Enfilade

Now available for purchase, the catalogue for the exhibition is one of The New York Times’ ‘best art books of 2022’. Congratulations to everyone involved! The show is on view until 15 January 2023.

Edouard Kopp, Elizabeth Rudy, and Kristel Smentek, eds., Dare to Know: Prints and Drawings in the Age of Enlightenment (Cambridge: Harvard Art Museums, 2022), 334 pages, ISBN: 978-0300266726, $50.

Are volcanoes punishment from God? What do a fly and a mulberry have in common? What utopias await in unexplored corners of the earth and beyond? During the Enlightenment, questions like these were brought to life through an astonishing array of prints and drawings, helping shape public opinion and stir political change. Dare to Know overturns common assumptions about the age, using the era’s proliferation of works on paper to tell a more nuanced story. Echoing the structure and sweep of Diderot’s Encyclopédie, the book contains 26 thematic essays, organized A to Z, providing an unprecedented perspective on more than 50 artists, including Henry Fuseli, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Francisco Goya, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, William Hogarth, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and Giambattista Tiepolo. With a multidisciplinary approach, the book probes developments in the natural sciences, technology, economics, and more—all through the lens of the graphic arts.

Edouard Kopp is the John R. Eckel, Jr., Foundation Chief Curator at the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston; Elizabeth M. Rudy is the Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints at the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA; and Kristel Smentek is associate professor of art history in the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

With contributions by J. Cabelle Ahn, Elizabeth Saari Browne, Rachel Burke, Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Anne Driesse, Paul Friedland, Thea Goldring, Margaret Morgan Grasselli, Ashley Hannebrink, Joachim Homann, Kéla Jackson, Penley Knipe, Edouard Kopp, Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, Heather Linton, Austėja Mackelaitė, Tamar Mayer, Elizabeth Mitchell, Elizabeth M. Rudy, Brandon O. Scott, Kristel Smentek, Phoebe Springstubb, Gabriella Szalay, and Christina Taylor.

Now on view at the Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art:

The Secret of Colours: Ceramics in China and Europe from the 18th Century to the Present
Le secret des couleurs: Céramiques de Chine et d’Europe du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours
Fondation Baur, Musée des arts d’Extrême-Orient, Geneva, 14 September 2022 — 12 February 2023

This exhibition tells the often turbulent story of the quest for colour on porcelain in China and France. It contrasts two crucial moments in the history of porcelain driven by the desire to extend the range of enamels. They occurred at the turn of the 18th century in China and during the 19th century in France, two periods during which the interactions between Europe and China, whether cultural or belligerent, were particularly intense.

The first room in the exhibition introduces visitors to enamelling techniques, the notions of translucent and opaque enamels, and to the famille verte and famille rose. This is followed by a presentation of Chinese enamelled porcelain, principally from the reigns of Kangxi (1662–1722), Yongzheng (1723–35), and Qianlong (1736–95), which are among the jewels of Alfred Baur’s collection and which exemplify the use of colour on porcelain over a period of more than a century. The new palette developed in the imperial workshops was soon exported from the port of Canton on porcelain and copper-enamel wares on that had been specially designed for the Western market.

The second section of the exhibition takes place a century later in France, at the Sèvres manufactory, where Chinese colors, long coveted for their brilliance, were keenly researched. Missionaries, chemists, and French consuls in China all contributed to bringing back samples to France where the mysteries of Chinese manufacturing techniques could be fathomed.

The last part of the exhibition introduces more contemporary research on the use of color, first of all by Fance Franck (1927–2008), who from the late 1960s worked with the Sèvres factory to recreate the famous ‘fresh red’ (‘rouge frais‘) or ‘sacrificial red’ (‘rouge sacrificiel‘) that had been mastered by the potters in Jingdezhen several centuries earlier. The exhibition’s investigation into this endless chromatic quest is brought to a close by the pure and gleamingly colourful works of Thomas Bohle (b. 1958).

Pauline d’Abrigeon, Le secret des couleurs: Céramiques de Chine et d’Europe du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours (Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2022), 170 pages, ISBN: 979-1254600054, €45. Bilingual edition (French and English).

Cover image: Vase with handles, porcelain and polychrome enamels on glaze, China, Jingdezhen, Qing Dynasty, mark and reign of Qianlong (1736–1795) (Geneva: Fondation Baur).

Now on view at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tours:

L’amour en scène! François Boucher, du théâtre à l’Opéra
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tours, 5 November 2022 — 30 January 2023

Curated by Jessica Degain and Guillaume Kazerouni

François Boucher, Sylvie Cures Philis of a Bee Sting, 1755, oil on canvas, 103 × 138 cm (Paris: Banque de France).

Le musée des Beaux-arts de Tours propose de mettre en lumière un pan méconnu de la carrière de François Boucher (1703–1770), peintre majeur du 18ᵉ siècle au service de Louis XV et de Madame de Pompadour : sa passion pour le théâtre et l’opéra. Actif à l’Opéra de Paris, à l’Opéra-Comique et au théâtre des Petits Cabinets à Versailles, François Boucher oeuvre tout au long de sa vie à près d’une centaine de spectacles. Qu’il conçoive ou supervise les décors et les costumes de scène, aucun autre peintre de son temps ne fut autant investi dans le monde théâtral.

Point de départ de l’exposition et restaurés à cette occasion, les quatre tableaux du musée de Tours, chefs-d’oeuvre de l’art rocaille, témoignent de l’engouement de l’artiste pour les arts de la scène. Aux côtés de l’esquisse d’Apollon couronnant les arts, réputée être un projet de rideau de scène pour l’Opéra, les trois peintures d’Apollon et Issé et de Sylvie et Aminte mettent à l’honneur les opéras baroques d’Issé et de Silvie. Apollon révélant sa divinité à la bergère Issé est en effet peint par Boucher en 1750 pour la marquise de Pompadour, en souvenir de ses représentations théâtrales à Versailles dans le rôle d’Issé. De même, les tableaux de Sylvie fuyant le loup et Aminte revenant à la vie dans les bras de Sylvie rappellent son apparition théâtrale dans le rôle de la nymphe. Conçus à l’origine pour former un ensemble de quatre tableaux, la série de l’histoire de Sylvie et Aminte sera réunie pour la première fois depuis le 18ᵉ siècle, grâce aux prêts exceptionnels de la Banque nationale de France (qui conserve aujourd’hui Sylvie guérit Philis de la piqûre d’une abeille et Sylvie délivrée par Aminte). OEuvres de maturité, ces tableaux constituent un magnifique témoignage du talent de François Boucher à dépeindre des univers bucoliques, merveilleux et théâtraux.

Complétés par une soixantaine d’oeuvres, en particulier de la Bibliothèque nationale de France et du Musée du Louvre, l’exposition permettra par ailleurs d’illustrer d’autres contributions de Boucher aux arts de la scène. De ses gravures de jeunesse pour illustrer les OEuvres de Molière, dont on célèbre cette année le quatre centième anniversaire de la naissance, aux décors et costumes conçus pour divers opéras tels Armide ou Aline, reine de Golconde, les oeuvres rassemblées éclairent la vitalité de sa création.

Déployés autour des tableaux du musée, estampes, tapisseries et objets d’art décoratifs s’accompagneront d’oeuvres d’art moderne et contemporain, de Berthe Morisot à Cindy Sherman. La contribution du créateur de mode Sami Nouri révélera enfin comment Boucher et le rococo continuent à inspirer les artistes du 21e siècle.

L’exposition est à découvrir du 5 novembre 2022 au 30 janvier 2023, grâce aux prêts prestigieux de nombreuses institutions : Bibliothèque national de France / Musée du Louvre / Musée national des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon / Moulins, Centre national du costume de scène / Narbonne, musée d’art et d’histoire / Paris, Mobilier national / Paris, musée Marmottan-Monet / Centre National des Arts Plastiques / Paris, Banque de France / Sèvres, Cité de la Céramique / Paris, musée des Arts décoratifs / Paris, musée Cognacq-Jay / Paris, Petit Palais / Agen, musée des Beaux-Arts.

Love on Stage! Francois Boucher, from the Theater to the Opera

Commissariat de l’exposition
• Jessica Degain, conservatrice du patrimoine chargée des collections XVIIᵉ–XIXᵉ siècles du musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours
• Guillaume Kazerouni, conservateur, chargé des collections anciennes du musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes

Jessica Degain, L’amour en scène! François Boucher, du théâtre à l’Opéra (Paris: Éditions Snoeck, 2022), 239 pages, ISBN: 978-9461617200, €29.

From The Clark:

Promenades on Paper: 18th-Century French Drawings from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Promenades de papier: Les collections de dessins du 18e siècle de la BnF
The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, 17 December 2022 — 12 March 2023
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, 13 May — 28 August 2023

Curated by Esther Bell, Sarah Grandin, Anne Leonard, Corinne Le Bitouzé, Pauline Chougnet, and Chloé Perrot

François-Joseph Bélanger, The Garden of Beaumarchais, 1788, watercolor and pen and ink (Bibliothèque nationale de France).

In partnership with the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), the Clark is organizing the first exhibition of the library’s eighteenth-century French drawings. The selection of eighty-six enchanting studies, architectural plans, albums, sketchbooks, prints, and optical devices expands our understanding of drawing as a tool of documentation and creation in the age of Enlightenment, spanning the domains of natural history, current events, theater design, landscape, and portraiture. Displayed together, these objects immerse audiences in the world of eighteenth-century France—a world shaped by invention, erudition, and spectacle. Works by celebrated artists of the period such as François Boucher (1703–1770) and Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724–1780) are featured alongside exquisite drawings by lesser-known practitioners, including talented women, royal children, and visionary architects.

Promenades on Paper: Eighteenth-Century French Drawings from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is co-organized by the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. It is curated by Esther Bell, Deputy Director and Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Chief Curator; Sarah Grandin, Clark-Getty Curatorial Fellow; and Anne Leonard, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs from the Clark, and by Corinne Le Bitouze, Conservateur général; Pauline Chougnet, Conservateur en charge des dessins; and Chloé Perrot, Conservateur des bibliothèques from the Bibliothèque nationale.

This exhibition is made possible by Jessie and Charles Price. Major funding is provided by Elizabeth M. and Jean-Marie Eveillard, the Getty Foundation through its Paper Project initiative, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. The exhibition catalogue is made possible by Denise Littlefield Sobel.

Esther Bell, Pauline Chougnet, Sarah Grandin, Charlotte Guichard, Corinne Le Bitouzé, Anne Leonard, and Meredith Martin, Promenades on Paper: Eighteenth-Century French Drawings from the Bibliotheque nationale de France (Williamstown: Clark Art Institute, 2023), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-0300266931, $50.

◊    ◊    ◊    ◊    ◊

Note (added 12 June 2023) — The posting was updated to include the Tours venue.

Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Clara, the Rhinoceros, 1749, oil on canvas, 306 × 453 cm
(Staatliches Museum Schwerin)

◊   ◊   ◊   ◊   ◊

From the press release (11 July 2022) for the exhibition:

Clara the Rhinoceros: Superstar of the 18th Century / Clara de Neushoorn: Superster van de 18e eeuw
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 30 September 2022 — 15 January 2023

Curated by Gijs van der Ham

Clara was strange and new, huge and awe-inspiring—she was utterly unlike any other known animal. This fall, the Rijksmuseum presents Clara the Rhinoceros, an exhibition about an animal who travelled far from her native land of India and became the most famous rhinoceros in the world.

Saint-Germain, J.J., and F. Viger, Clock with Rhinoceros as Carrier, 1755 (Parnassia Collection).

The exhibition shows how new knowledge changed perceptions of the rhinoceros, and how art played its part in this process. The 60 objects on display include paintings, drawings, medals, statues, books, clocks, and a goblet. Very few of these artworks have been displayed before in the Netherlands, and never before have so many exceptional objects devoted to Clara the rhinoceros being presented together. They range from the first-ever European print depicting a rhinoceros—made in 1515 by Albrecht Dürer—to a life-size, full-length portrait of Clara by Jean-Baptiste Oudry dating from 1749. Clara the Rhinoceros runs from 30 September 2022 to 15 January 2023 in the Phillips Wing of the Rijksmuseum.

Clara may not have been the first rhinoceros to come to Europe, but she did become the most famous one. After her long voyage from India, in 1741 she arrived in Amsterdam. Her owner, Douwe Mout van der Meer, was soon showing her to anyone who would pay for the pleasure, whether at fairs, markets, carnivals, or royal courts. For the next 17 years she travelled around Europe in a custom-made cart, accompanied by her entourage. She travelled far and wide: to Vienna and Paris, and to Naples and Copenhagen. Upon her return to the Netherlands, she lived in a field in the North district of Amsterdam. Eventually, Clara died in London in 1758.

People touched, teased, admired, and studied Clara. She prompted this sensational level of interest because no one in Europe had ever been able to see a real live rhinoceros. She was a hyped up, must-see cultural phenomenon, and Mout used print advertising and medals to pump that hype to the max. Until Clara’s arrival, all that Europeans knew of her species was from a print made by Dürer in 1515. He based his drawing on a sketch of a rhinoceros that was briefly in Lisbon, though the sketch wasn’t entirely accurate: it depicted the rhinoceros with an extra horn on its back, for example, and skin that resembled a suit of armour.

Clara’s appearance on the scene changed all this, leaing to a better understanding of the rhinoceros and to more accurate portrayals. Scholars studied her in minute detail, from head to tail, and artists became fascinated by every fold of her skin. A remarkable number of likenesses were made of Clara, in many forms and using many different materials. This exhibition presents an outstanding selection of these objects, including an impressive life-size portrait painted in Paris in 1749 by Oudry (on loan from Staatliches Museum Schwerin), a painting by Pietro Longhi showing Clara standing in front of her audience in Venice (from Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice), a large marble statue by the Flemish artist Pieter Anton Verschaffelt (from the Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor), and an exceptionally rare clock mounted on a Clara figure (from a private Dutch collection) made by the Parisian bronzier and clockmaker Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain.

Clara was almost never free to walk or run. She depended on humans for her survival, and was rarely able to display natural behaviours—except for example the occasions when she needed to cross a river by swimming, and clearly enjoyed the water. In 1750 the Neurenberg biographer Christoph Gottlieb Richter published a conversation between a rhinoceros and a grasshopper, in which the rhinoceros bemoans the way people treat her and stare at her. This book presents a role-reversal, with the rhinoceros appraising and studying people rather than the other way around. And in her 2016 installation Clara, the contemporary artist Rossella Biscotti uses the rhinoceros’s story to interrogate the relationship between humans and animals. The installation, which is also part of the exhibition, shows that Clara’s story is also about colonialism, exoticism, and globalisation, as well as exploitation and power.

The exhibition design for Clara the Rhinoceros and Crawly Creatures is by stage designer Theun Mosk | Ruimtetijd. Graphic design for the exhibition is by Irma Boom.

Gijs van der Ham, Clara the Rhinoceros (Rotterdam: nai101, 2023), 208 pages, ISBN: 978-9462087477, $40.

Design drawing for a patinated bronze vase, anonymous, ca. 1780
(Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum)

◊   ◊   ◊   ◊   ◊

From the museum:

Process: Design Drawings from the Rijksmuseum, 1500–1900
Créer: Dessiner pour les arts décoratifs, 1500–1900 
Design Museum Den Bosch, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 5 November 2022 — 12 February 2023
Fondation Custodia / Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, 25 February — 14 May 2023

Curated by Reinier Baarsen

This pioneering exhibition is an opportunity to discover a collection of extraordinary design drawings from the Rijksmuseum. The drawings, which date from the period 1500–1900, have been brought together for the first time and are arranged according to the successive stages of the design process.

The focus here is not on big artistic names, but on the crucial role that drawings have played in design. We watch from close-by as the ideas for all sorts of items are formed and we also get to meet their inventors, makers, and patrons. Drawings of vases, chairs and clocks, stoves, sledges, and carriages are shown, from the first rough pencil sketches to beautifully worked-up and colourful presentations. The drawings in this exhibition were recently acquired by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where they belong to a special collection established by Senior Curator Reinier Baarsen. He offers us a unique insight here into the role that drawing has played in the design process, as well as the superb drawings it has produced.

Reinier Baarsen, Process: Design Drawings from the Rijksmuseum, 1500–1900 (Rotterdam: nai101, 2022), 464 pages, SBN 978-9462087354, €60 / $70.

◊   ◊   ◊   ◊   ◊

Note (added 28 February 2023) — The posting was updated to include the Fondation Custodia as a second venue.

Now on view at the Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery:

Silver City: 500 Years of Portsmouth’s History
Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery, 28 May 2022 — 26 February 2023

Curated by James Daly and Susan Ward

Portsmouth Flagons, made in 1683 by Wolfgang Howzer and presented to Portsmouth by Louise de Kéroualle, the Duchess of Portsmouth. She was one of Charles II’s mistresses and presented the Flagons to Portsmouth when she was made duchess, although there is no record of her having visited the town.

Silver City: 500 Years of Portsmouth’s History is a major exhibition at Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery, telling the story of the city through amazing silver treasures. It showcases many precious objects that have never been on public display before. Most come from the city’s civic collection, but others have been loaned from the Royal Navy, the city’s Anglican cathedral, and the Goldsmiths’ Company Charity. Objects include a model of HMS Victory presented to the city when the Portsmouth Command of the Royal Navy was awarded the Freedom of the City in 1965. It is made from copper taken from the ship and plated in silver.

James Daly and Susan Ward, Silver City: 500 Years of Portsmouth’s History (Portsmouth: Tricorn Books, 2022), 161 pages, ISBN: 978-914615276, £27.

◊   ◊   ◊   ◊   ◊

Frances Parton’s review of the exhibition appeared in October issue of The Burlington Magazine, pp. 1015–17.