Enfilade

Exhibition press release from the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dole:

Laurent Pécheux: A French Painter in the Italian Enlightenment
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dole, 27 June — 30 September 2012
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chambéry, 24 October 2012 — 20 January 2013

Curated by Sylvain Laveissière with Sylvie de Vesvrotte and Anne Dary

Rome au XVIIIe siècle : foyer artistique fécond où l’Europe entière vient s’instruire, admirer, mais aussi créer. L’Antique, exhumé, restauré, collectionné, est l’objet d’approches nouvelles avec Piranèse, défenseur de la création étrusque et romaine, et Winckelmann, théoricien du « beau idéal » dans l’art grec. Les deux peintres les plus en vue sont l’allemand Anton Raphaël Mengs (1728-1779), et Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787), le portraitiste obligé des jeunes lords accomplissant leur « Grand Tour » d’Europe. Arrivé de Lyon à Rome en 1753, Laurent Pécheux est d’emblée en contact étroit avec ces deux maîtres éminents : Mengs qui le conseille, et Batoni avec lequel il sera associé pour certaines commandes. Il s’affirme comme l’un des représentants les plus accomplis de la peinture d’histoire romaine, au moment
où s’élabore ce qu’on devait plus tard nommer le Néoclassicisme.

Carrière exceptionnellement riche que la sienne. Après avoir travaillé vers 1757 pour un lord écossais, puis pour des couvents et des particuliers de Lyon, sa ville natale, il est reçu à la prestigieuse Académie romaine de Saint-Luc en 1762. Il est bientôt appelé à Parme en 1765 pour y portraiturer avec succès la future reine d’Espagne, et les plus grandes familles romaines lui confient les plafonds de leurs palais urbains (Borghèse, Barberini). Il travaille pour des amateurs français, pour le grand-maître de l’ordre de Malte, le pape Pie VI, ainsi que la Grande Catherine. En 1777, il quitte Rome pour Turin, où le roi de Piémont-Sardaigne, Victor Amédée III, l’a choisi comme premier peintre et directeur d’une Académie tombée en léthargie. Son activité de peintre de cour, qui lui vaut de décorer le palais royal de Turin, ne l’empêche pas d’assurer de prestigieuses commandes privées, tel le plafond de la salle du Gladiateur à la Villa Borghèse à Rome, dont la décoration est la plus fameuse entreprise picturale de l’époque.

Il n’a suscité jusqu’à présent aucune exposition monographique. Les villes de Dole et Chambéry possèdent un ensemble remarquable de ses oeuvres. A Dole se trouve un cycle de douze tableaux sur la vie du Christ commandé pour la collégiale et récemment restauré, dont huit esquisses sont conservées au musée des Beaux-Arts. L’exposition présente 115 oeuvres, prêtées par des collections publiques et privées françaises ainsi qu’italiennes, et sera accompagnée d’une importante monographie. Celle-ci étudie, au-delà des oeuvres exposées, l’ensemble de la production de cet artiste aux dons multiples, l’un des derniers de sa stature qui restaient à découvrir.

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From Dessin Original books:

Catalogue: Sylvain Laveissière, Sylvie de Vesvrotte, Vittorio Natale, Bénédicte Gaulard, Laurent Pécheux (1729-1821): Un peintre français dans l’Italie des Lumières (Silvana, 2012), 192 pages, ISBN: 978-8836623174, 28€.

Publié à l’occasion de l’exposition des musées des Beaux-Arts de Dole et de Chambéry, cet ouvrage est le premier, depuis l’étude de Luigi Bollea parue en 1942, à être consacré à ce peintre, dont l’importance commence seulement à être reconnue.

D’origine Lyonnaise, Laurent Pécheux effectue l’ensemble de sa carrière en Italie, à Rome, puis à Turin, où il devient peintre officiel du roi de Piémont-Sardaigne. Sa carrière fut exceptionnellement riche : après avoir travaillé vers 1755 pour des clients lyonnais ou écossais, il est reçu à l’Académie romaine de Saint-Luc en 1762. Il est bientôt appelé à Parme en 1765 pour y portraiturer avec succès la future reine d’Espagne et les plus grandes familles romaines lui confient les plafonds de leurs palais. Il travaille également pour des amateurs français. En 1777, il quitte Rome pour Turin, où le roi de Piémont-Sardaigne l’a choisi comme premier peintre. Son activité de peintre de cour, qui lui vaut de décorer le palais royal de Turin, ne l’empêche pas d’assurer de prestigieuses commandes privées (par exemple : plafond de la salle du Gladiateur à la villa Borghèse, le plus fameux ensemble décoratif de Rome à l’époque ; suite de douze grands tableaux de la Vie du Christ pour la collégiale de Dole, auxquels une restauration exemplaire vient de rendre leur éclat et plusieurs chefsd’oeuvre conservés à Chambéry : Mort d’Epaminondas, Vénus, Narcisse, etc.). Cet ouvrage étudie, au-delà des oeuvres exposées, l’ensemble de la production de cet artiste aux dons multiples, l’un des derniers de sa stature qui restaient à découvrir.

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Didier Rykner reviewed the exhibition for The Art Tribune (21 August 2012) . . .

An artist from Lyon who spent most of his career in Italy, first Rome then Turin where he became official painter to the King of Piemonte-Sardegna, Laurent Pécheux is however not very well known outside of the restricted circle of art historians. The first retrospective highlighting his oeuvre, organized by the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dole, which will then travel to Chambéry, now reveals a first rate artist, a pioneer of European Neo-Classicism though he maintained, in certain works, a Baroque spirit or even, if we adopt the term now used for some paintings corresponding to the second half of the 19th century, “Neo-Baroque” . . .

The full review (in English or French) is available here»

From the exhibition website:

Roulez Carrosses! Le Château de Versailles à Arras
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Arras, 17 March 2012 — 10 November 2013

Curated by Béatrix Saule, Jean-Louis Libourel, and Hélène Delalex

Roulez Carrosses!, the inaugural exhibition of the partnership signed in 2011 between the Château de Versailles, the City of Arras and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region, is a landmark event. It is the first French exhibition to be devoted to horse-drawn vehicles. Berlin coaches, royal and imperial carriages from the Versailles collection have all taken the road for Arras, to be admired here until November 2013. The Musée des Beaux-Arts is thus hosting paintings, sculptures, sledges, sedan chairs, horse harnesses and several outstanding carriages such as the coaches of Napoleon I’s marriage procession, Charles X’s coronation coach or the impressive funeral hearse of Louis XVIII. From Louis XIV to the Third Republic, these little-known vehicles will offer a journey through the History of France. Chronologically displayed over 1,000 m², these works are set against a backdrop of innovative scenography combining reconstructions, activities, immersion and multimedia. The exhibition provides an opportunity to discover Versailles and its collections whilst at the same time highlighting the historical links between Arras and the former residence of kings. It will also provide an insight into the operation
and evolution of horse-drawn vehicles.

Curatorship

Béatrix Saule, Director of the Musée National des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
Jean-Louis Libourel, Honorary Chief Curator of Heritage
Hélène Delalex, Heritage Conservation Manager at the Château de Versailles

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As Didier Rykner judges in his review for The Art Tribune (24 September 2012) . . .

Sedan Chair for the King’s House Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon Photo : RMNGP/G. Blot

Even if it is much longer than the usual three-month period, this is a true exhibition, not a lineup of works; it is accompanied by a beautiful scholarly catalogue on a subject which is not often studied; it does not replace the display of the permanent collections as the exhibition rooms occupy the space acquired at the Saint-Vast Abbey; it does not deprive visitors going to the lending museum from seeing major works there since the Musée des carrosses (a rather exaggerated term given the usual presentation conditions) is rarely open to the public; and, above all, it will result in enduring benefits for the coach collection as well as for the Musée des Beaux-Arts itself. . . .

The museum staging by Frédéric Beauclair is very well done. Paintings, sculptures and drawings round out the presentation of the carriages illustrating their use, the way they functioned and the context in which they were produced. Visitors will also discover some little-known works. . . .

The full review is available here»

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Eight short videos accompany the exhibition:

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From the Château de Versailles bookshop:

With the advertising for this exhibition having been covered sensationally by the international press, the focus on contemporary work has obscured the late eighteenth-century offerings. Press release from the Leopold Museum:

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Nude Men from 1800 to the Present / Nackte Männer
Leopold Museum, Vienna, 19 October 2012 — 28 January 2013

Curated by Elisabeth Leopold and Tobias Natter

Ilse Haider, Mr. Big, installed at the Leopold Museum

The endless flood of images intrinsic to today’s lifestyle has given unprecedented public prominence to the depiction of male nudes. At the same time seemingly firmly established categories such as masculinity, body, and nakedness are apparently being redefined on a broad social basis, resulting in a new interpretation of male gender roles. These developments have prompted the Leopold Museum to embark on a topical as well as historical journey through the visual arts in search of the male nude, a quest leading predominantly from the longing for antiquity prevalent in art around 1800 to contemporary art. The exhibition Naked Men: Power & Powerlessness through the Ages also represents the fulfillment of the museum’s long-cherished ambition to present a counterpart to the highly successful 2006 exhibition Body – Face – Soul curated by Elisabeth Leopold, which explored the female image in art from the 16th century to the present. Thus, the current presentation constitutes a continuation of this theme, except that its focus is now on the opposite sex.

The exhibition Naked Men: Power & Powerlessness through the Ages is based on works by Egon Schiele, Richard Gerstl and Anton Kolig – three artists who are more comprehensively represented in the Leopold Museum than in any other institution and in whose oeuvre the depiction of the male nude features prominently. Schiele’s male nudes can be seen as unconditional explorations of the self, as expressions of inner emotions and as body images situated between vulnerability and provocation. Gerstl followed the tradition of Christian iconography with the first of his two life-sized self-portraits, while he elevated the fragmentation of form to a principal in the second with his wild brushstrokes. Kolig was captivated by the depiction of naked young men all his life and dedicated his drawings almost exclusively to this motif.

Based on eminent examples from its own collection and complemented by loaned works from all over Europe, the Leopold Museum’s exhibition will set out in two main directions, examining the depiction of the male nude in contemporary art, while also exploring the Old Masters’ approach to the subject from the Renaissance all the way back to antiquity. The exhibition unites examples of many different genres, including painting, sculpture, graphic arts, photography and new media, with special emphases on the following themes:

The Measure of All Things: The Male Body and Art Academies

Ever since the Renaissance, the naked male body was considered to be an important object of study and an indispensable part of the academies’ curriculum, which was one of the reasons that women were denied access to art academies for so long. The presentation affords insights into the life drawing rooms of European art academies from the Baroque period onwards and illustrates to what an extent all eyes were focused on the naked man, though he himself was the only one to remain naked.

Longing for Antiquity and the Male Ideal

For centuries, the depiction of the male nude was only legitimized by ancient art. These restrictions prompted the emergence of various artistic strategies that reinterpreted ancient ideals under the guise of antiquity. This is illustrated in the exhibition with examples from the period around 1800 up until the present.

The Naked Self

While Klimt still believed that nakedness and truth coincided in the Nuda Veritas, Schiele began to make his own body the object of his paintings. Expressionism brought with it a radical examination of the self, which saw the artists exposing themselves both physically and existentially and exploring the use of their own nudity as a sphere of political influence.

In the Sights of Women

The battle of female desire and male denial is not often addressed in the visual arts, but it has its historical sources both in the biblical story of Joseph and the Wife of Potiphar and in the ancient mythological traditions of Narcissus and Adonis. The emancipation of women as artists has brought with it a new basis for the depiction of such conflicts. Nowadays, female artists also have access to male nude models and are free to interpret and depict this motif at their will, currently often with a view to deconstructing gender and gender asymmetries.

Bathers — On the Beach

In the second half of the 19th century depictions of naked people in nature abounded. These renderings had their origin in a reassessment of man’s position in nature. Based on early depictions such as Dürer’s The Men’s Bath, the exhibition features many eminent examples of such encounters and get-togethers of naked men, from Cézanne to Mapplethorpe.

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In the United States, the English edition of the catalogue will be distributed by The University of Chicago Press:

Catalogue: Elisabeth Leopold and Tobias Natter, eds., Nude Men from 1800 to the Present (Vienna: Hirmer, 2013) ISBN: 9783777458519, $50.

Rodin’s Thinker. Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. Pigalle’s controversial portrayal of the philosopher Voltaire. From its earliest days, art history is rife with representations of nude men. But while there is no shortage of studies of art celebrating the female form, the male nude has suffered from relative neglect. This book seeks to correct this imbalance with a collection of paintings, sculptures, and photographs that challenge conceptions of the body and masculinity, many of which continue to have considerable cultural resonance today.

Beginning with a look at art completed in life-drawing classes popular across European academies, the book moves on to representations of masculinity throughout the French Revolution, including works by Johann Heinrich Füssli and Antonio Canova; provocative Sturm und Drang paintings by Edvard Munch and contemporaries; and late impressionist works. The unsettling self-portraits of Austrian artists Egon Schiele and Richard Gerstl exemplify an extreme candor that characterized the early twentieth century. Other twentieth-century artists whose work is included in this book are Jean Cocteau, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Nan Goldin, and Louise Bourgeois.

With nearly four hundred full-color illustrations, the book also includes insightful essays examining topics like male identity, depictions of desire in modern art, and the use of nude men in advertising.

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Note (added 2 February 2013) — The sensational coverage is likely to continue. As reported by the AFP, viewers are invited to step out of their own clothes for a special viewing on February 18, “Our museum will be a clothes-free zone for one evening. . . Nudists, naturists are welcome!”