beloved by so many.”
Since 2013, Peggy has been Director of Collections at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, overseeing eight curatorial departments, conservation, registration, and 16 to 20 exhibitions per year. Earlier this year, Peggy served for 12 months as Acting Director while the Morgan searched for a new Director. She previously worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as Chairman of Education, the Peabody Essex Museum as Director of Education and Interpretation, and the J. Paul Getty Museum as Associate Curator of European Sculpture and later Assistant Director and Head of Education and Interpretive Programs.
“Peggy is the perfect fit for the Gardner with her impressive background ranging from work in large prestigious institutions to small, intimate museums,” said Steve Kidder, the Gardner Museum’s Board President. “She brings us the best intersection of creativity, vision, and successful execution. We look forward to seeing what she dreams up for this very special Museum.”
Longtime Gardner Museum Trustee and former Board President, Barbara Hostetter chaired the committee that conducted an international search to find Hawley’s successor. “We are overjoyed that the Museum has found a new director with the vision and expertise to take it to new heights,” she said “Peggy comes to us with a seasoned perspective, honed by working at some of the nation’s finest museums, and with a freshness of spirit that makes being part of the Gardner leadership so rewarding.”
The Morgan began much like the Gardner Museum as a private collection that evolved into a vibrant cultural institution offering exhibitions, musical concerts, public lectures and special events. Fogelman has been instrumental in building a larger audience, developing the exhibition program, and forging meaningful collaborations with other institutions, foundations, and private collectors.
From 2009 to 2013, Fogelman was the Met’s Frederick P. and Sandra P. Rose Chairman of Education where she oversaw education, concert, and lecture programs. She took on the challenge of restructuring the education department to advance visitor engagement and to create more collaboration in the large institution. She spearheaded first time artist-based residencies and commissioned performances, fellowships in education and public practice, studio classes, gallery talks, artists’ study days, and digital art-making activities.
Before being recruited to the Met, Fogelman was Director of Education and Interpretation at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. She began her career at the J. Paul Getty Museum with a curatorial focus, and over the next 13 years, rose to Associate Curator in the Department of Sculpture and Works of Art. She was then appointed Senior Project Specialist to the Director, and transitioned to become Assistant Director and Head of Education and Interpretative Programs, achieving a major restructuring of the museum education program at the Getty. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Arts from Brown University. Her work has been published widely for both general and specialized audiences.
As Anne Hawley prepares for her next chapter, she said she is delighted that the Museum will be in such capable hands. “I trust the magic and uniqueness of the Gardner Museum will continue to soar under Peggy’s leadership,” she said.
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