Exhibition: Furniture of John Shearer
From the DAR Museum:
‘A True North Britain’: The Furniture of John Shearer, 1790-1820
Daughters of the American Revolution Museum, Washington, D.C., 8 October 2010 — 26 February 2011
Curated by Elizabeth Davison
The exquisitely detailed furniture of craftsman John Shearer is showcased in the DAR Museum exhibition ‘A True North Britain’: The Furniture of John Shearer, 1790-1820, which runs from October 8, 2010, through February 26, 2011. Noted not only for its form but also for the politically charged symbols inlaid in many pieces, the furniture helps to explore early America’s cultural ties to Great Britain during the most contentious period in the two nations’ shared history.
John Shearer worked in northern Virginia and western Maryland in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He left behind no paper trail, choosing instead to inscribe his biography and his politics directly on his furniture. While other early craftsmen were inlaying
their work with eagles to symbolize a new American government,
Shearer glorified Great Britain and its Royal Navy.
Shearer was from Edinburgh, Scotland. Like many from this region, he identified with the Kingdom of Great Britain, formed by the 1707 Treaty of Union which unified Scotland and England. Shearer touts his loyalty by signing two desks on view in this exhibition with the slogan, “A True North Britain.” On another desk, he cheers Napoleon’s downfall and Britain’s victory in the Peninsular War by depicting a crowned lion rampant (rearing on hind legs, paws raised) from the Scottish and English royal coats of arms along with the inscription “Victory Be Thine.”
Shearer documented the Royal Navy’s exploits almost like a political cartoonist. Although fine furniture was an unusual medium for these messages, 52 of his pieces survive, showing that his pro-British sentiments did not deter demand for the simple but unconventionally embellished furniture. As America formed a national identity, its cultural and political diversity included many who retained a strong sense of loyalty to Great Britain.
Not all Shearer’s messages were meant to be seen, however. Shearer, following the age-old tradition of artist retaliating against problematic patron, hid a note inside one desk accusing his customer, a slave holder and trader, of being “the Greatest Scoundrel in Loudoun County.” This unique piece is among 20 on display in “A True North Britain.” Independent scholar Elizabeth Davison is the guest curator for this exhibition. Her book, a catalog raisonne of Shearer’s work, will be published this winter. Her expertise informs this exhibition, exploring the work of one eccentric artist to show how a diversity of cultures and loyalty was built into the foundations of our country.
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Elizabeth Davison, The Furniture of John Shearer, 1790-1820: A True North Britain in the Southern Backcountry (Altamira Press, 2011), 256 pages, ISBN: 978-0759119543, $90.
Exhibition: Secret Life of Drawings at The Getty
Of the thirty drawings included in the exhibition, six come from the eighteenth century. The show also addresses eighteenth-century restoration techniques. Press release from The Getty:
The Secret Life of Drawings
The Getty Center, Los Angeles, 23 November 2010 — 13 February 2011
Curated by Stephanie Schrader with Nancy Yocco
Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, "Portrait of Louis de Silvestre," black and white chalk, blue and rose pastel on faded blue paper, ca. 1753 (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum)
Works on paper are inherently more fragile—in terms of sensitivity to light and handling—than mediums such as canvas, panel, bronze, or clay, and often show the passage of time more acutely than their counterparts. Frequent handling by artists in their workshops and later by collectors, combined with poor storage and display conditions, often leads to distracting damage. As a result of their fragility, drawings in the Getty Museum’s collection spend much of their life inside solander boxes in climate-controlled storage areas, where they’re protected from light, mold, insects, and other threats to their preservation; and, the fascinating “secrets”—of how they were made and displayed, damages they sustained, and treatments they were given—often go untold.
The Secret Life of Drawings brings together 30 drawings from the Getty’s stellar collection to explore the role played by paper conservators in reducing the effects of handling and the passage of time with treatments such as filling losses, reducing stains and mold, repairing tears, and treating white highlights that have turned black. The exhibition also reveals the secrets conservators discover, such as unknown drawings
hidden beneath mounts or watermarks that help authenticate the date of
the paper. (more…)
Portrait Exhibition at The Clark
From The Clark:
Eye to Eye: European Portraits, 1450-1850
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, 16 January — 27 March 2011
For centuries, portraiture has captured the imagination of artists and viewers, not to say the sitters themselves. What makes a successful portrait? An accurate likeness, an indication of the sitter’s character or social status, or simply a fabulously made work of art?
Eye to Eye explores these questions through the presentation of an extraordinary collection of master portraits, dating from the late fifteenth century to the early nineteenth century, and featuring little-known paintings by Memling, Cranach, Parmigianino, Ribera, Rubens, Van Dyck, Greuze, and David, among others. This exhibition will be shown exclusively at the Clark.
Fall of 2011: Stubbs at The Neue Pinakothek
From the museum’s website:
George Stubbs
Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 15 October 2011 — 15 January 2012
The English animal painter George Stubbs (1724-1806) is the most prominent representative of so-called ‘sporting art’ that reached its peak in the 18th century as a result of the growing enthusiasm for horse breeding, racing and hunting, as an occupation for the prosperous upper classes. His work largely comprises portraits of thoroughbreds and their jockeys, of dogs and hunting scenes. With his subtly balanced and sometimes bold compositions Stubbs developed a classical style using subjects derived entirely from contemporary life.
In the Anglo-Saxon world, George Stubbs has long been regarded as one of the greatest artists of his time and, alongside William Hogarth and Thomas Gainsborough, as the most important artist of the 18th century. The Neue Pinakothek, which has a first-rate collection of English painting from the 18th and 19th centuries and boasts the only painting by George Stubbs in Germany, is staging the first exhibition on this artist to be held on the Continent. A selection of thirty paintings, mostly from collections in England, will be complemented by drawings and prints that underline the artist’s far-reaching influence in the field of animal painting in France and Germany.
Small Exhibition at the V&A: Huguenot Silver
From the V&A:
Sacred Silver for London’s Huguenot Communities
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 3 November 2010 — 2 October 2011
This display of sacred silver from Huguenot churches dating from 1717 to 1898 includes a Communion flagon presented for use in the French Hospital chapel, Victoria Park, Hackney in 1867. Made by Barnards, its sale is recorded in their London business archive recently saved for the V&A. The silver is lent by the French Hospital, Rochester, Kent which provides sheltered housing for elderly people of Huguenot descent.
French Drawings from the National Gallery of Scotland
Press release from The Wallace:
Poussin to Seurat: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Scotland
The Wallace Collection, London, 23 September 2010 — 3 January 2011
The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 5 February — 1 May 2011
Catalogue by Michael Clarke, 144 pages, ISBN: 9781906270315, $25
This exhibition is the latest in an ongoing series mounted by the Wallace Collection which features selections from celebrated collections of French drawings. The holdings of French paintings in the National Gallery of Scotland are world famous and include magnificent examples by Claude, Poussin, Watteau, Greuze and many of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Not so well-known, however, is the Gallery’s complementary collection of French drawings. This has been deliberately strengthened over the past thirty years to build on the existing core of fine drawings, many of which came to the Gallery, via the Royal Scottish Academy, from the collection of the Edinburgh bookseller and antiquarian David Laing (1793-1878). Of the more familiar names who have recently entered the collection mention can be made of Poussin, Boucher, Ingres, Corot, Pissarro and Seurat. These acquisitions have been complemented by excellent sheets by lesser-known masters such as Jeaurat, Lancrenon, Hesse and Dulac – thereby ensuring a mix of the familiar and less familiar.
In subject-matter, the exhibition ranges from the courtly art of Fontainebleau in the sixteenth century to the more down-to-earth imagery of the Realists and Impressionists in the nineteenth century. There are preparatory drawings for tapestries and for ambitious Salon pictures, as well as figure studies made in the studio or landscape sketches inspired by study in the open air. Two artist-writers also feature in the selection – Eugène Fromentin, whose most celebrated text is probably Les maîtres d’autrefois, and the novelist George Sand, whose extraordinary invented landscape watercolours anticipate the work of Surrealists such as Max Ernst in the twentieth century.
The selection made for this exhibition, which will also be shown in Edinburgh, has deliberately been chosen so as to relate to the holdings of the Wallace Collection. Accordingly there are drawings by Claude, Watteau, Scheffer, Decamps and Delaroche – masters who are particularly associated with the collecting of Lord Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace. The most celebrated linkage, however, occurs with the inclusion of Poussin’s exceptional preparatory drawing for one of the greatest paintings in the Wallace Collection, the Dance to the Music of Time, the title of which was taken by Anthony Powell for his celebrated series of novels.
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Writing in The Financial Times (24 September 2010), Emma Crichton-Miller explores the growth of the collection in an interview with Michael Clarke, the director of the National Gallery of Scotland. The article is available here»
Exhibition to Recreate a Day in the Life of a Parisian Townhouse
Press release from the Getty:
Paris: Life & Luxury
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 26 April — 7 August 2011
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 18 September — 10 December 2011
Curated by Charissa Bremer-David with Peter Björn Kerber
The nation of France, and its capital city of Paris in particular, held a special status in European culture during the 18th century. The upper echelons of societies throughout Europe were predominantly Francophiles—imitating French fashions of dress and furniture in their daily lives. On view in the Exhibitions Pavilion at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, April 26 through August 7, 2011, Paris: Life & Luxury re-imagines, through art and material culture, the complex and nuanced lifestyle of elite 18th-century Parisians who made their city the fashionable and cultural epicenter of Europe.
ISBN: 978-1606060520, $45
Inspired by the Getty Museum’s extensive French decorative arts collection and the correspondingly strong holdings of French illustrated books in the Getty Research Institute, Paris: Life & Luxury will provide a rich cultural and historical experience that closely mirrors daily life in 18th-century France. Bringing together approximately 160 objects, roughly half of which will be on loan from twenty-six museums and private collections around the world, the exhibition will include a wide range of paintings, sculpture, applied arts, drawings, metalwork, furniture, architectural fittings, lighting and hearth fixtures, scientific and musical instruments, clocks and watches, textiles and dress, books, and maps.
David Bomford, acting director of the J. Paul Getty Museum said, “Paris: Life & Luxury will transport visitors back to Paris in the mid-1700s. More than celebrating the period or perpetuating the mythology of its charm and gallantry, this exhibition re-imagines the varied and complex range of values and practices of the city’s elite within a rich material context.”
Charissa Bremer-David, curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the exhibition’s co-curator added, “The exhibition will be a rich and deep sensory experience, engaging the viewer’s initial attention with the compelling visual appeal of superlative and virtuoso works of art. From this breadth and diversity, visitors will learn generally about the contributions of the French, and in particular the Parisian, to the visual and performing arts, language, literature, history, science, and even culinary arts during this time period—in short, about their major contribution to the humanities at large.”
Following a structure based on the traditional visual allegories of the Four Times of Day, the objects in the exhibition are grouped according to their associations with common activities as pursued in the chronology of a single day, from morning to night. As such, objects of diverse mediums are juxtaposed, as they would have been within an 18th-century Parisian domestic setting, regardless of modern museological or academic categories. Through constellations of art and related artifacts, the exhibition follows the conventional activities in the cycle of a Parisian day, such as dressing, writing, collecting, eating, and evening entertainment—allowing visitors to envision the activities and accessories of quotidian life, in order to find resonances with their own daily lives. (more…)
Exhibition: Preaching in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
A center of Jansenism in the seventeenth century, the schools at Port-Royal des Champs were closed in 1660. The nuns of the convent were turned out in 1709, and most of the buildings were then razed. Today the museum hosts various concerts and exhibitions. From the museum’s website:
Representer la Prédication aux XVIIe et XVIIIe Siècles
Musée National de Port-Royal des Champs, 15 September — 13 December 2010
Jean-Bernard Restout (1732–97), "John the Baptist Preaching in the Desert," Musée du Louvre © RMN / Thierry Le Mage
Figure issue du Moyen-âge, le prédicateur est celui qui est chargé de diffuser la parole de Dieu pour le compte de l’Église. A partir du XVIe siècle, l’élan missionnaire mêle intimement instruction des fidèles, conversion des Protestants et évangélisation des terres nouvellement découvertes. Les ordres les plus actifs de la Réforme catholique, comme les Jésuites (fondés en 1540 par Ignace de Loyola), les Oratoriens (fondés en 1611 par Pierre de Bérulle) ou les Lazaristes (fondés en 1625 par Vincent de Paul), participent aux missions lointaines comme intérieures. L’importance de la prédication dans l’Église occidentale à l’époque des réformes marque l’art religieux de l’Europe aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles.
Les missionnaires prennent les fondateurs de leur Ordre comme modèles, et l’iconographie les montrent devant la foule des fidèles, aux portes d’une église comme pour la Prédication de François de Sales d’Eustache Le Sueur, ou plus généralement dans un paysage, comme pour la Prédication de Vincent de Paul d’Aureliano Milani. (more…)
Exibition: Courtly Ephemera in Paris
From the INHA website:
Chroniques de l’éphémère: Le livre de fête dans la collection Jacques Doucet
Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris, 15 September — 15 December 2010
Charles Nicolas Cochin, "The Funeral of Catherine Opalińska in Notre Dame de Paris," 1747
Dès la Renaissance, fêtes et cérémonies de cour ont donné lieu à la production de livres et d’estampes : décrire l’événement, le commémorer, exalter la majesté du prince, telles sont les fonctions de ces publications, des plus modestes aux plus luxueuses. L’illustration des grandes fêtes des cours européennes, par le livre, le texte et l’image, la diffusion de formes artistiques codifiées, expriment à l’époque moderne un jeu subtil entre l’art et le pouvoir.
À travers cette exposition, la Bibliothèque de l’INHA, riche de plus d’un millier de livres de fête, issus des collections exceptionnelles constituées par Jacques Doucet, propose un parcours illustrant la mise en livre de fêtes organisées à Paris et à Versailles aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Divers événements donnant lieu à la fête – des naissances princières aux pompes funèbres – sont évoqués, ainsi que les mises en scène qui peuvent y être associées : feux d’artifices, carrousels, ballets (tel que Le Ballet des singes et des autruches), représentations théâtrales…
Courts programmes, livrets explicatifs, brochures, placards, pamphlets, ou luxueux ouvrages commémoratifs, les livres de fête se présentent sous diverses formes, aux fonctions et publics différents. Les plus somptueux d’entre eux, objets d’art prestigieux, sont destinés à diffuser largement l’image de la grandeur monarchique auprès du public français, mais aussi des cours étrangères. Souvent illustrés par les dessinateurs de la Chambre et du Cabinet du Roi, comme le Carrousel des galans Maures de Jean Berain (1685), ces livres mettent particulièrement en valeur le rôle des institutions monarchiques, comme l’administration des Menus Plaisirs, dans la production et la diffusion du livre, élément parmi d’autres de la propagande et du mécénat royal.
Enfin, les traités de fête établissent des règles, mais aussi un répertoire européen de fêtes, dans lequel puisent artistes et érudits pour offrir au spectateur, courtisan, ambassadeur ou simple badaud, des spectacles grandioses, portraits de la puissance du souverain auxquels ils sont dédiés.
Exhibition: Rowlandson on Pleasures and Pursuits
From The Block Museum:
Thomas Rowlandson: Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England
The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 14 January — 13 March 2011
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 8 April — 11 June 2011
Curated by Patricia Phagan
Thomas Rowlandson, “Progress of Gallantry, or Stolen Kisses Sweetest,” 1814, etching with stipple, in black ink with watercolor on cream wove paper (Yale University: Lewis Walpole Library)
Artist Thomas Rowlandson (1757–1827) depicted high society and politics, encounters on the street, camaraderie in clubs and taverns, outdoor entertainments, musings about art, drama, and dance, and romantic and sexual tangles. In other words, the social life of Georgian England. One of the most popular caricaturists of his time, Rowlandson’s work was noted for lighthearted, deft humor and the unmatched flowing line of his drawing.
Organized by the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, Thomas Rowlandson: Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England presents more than 70 of the artist’s prints, drawings, watercolors, and illustrated books. The exhibition is curated by Patricia Phagan, the Philip and Lynn Straus Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. The first major exhibition of Rowlandson’s work in the United States in 20 years, it will be accompanied by a full-color 184-page catalogue.
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Description of the catalogue, from the publisher’s website:
Patricia Phagan, Vic Gatrell, and Amelia Rauser, Thomas Rowlandson: Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England (London: D. Giles Limited, 2011), 184 pages, ISBN: 9781904832782.
Thomas Rowlandson: Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England is a completely new illustrated volume which presents 72 watercolours, drawings, prints, and illustrated books to reassess the legacy of this renowned 18th-century satirist. Published in February 2011 by D. Giles Limited in association with the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, it accompanies the first major exhibition of Rowlandson’s work in North America for 20 years, and reflects the growing emphasis on the social and political context of the satirical art of the 18th- and early 19th-centuries. In so doing, it rescues Rowlandson from what co-author Vic Gatrell calls “the immense condescension of posterity.” This catalogue explores Rowlandson’s unique perspective on Georgian social life, and the crossing of class boundaries.
With heavy-handed humour and a low subject matter, the work of Thomas Rowlandson (1757–1827) provides an invaluable insight into the workings and mentality of late Georgian society. He was quite simply a product of his times, who relished recording the street life of London and whose drawings and etchings reveal an attraction to repulsive visions of wickedness and hardship, whilst maintaining a high degree of humanity. (more…)
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