Exhibition | Elegance, Drama, and Nature
Marie-Gabrielle Capet, Studio Scene (Adélaïde Labille-Guiard Portrays Joseph-Marie Vien), exhibited at the Salon of 1808
(Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen)
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From the Alte Pinakothek:
Elegance, Drama, and Nature / Eleganz, Schauspiel und Natur
Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 7 May — 23 October 2022
The presentation of 18th-century painting at the Alte Pinakothek consists above all of pictures by French and Venetian artists such as François Boucher, Canaletto, Francesco Guardi, and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo whose work was already much in demand throughout Europe during the artists’ lifetime. Paintings by Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Baptiste Pater, meanwhile, testify to the influence of Antoine Watteau. The extraordinary wealth and diversity of 18th-century European art, however, becomes clear only when we look beyond France and Venice. In the current collection presentation, rarely shown works by German and Dutch artists enter into an intriguing dialogue with paintings from France and Italy.
The current exhibition focuses on three themes that offer insights into the conditions governing artistic production and the evolving discourse and cultural climate of the Age of Enlightenment:
• Portraiture, especially self-portraits
• Festivities and themes of love
• City and landscape views
The sustained engagement with the idea of humankind’s rational and emotional competence, personal freedoms and the relationship to society, a new awareness of history, the rediscovery of the natural world, and exploration of the laws of nature—all these aspects shaped the 18th century and are reflected in the paintings shown here. As part of a collection accumulated over a long period of time, they vividly convey the parallelism of the numerous, sometimes contradictory approaches that characterised European 18th-century art.
More information about each section of the exhibition is available here»
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