Exhibition: ‘Claude Lorrain: The Enchanted Landscape’
From the Ashmolean:
Claude Lorrain: The Enchanted Landscape
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, 6 October 2011 — 8 January 2012
Städel Museum, Frankfurt, 3 February — 6 May 2012
Curated by Jon Whiteley
Claude Lorrain, "Landscape with Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia," 1682 (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum)
The Ashmolean’s major exhibition this autumn will be Claude Lorrain: The Enchanted Landscape, rediscovering the father of European landscape painting, Claude Gellée (ca. 1600–1682), or Claude Lorrain as he is best known.
In partnership with the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, the exhibition will bring together 140 works from international collections, created at different points in the artist’s career. By uniting ‘pairs’ of Claude’s paintings and making a comprehensive survey of his work in different media, the exhibition brings new research to bear on his working methods, to reveal an unconventional side to Claude which has previously been little known.
Born in France, Claude travelled first to Italy at the age of 13 or 14, settling in Rome for the rest of his life in 1627. The scenery of his great compositions was based on his studies of the ancient ruins and the rolling country of the Tiber Valley and the Roman Campagna. Claude’s ability to translate his vision of the countryside and the majesty of natural light with the aid of his brush won him the admiration of his contemporaries, above all else, as a ‘natural painter’. It has been his signature treatment of classical landscape and literature which has impressed itself on generations of artists and collectors, and which has made his name synonymous with great landscape painting.
ISBN: 9781848220928, $80
The cult of Claude which grew up in the 18th and 19th centuries, begun by British ‘Grand Tourists’, has left a profound mark on our history and landscape. English country houses are well stocked with both originals by Claude and with copies. Responding to aristocratic taste and fashion, designers such as Capability Brown, Henry Hoare and William Kent reproduced his ideal views in the parklands of great houses from Blenheim Palace, Rousham House and Stowe, to Stourhead and Chatsworth. Claude’s drawings were collected with no less enthusiasm by English connoisseurs, as a result, over 40% of his drawings are now in the British Museum. Claude’s influence on later artists is apparent in the work of Gainsborough, Turner and Constable, who described him as ‘the most perfect landscape painter the world ever saw’.
A lesser-known side to Claude is the eccentricity of his graphic art. Claude Lorrain: The Enchanted Landscape will exhibit 13 paintings alongside related drawings and etchings from international and private collections, and from the Ashmolean’s own extensive holdings. Claude was a dedicated graphic artist. He drew for the sake of mastering the world of nature but also because drawing was a pleasure in itself. Many of his drawings were made as works of art in their own right. During his own lifetime Claude’s fame grew rapidly. As a guard against forgeries, he made copies of his paintings in a book, the Liber Veritatis (Book of Truth), which, by the time of his death, contained 200 drawings. The book also gave him a collection of ideas which he could reuse when necessary. Although he made only 40 prints in total, all of which are on display, he took a serious interest in printmaking. Similar to his drawings, his principle focus was to explore the potential of the medium. His exceptional technique – a painterly brush-and-ink style replicating natural effects – was a novelty in contemporary printmaking. The spectacular ‘Fireworks’ series, ten etchings made during a week of firework displays in Rome, illustrate his experimental style and will be on show together in the Ashmolean’s exhibition.
Unlike contemporaries who had an academic training, Claude’s style and artistic process were unique to him. He worked frequently with existing materials progressing from one painting to another through a process of variation and combination. His sketching excursions provided him with a stock of motifs, including trees, hills, rivers and antique ruins, which became constant accessories in his paintings. Figure groups were shifted from one composition to another. Landscapes, like stage scenery, were taken out for reuse with a different set of characters. Elsewhere he would cut compositions in two or enlarge them with separate sheets. Occasionally, he would pick up a discarded study and add detail to make it a finished work of art, often with peculiar results.
Claude was also the first artist to specialise in painting ‘pairs’. Approximately half his compositions were made as companion pieces, the earliest of which, on display here, are Landscape with the Judgement of Paris and Coast View (both 1633). The idea of pairs is also found among his prints. While many of his pairs show a compositional correspondence, contrast played as great a role as similarity. Often an Arcadian landscape is combined with a maritime view, or a morning scene with an evening setting. The pairs were not always executed concurrently: his very last painting, the Ashmolean’s great Ascanius and the Stag of Sylvia (1682), was made 5 years after its companion, Aeneas’s Farewell to Dido in Carthage (1676) now in Hamburg.
Claude Lorrain: The Enchanted Landscape will display some of Claude’s greatest masterpieces, works which have made his art familiar and well-loved. In placing these beside his graphic art and exploring his singular methods of working, the exhibition aims to expose an unexplored dimension to one of the western canon’s most famous names.
“Claude’s art is recognisable to almost all of us, even if we are less familiar with his name, and this important exhibition will reintroduce us to one of the greatest painters of all time.” Dr Jon Whiteley, Exhibition Curator and Senior Assistant Keeper of Western Art, Ashmolean Museum.
Catalogue: Martin Sonnabend, Jon Whiteley, and Christian Rumelin, Claude Lorrain: The Enchanted Landscape (London: Lund Humphries, 2011), 200 pages, ISBN: 9781848220928, $80.
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S E L E C T E D P R O G R A M M I N G
Colin Harrison (Senior Assistant Keeper of Western Art, Ashmolean Museum), Claude, Wilson, Turner
Saturday, 12 November, 11:00
Claude’s landscape paintings had a profound influence on British artists in the 18th and 19th century. This lecture focuses on his long-lasting inspiration, most apparent in the work of Richard Wilson (1714–1782) and J.M.W Turner (1775-1851).
Michael Clarke (Director of the Scottish National Gallery), Arcadia Revisited – Claude’s Enduring Legacy
Wednesday, 16 November, 2:00
Generally acknowledged as the founder of the European landscape tradition, Claude Lorrain was admired by many of the great European painters, especially Constable and Turner. His work exerted an enormous influence on later generations even eliciting praise from the Impressionist Camille Pissarro. This lecture charts the perennial attraction of an artist who ‘conducts us to the tranquility of Arcadian scenes and fairy land’ (Sir Joshua Reynolds).
Christopher Woodward (Director of the Garden Museum), Claude Lorrain and the Making of the English Landscape Garden
Wednesday, 7 December, 5:00
How did a French artist working in Rome in the 17th-century inspire the creation of 18th-century gardens such as Blenheim, Rousham and Stourhead? Christopher Woodward, Director of The Garden Museum and author of “In Ruins”, explores how Claude’s idyllic Italian scenes inspired the transformation of English gardens into visions of Arcadia.
Exhibition: Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845)
From Art Media Agency:
Boilly (1761-1845)
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, 4 November 2011 — 6 February 2012
The Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille will host the first international retrospective dedicated to Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845). The event, celebrating the 250th birthday of the artist, will run from 4 November to 6 February. . . .
It is the first Boilly retrospective since the 1930s and it will feature works from numerous collections. It will underline the painter’s originality. His talent as a portraitist will also be highlighted, as well as his taste for trompe-l’œil and his role as the century’s chronicler, precursory to Daumier. The exhibition will feature more than 170 paintings, drawings, lithographs, miniatures and furniture. It will be divided into seven sections, in chronological and thematic order, recounting the painter’s itinerary.
ISBN: 9782350391250
The full AMA posting is available here»
The exhibition press release (in French) is available here»
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Annie de Wambrechies, Louis-Leopold Boilly (1761-1845), exhibition catalogue (Paris: Chaudun, 2011), 304 pages, ISBN: 9782350391250, 42€ / $82.50 — The catalogue, scheduled for release in November, will be available from ArtBooks.com.
Exhibition: French Artists in Eighteenth-Century Rome
From the exhibition website:
Drawn to Art: French Art Lovers and Artists in 18th-Century Rome
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 21 October 2011 — 2 January 2012
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, 4 February — 23 April 2012
Curated by Sonia Couturier
Jacques-Louis David, "St. Jerome," 1779 Musée du Séminaire, Quebec City (deposited by the Fabrique Notre-Dame, inv. PE34.984) on loan to the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
In the 18th century, Rome was the principal crossroads for the European community and an important source of influence for French artists who rose to prominence in the Eternal City. This exhibition highlights the flowering of French art in 18th-century Rome, focusing on some 100 works, of which many are travelling to North America for the first time.
Visitors will have the opportunity to view an exceptional selection of drawings and prints as well as a number of paintings by many important French artists of the period, including Hubert Robert, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Jacques-Louis David. After its presentation in Ottawa, the exhibition Drawn to Art: French Artists and Art Lovers in 18th-Century Rome will be on view at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, France from 4 February to 23 April 2012.
Catalogue: Sonia Couturier, ed., Drawn to Art: French Artists and Art Lovers in 18th-Century Rome (Milan: Silvana, 2011), 216 pages, ISBN: 9788836620548, $67.50. [available from artbooks.com]
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Academic Training
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Desmarais, "The Shepherd Paris," 1787–88 (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada) Photo © NGC
The Académie de France in Rome, founded in 1666, provided training for the most talented students from the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in Paris, for a period of about four years. This group of artists comprised the dozen recipients of the Grand Prix de Rome, awarded for excellence in painting, sculpture and architecture.
The students made copies of antiquities in public squares, gardens and the Capitoline Museum, and they visited the churches and palazzos of Rome to study Renaissance and Baroque masters. The Académie also offered a live model class, open to these pensionnaires (as they were called), external students and foreigners. Although the nude study was part of the curriculum, many of the resulting paintings of academy figures were of exceptional quality. Students’ work was regularly dispatched to the king of France to attest to their progress.
A number of French artists went on to successful careers in Rome or submitted proposals for major Roman projects. The length of time that both pensionnaires and independent artists spent in Rome varied depending on
their financial resources and patron support.
The Landscape of Rome and its Surroundings
Claude-Joseph Vernet, "View of Lake Nemi," 1748 (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada)
A revival of interest in the art of landscape was sparked in 1725 when Nicolas Vleughels, who took over as director of the Académie de France in Rome, encouraged young painters to sketch in situ. This desire to breathe new life into the landscape genre resulted in a variety of forms.
Rome and its environs provided painters and draughtsmen in search of picturesque views with a constant source of inspiration. Some artists offered an idyllic, pastoral vision, mixing imagination and reality, while others opted for a more objective portrayal of the land and its inhabitants, carefully reproducing the natural and built environment. During his Roman sojourn (1754–65), Hubert Robert made countless images of the surrounding landscape, building a vast repertoire of motifs. Like other French pensionnaires in the 1740s, he was influenced by the vedutisti Giovanni Paolo Panini and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The masterful studies of atmospheric effects by Adrien Manglard, Claude-Joseph Vernet and Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes helped to bring landscape to the forefront in the following century.
Art Lovers, Patrons, and Artists
François-André Vincent, "Portrait of Pierre-Jacques-Onésyme Bergeret de Grancourt," 1774 (Besançon: Musée des beaux-arts et d'archéologie)
Rome was a cosmopolitan centre that attracted not only artists of diverse nationalities but also sophisticated sponsors and connoisseurs eager to hone their knowledge. A number of dilettanti emerged as key figures of this lively community, in which the most promising talents of the time flourished.
The well-established artistic relationships linking Paris and Rome were forged primarily through the directors of the Académie de France in Rome and reinforced by visiting amateurs, each with his own set of connections. The diplomatic realm also provided a fertile terrain for exchanges and development of the network.
Art tourists rarely stayed in Rome for more than a few months. They took full advantage of the resources offered by the Académie, which had available a pool of young artists keen to serve as guides. Certain visitors seem to have warranted special attention; the most important was the Marquis de Marigny, future director of the king’s buildings, who was in Rome in 1750–51 in preparation for his upcoming appointment.
Celebrations and Festivities
Jean-Marie Vien, 32 plates Illustrating the "Caravane du Sultan à la Mecque" during the Carnival in Rome, 1748, detail (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada)
Life in Rome was punctuated by numerous celebrations and festivals, and the French artists made the most of them. Especially memorable were the extraordinary Turkish and Chinese masquerades organized by students at the Académie de France for Rome’s annual carnival. The caricatures produced offer a glimpse into a milieu full of camaraderie.
Various works illustrate the extravagant set pieces, parade floats and fireworks displays conceived for the secular celebrations and religious ceremonies that regularly transformed the city. Among the official ceremonies held to mark political events was the Chinea festival, commemorating the ceding of the kingdom of Naples by Pope Clement IV to Charles of Anjou in 1265. As the new king of Naples, Charles presented the papacy with a white mare known as a chinea (a “hackney” in English). When Naples passed into Spanish hands, the tradition was preserved. Temporary structures made of wood, canvas and stucco were built before the ambassador’s palace. These macchine, inspired by allegorical themes that glorified the kingdom of Naples, were lit up at night by fireworks.
Exhibition & Symposium: Drawings from the Louvre at the Morgan
I noted the show back in February, but I’m afraid tomorrow afternoon’s lecture series nearly slipped by me. From The Morgan:
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David, Delacroix, and Revolutionary France: Drawings from the Louvre
The Morgan Library and Museum, New York, 23 September — 31 December 2011
Curated by Louis-Antoine Prat and Jennifer Tonkovich with assistance from Esther Bell
ISBN: 9780875981598, $40
From the time of the French Revolution of 1789 through the reign of King Louis-Philippe and the establishment of the Second Empire in 1852, an incredible concentration of artistic talent brought its collective skill to bear on one of the most turbulent times in French history. This exhibition features some of the greatest examples of works on paper of the period from Paris’s famed Musée du Louvre. Included are eighty drawings by such noted artists as David, Prud’hon, Ingres, Géricault, Delacroix, and Corot.
Rarely does the Louvre allow such a major group of drawings, with so many iconic works, to travel. The exhibition will offer visitors a singular opportunity to experience the mastery of the era. The Morgan is the only venue for this important show.
David, Delacroix, and Revolutionary France: Drawings from the Louvre is organized by Louis-Antoine Prat, curator in the Department of Graphic Arts at the Musée du Louvre and Jennifer Tonkovich, curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints at The Morgan Library & Museum, with the assistance of Esther Bell, Moore Curatorial Fellow, The Morgan Library & Museum.
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Symposium — Drawing in the Age of Revolutions: New Perspectives
The Morgan Library and Museum, New York, 24 September 2011
This symposium coincides with the exhibition David, Delacroix, and Revolutionary France: Drawings from the Louvre, which offers the American public a rare opportunity to view some of the most celebrated French drawings from the Louvre. Through a series of brief talks, leading scholars will explore the diversity of draftsmanship during the period and present new research in the field. The program will conclude with a gallery conversation with curators and speakers, allowing for a closer examination of works on view.
The Art Market, Drawings Galleries, and Collectors
Louis-Antoine Prat, Curator, Department of Graphic Arts, Musée du Louvre, and Professor, Ecole du Louvre
Between Language and Painting: the Function of Drawing in the Later Work of Jacques-Louis David
Thomas Crow, Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art, and Associate Provost for the Arts, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
The Louvre Drawings: A Cultural Historian’s Perspective
Stéphane Gerson, Associate Professor of French and French Studies, New York University
Drawing’s Stepchild: The Printed Image from David to Delacroix
Patricia Mainardi, Doctoral Program in Art History Graduate Center, City University of New York
In-Gallery Talks:
“Petits Souvenirs de Bonne Amitié”: Drawings and Friendship in Nineteenth-Century France
Esther Bell, Moore Curatorial Fellow, Department of Drawings and Prints, Morgan Library & Museum
Place and Memory in Nineteenth-Century French Drawings
Alison Hokanson, Research Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Exhibition: ‘Infinite Jest’
Now on at the Met:
Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 13 September 2011 — 4 March 2012
Curated by Constance McPhee and Nadine Orenstein
ISBN: 9780300175813, $45
The exhibition explores caricature and satire in its many forms from the Italian Renaissance to the present, drawn primarily from the rich collection of this material in the Museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints. The show includes drawings and prints by Leonardo da Vinci, Eugène Delacroix,Francisco de Goya, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Enrique Chagoya alongside works by artists more often associated with humor, such as James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson,Honoré Daumier, Al Hirschfeld, and David Levine. Many of these engaging caricatures and satires have never been exhibited and are little known except to specialists. . . .
The second section of the exhibition will explore social satire expressed in works devoted to eating and drinking, gambling, male and female fashion, art, and crowds. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are known as the golden age of caricature and satire, with William Hogarth, Gillray, Rowlandson, and George Cruikshank producing lively examples in Britain, and Honoré Daumier and Boilly doing the same in France. These artists cleverly inserted recognizable caricatures into satirical frameworks to mock contemporary society. Extreme fashion provided satirists with an ever-changing source of humor beginning in the 1760s and a selection of sartorial caricatures will be on view. . .
Carol Vogel reviewed the exhibition for The New York Times (12 May 2011).
Exhibition: ‘Capability’ Brown at Compton Verney
From Compton Verney:
‘Capability’ Brown and the Landscapes of Middle England
Compton Verney, Warwickshire, 25 June — 2 October 2011
Curated by Steven Parissien and Tim Mowl
Set in its own ‘Capability’ Brown landscape, Compton Verney is the ideal location for the first-ever exhibition about internationally-renowned landscape designer Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-83). This exhibition brings the man and his genius to life through a series of case studies of ‘Capability’ Brown landscapes from the Midlands. It looks at how Brown designed his natural, neoclassical arcadias; how his landscapes were designed to work in practice; how Brown responded to technological advances in shooting and carriage-making; and how he addressed the enormous task of moving tons of earth and creating hills, vales and lakes in an age before tractors or JCBs.
The focus is on famous ‘Capability’ Brown landscapes in the Midlands region, including Croome, Charlecote Park, Combe Abbey and of course Compton Verney itself. It will showcase the very latest research on the design and use of Georgian landscapes with paintings, maps, accounts, historic guns, manuals and specially-
commissioned photography.
The exhibition is curated by Compton Verney’s Director, Georgian expert Dr Steven Parissien, and Professor Tim Mowl, Director of the Landscape and Garden History Centre at the University of Bristol and founding author of Redcliffe Press’s county guides to the Historic Gardens of Britain.
A 27-page gallery guide is available as a PDF file here»
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Laura Mayer, Capability Brown and the English Landscape Garden (Oxford: Shire Publications, 2011), 64 pages, ISBN: 9780747810490, $12.95.
Laura Mayer presents a concise and colourful introduction to Brown and other leading landscape gardeners of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, such as William Kent, Richard Payne Knight and Humphry Repton. She explores how competing ideas in garden design were shaped both by changes in prevailing fashion and by the innovations of particular designers, and why Brown’s designs are currently considered to be the epitome of landscape gardening in this period.
Laura Mayer is studying for a Ph.D. in eighteenth-century gardens at the university of Bristol under the supervision of Professor Timothy Mowl. She won the 2010 Garden History Society essay prize and is working, with Mowl, on ‘The Historic Gardens of England: Northumberland’.
Exhibition: Toile de Jouy, Printed Gardens and Fields
I’m happy to welcome one more addition to the Enfilade team! The Paris-based Ph.D. student Hélène Bremer will be weighing in with occasional contributions. She completed her M.A. in Art History at the University of Leiden in 2000 and is now working on her dissertation (also at Leiden) “Grand Tour, Grand collections: The Influence of the Grand Tour Experience on Collection Display in the Eighteenth Century.” She’ll be reporting not only on events in France but also sharing news from the Netherlands. We start things off with an exhibition sketch in response to the Musée de la Toile de Jouy. -CH
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Parties de Campagne, Jardins et champs dans la toile imprimée XVIIIe-XIXe siècle
Musée de la Toile de Jouy, Jouy-en-Josas, 29 April — 20 November 2011
Exhibition sketch by Hélène Bremer
Founded in 1977, the Musée de la Toile de Jouy moved into its current home, the nineteenth-century Château d'Eglantine in 1991. The museum's holdings include some 5000 objects.
The Musée de la Toile de Jouy at Jouy-en-Josas is an ideal destination for anyone taken with wonderful fabrics and eighteenth-century history. Just a few kilometers from the Château de Versailles (though far from its tourist throngs), the museum is located at the Château d’Eglantine. While this charming setting is alone worth a visit, the museum’s interiors offer lovely rooms full of toile-covered furniture. Not only do you find here a vast collection of Toile de Jouy, the displays explain the industrialization of toile-making, particularly the printing innovations of factory founder Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf, the German immigrant who introduced to Jouy-en-Josas, the use of engraved copper plates (1770) and then copper rollers (1797), replacing the older wood blocks.
For the spring and summer, the staff of the museum have organized a delightful exhibition, Parties de Campagne, Jardins et champs dans la toile imprimée XVIIIe-XIXe siècles. The curators have assembled over 200 examples of fabrics depicting a wide variety of subjects: the four seasons, workers in the fields, shepherds and hunting scenes, children playing, landscapes with ruins, and fête champêtre motifs. There is also a nice, small fabric-covered balloon — to my mind, just begging to be shown with the fabric, Le Ballon de Gonesse, an example of which can be found nearby in the museum’s permanent display.
The sheer quantity of fabrics on display is impressive, suggesting at times the feel of a densely packed closet. The quantity indicates how much there is to explore on this interesting topic of la vie champêtre and how rich the museum’s holdings are, given that all the material comes from the museum’s own collection.
Having seen the exhibition, I’m curious about the accompanying book, edited by Anne de Thoisy-Dallem, which unfortunately was not yet available when I visited in early May. It promises to be a useful publication with two fully-illustrated volumes, addressing not only the exhibition themes but also outlining new research on rare costumes, the gardens of Toile de Jouy, and precious botanical books that provided inspiration for the pattern designers.
For more information, including terrific images, the press release (in French) is available here»
The Wallace Collection’s Reynolds Research Project
Exciting news from The Wallace Collection (22 July 2011) . . .
X-Ray Image of the Portrait of 'Mrs Jane Braddyll', Wallace Collection, 2011
The Wallace Collection Reynolds Research Project is a three year project funded by The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. A collaboration between the Wallace Collection and the Conservation and Scientific Departments at the National Gallery, its purpose is to investigate the techniques and materials used by Reynolds by examining twelve of his paintings, which are in the Wallace Collection; and use this research as a basis for their conservation.
To examine the paintings, images are captured using high resolution digital photography, infrared and x-ray, and small paint samples are taken. Initial results have already revealed how complex Reynolds’ technique really was!
This very exciting project will continue to yield new and surprising results, with all the research being made publicly available later in the project. Alongside this, the Wallace Collection will continue to provide updates as new discoveries are made. The first restored painting has already arrived back at the Collection: Mrs Elizabeth Carnac, which can now be seen in the Great Gallery. The project will culminate in an exhibition, catalogue and scholarly conference at the Collection in 2014, which is sure to be well worth the wait!
Exhibition: ‘Making History: Antiquaries in Britain’
Making History: Antiquaries in Britain
McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, 4 September — 11 December 2011
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2 February — 27 May 2012
Making History celebrates the achievements of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the oldest independent learned society concerned with the study of the past. The exhibition, featuring one hundred works selected from the Society’s treasures (with a number of additions from the collections at the Center), focuses on the discovery, recording, preservation, and interpretation of Britain’s past through its material remains. It explores beliefs current before the Society was founded in 1707, and reveals how new discoveries, technologies, and interpretations have transformed our understanding of the history of Britain since the eighteenth century.
Making History is organized into nine sections. Highlights include antiquities such as a rare Late Bronze Age shield (ca. 1300–1100 BCE) discovered on a farm in Scotland in 1779; an early copy of the Magna Carta (ca. 1225); a medieval processional cross reportedly recovered from the battlefield of Bosworth (1485); the inventory (1550–51) of Henry VIII’s possessions at the time of his death; and a forty-foot-long illuminated “roll chronicle” on parchment detailing the genealogical descent of Henry II from Adam and Eve. Also on display will be an extraordinary collection of English royal portraits painted on panel, from Henry VI to Mary Tudor.
The exhibition is organized by the Society of Antiquaries of London in association with the McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, and the Center. It will be on display at the McMullen Museum of Art from September 9, 2011, to January 2, 2012, where the organizing curator is Nancy Netzer, Director. The organizing curator at the Center is Elisabeth Fairman, Senior Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts.
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More information is available at the exhibition website.
Exhibition: French Romantic Gardens
Thanks to Hélène Bremer for this notice. From the exhibition website:
Jardins Romantiques Français (1770-1840)
Musée de la Vie Romantique, Paris, 8 March — 17 July 2011
Louis-Hippolyte Lebas, "Le Petit Pavillon du Parc de Malmaison," watercolor (Musée National du château de la Malmaison) © RMN/Gérard Blot -- the building was designed by François Cointereaux around 1790.
Comment proposer aujourd’hui une définition du jardin romantique français, telle est la question que nous nous sommes posée alors que certains des meilleurs spécialistes en réfutent l’appellation. Aussi bien avons-nous usé du pluriel dans le titre « Jardins romantiques » pour évoquer, sans pouvoir être exhaustif, certains parmi les trop multiples reflets du romantisme au jardin.
Au fil des siècles et des saisons, le goût du jardin pittoresque s’est raffiné en un art de vivre à part entière dont les Encyclopédistes puis Beaumarchais avant l’impératrice sont les ambassadeurs écoutés. Au premier rang s’imposent naturellement voyageurs et savants qui rapportent et multiplient, d’un continent à l’autre, moult herbiers
soigneusement conservés au Muséum et rares cultivars
développés dans le secret des pépinières ou à l’arboretum.
ISBN: 9782759601592, 30€
Au XIXe siècle l’Europe des botanistes résonne tel un bruissant arbre à palabres : on y disserte en latin comme en français sur les principes modernes de la taxinomie et de la dendrologie ; jardinistes et passionnés ouvrent largement les enclos sur la nature environnante et plantent des parcs paysagers. Serres chaudes et palmariums ponctuent les propriétés que leurs commanditaires identifient à leur récente prospérité. Le sentiment du sublime inspire fabriques et cascades, grottes et lacs. Ces nouveaux jardins d’Armide s’ornent de maints caprices secrets : temple de l’amour ou laiterie, chalet ou casino, faux tombeaux ou ménagerie. Pour les délices du vert galant, il n’est pas de sens plus nomade que la vue. Ainsi, la Restauration et la Monarchie de Juillet voient la pratique du jardinage conquérir toutes les couches de la société, et les grands destins du romantisme s’y enracinent. . . .
More information is available here»
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Exhibition catalogue: Daniel Marchesseau, Jardins romantiques français: Du jardin des Lumières au parc romantique (Paris Musées, 2011), 256 pages, ISBN: 9782759601592, 30€.
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