Enfilade

Opening in September at The British Museum (from the press release). . .

French Portrait Drawings: From Clouet to Courbet 
The British Museum, London, 8 September 2016 – 29 January 2017

Jean Michel Moreau le Jeune, Portrait of the Artist’s Daughter Fanny at the Age of Two, ca. 1772; black and red chalk heightened with white on buff paper (London: The British Museum).

This exhibition will showcase The British Museum’s remarkable holdings of French portrait drawings, chosen to illustrate the development of this medium from the Renaissance until the 19th century. Throughout its history, the drawn portrait has been a more informal medium, created for circulation among friends and relations of the sitter, rather than the wider public intended for the official painted portrait. Artists turned to chalk or watercolour to depict members of their own families and throughout the display there is experimentation and innovation: drawings were cheaper to produce than an oil painting or sculpture and allowed the artist greater freedom for creativity.

Portraits on paper will be displayed alongside examples in other more formal media, including medals, enamels and an onyx cameo. The exhibition will open with drawings by Francois Clouet, which offer an intimate picture of the French Renaissance court, and close with Toulouse Lautrec’s vivid portraits of the Parisian demi-monde, offering visitors the chance to see some of the Museum’s well-known portraits along with some which have never been exhibited before.

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Note (added 8 January 2017) — The extended description from The British Museum:

See over 65 portraits by French artists spanning four centuries, from the early drawings of Jean Clouet (1480–1541) and his son François (c. 1510–1572) to the exquisite drawings of the Realist Gustave Courbet (1819–1877). The British Museum has a remarkable collection of French portrait drawings, including examples by the most celebrated artists—from Clouet, Watteau, and Ingres, to Fantin-Latour, Courbet, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Many have not been widely displayed, so this exhibition is a chance to see beautiful, rarely seen works. The exhibition illustrates the development of portrait drawing from the Valois and Bourbon kings to the upheavals of the Revolution, Napoleon’s Empire, and beyond.

Louis Rolland Trinquesse, A Young Man in Profile to the Right, ca.1770, red chalk over a red-chalk counterproof (London: The British Museum, 1928,1110.30).

Drawing was a more informal medium than official painted portraits. Drawn portraits were intended for circulation among friends or family of the sitter, rather than a wider public. Many of the portraits also demonstrate a range of experimentation and innovation. Drawings were cheaper to produce than oil paintings, sculptures, or medals and allowed the artist greater creative freedom, often for preparatory studies.

This exhibition begins in the 16th century with Clouet’s portrait series commissioned by Henri II’s queen, Catherine de’ Medici. Psychologically penetrating as well as artistically beautiful, these previously unexhibited portraits give a strikingly intimate glimpse of figures at the Renaissance French court. Later on, artists turned to the medium of chalk or watercolour to represent members of their own families, such as Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune’s portrait of his infant daughter or Albert Lebourg’s striking portrait of his wife and mother-in-law from around 1879.

The 18th-century works include famous sitters such as Marie-Antoinette and Leopold Mozart performing with his children Wolfgang and Marie-Anne. The exhibition also includes examples of original and creative ways of approaching portraiture, such as Pierre Dumonstier’s playful ‘portrait’ of the artist Artemisia Gentileschi’s hand, drawn in 1625, or Henri Fantin-Latour’s self-portrait studies from 1876, which show the artist seen from behind—a portrait without a face. The section focusing on 19th-century artists features Ingres’s splendid portrait of Sir John Hay and his sister Mary, made in 1816, Toulouse-Lautrec’s dynamic portrait of Marcelle Lender, drawn in 1894, and the confident self-portrait by Gustave Courbet.

The drawings, selected from the Museum’s unparalleled collection, are complemented by portraits in other media, including prints, medals, enamels, and an onyx cameo. Together they illustrate the development of French portrait drawing from the Renaissance until the 19th century.

The illustrated handlist, with entries for each image, is available from the museum.

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