Exhibition | Paintings from South America
Now on view at the Nelson-Atkins:
Paintings from South America: The Thoma Collection, 1600–1800
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 12 February — 4 September 2022
Organized by the Thoma Foundation
Unidentified artist (Perú), The Mystical Winepress, 18th century, oil and gold on canvas, 49 × 43 inches (Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation, 2019.71; photo by Jamie Stukenberg).
This exhibition presents fifteen works made by artists in present-day Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia during Spanish colonial rule. One of the largest and longest-lasting European empires, the Spanish realms spanned from South Asia to South America and lasted nearly 500 years. Spanish South American art is a dynamic, unique combination of styles and influences from visiting Italian artists and imported European prototypes translated and adapted by local hands. The works on view represent primarily Roman Catholic subjects. Paintings and sculptures adorned churches and convents across Spanish America, but most of the paintings in this exhibition originally hung in private homes where they both gave pleasure and invited contemplation and prayer. The works belong to the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation, which is committed to promoting the art of the Spanish Americas through scholarship and exhibition of its extensive collection from South America and the Caribbean.
New Exhibition | Governing the Nation from Fraunces Tavern, 1785–88
From the press release from the Fraunces Tavern Museum:
Governing the Nation from Fraunces Tavern, 1785–88
Fraunces Tavern Museum, New York, opening 22 June 2022
View of the negotiation table inside the Department of Foreign Affairs at Fraunces Tavern with map of east and west Florida in the foreground. Photo: Courtesy of Fraunces Tavern® Museum.
While Fraunces Tavern in New York City is one of the 18th century’s best-known taverns and the site of General George Washington’s famous farewell to his officers at the end of the American Revolution, it is less known that in the late 1700s, the site at 54 Pearl Street in lower Manhattan was also home to the nation’s first executive governmental building that housed three offices of the Confederation Congress. (Although Congress met in City Hall, the space was too small for the government’s departments and other office space had to be leased.) In 1785, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of War and offices of the Board of Treasury leased space at the Tavern and remained tenants there until 1788. Thanks to an extraordinary document—a cashbook that detailed the purchases for the Department of Foreign Affairs during its time at the Tavern that is now housed at the National Archives—the Department’s office will be recreated in a new permanent exhibition, Governing the Nation from Fraunces Tavern, set to open on June 22, 2022. Featuring approximately 60 objects, most of which are authentic to the period and many of which have never before been on public display, including tables, chairs, desks, maps, newspapers and other items, visitors will have the opportunity to travel back to post-colonial New York City and enter the Department of Foreign Affairs office as it appeared during a fascinating period in the nation’s history when John Jay was the first Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Visitors will learn about the diplomatic, military and financial challenges that all three departments faced after the Revolutionary War and how those challenges affected the formation of the U.S. Constitution.
“We are in the unique position of having access to a rare, surviving cashbook from the Department of Foreign Affairs,” explains Craig Hamilton Weaver, co-chairman of the Museum and Art Committee at Fraunces Tavern Museum. “We diligently researched each object in the cashbook and acquired authentic items to create an accurate setting that allows the visitor to step back into history. This is indeed a magnificent gift to the nation.”
After an exhaustive search to locate objects that would have been found in the original office, visitors will not only see an extraordinary assemblage of fine American and British decorative arts, many pieces of which have been donated from private collections, but they will also gain insights into an often-overlooked period in American history. Objects such as A New and Accurate Map of East and West Florida Drawn from the best Authorities, a circa 1700s map engraved by J. Prockter, London, highlighting Spanish-controlled West Florida; a rare copy of the French-language newspaper Courier de L’Europe published in London on 29 September 1786, reporting on America’s diplomatic activities with Prussia and Spain; and an array of directional and mapping compasses will help to illustrate the Department’s first two pressing matters. The Barbary Pirate Crisis, which led to the 1787 diplomatic treaty with Morocco to end pirate seizures of American vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, and negotiations with Spain regarding control of the Mississippi River will be examined in the exhibition to offer visitors insights into what it took to form a new government as well as a deep appreciation for those individuals who rose to the challenge to do so.
“We want visitors to have an immersive experience,” said Scott Dwyer, director of Fraunces Tavern Museum. “The exhibition room was designed and will be arranged to give the sense that John Jay, his under secretary, diplomats, translators, clerks and messengers might enter and resume work at any moment.”
Additionally, the office’s furnishings will illuminate the socioeconomic stratification of the staff who worked in the room. From Henry Remsen, Jr., Jay’s undersecretary for foreign affairs, to the two clerks, a part-time French translator and a messenger, the hierarchy of those employed there will be clearly seen through the caliber of each staffer’s work space in his desk, chair and even desk set; the seniority of the employee’s position correlated to the finery of his work area and accoutrements. For example, Under Secretary Remsen’s desk has a full writing set made of late 18th-century fused Sheffield plate while the clerk’s desk has a pewter inkstand and the messenger’s station has a simple stoneware inkwell. The under secretary’s desk also features examples of Chinese porcelain that would have come to New York aboard the Empress of China, the first American ship to trade with China. The ship returned to New York Harbor and distributed its cargo for local merchants the same year the Department of Foreign Affairs office opened at Fraunces Tavern. Aboard was Samuel Shaw, who would become America’s first Consul to Canton (now Guangzhou), China.
Tea Table, New York, 1770–85, mahogany (New York: Fraunces Tavern Museum, 2022.01.007, gift of Craig Hamilton Weaver; photo by John Bigelow Taylor).
Assembling as many New York- or mid-Atlantic-made furnishings as possible to be seen in Governing the Nation from Fraunces Tavern was another goal in organizing the exhibition to ensure that the room would be authentic to what would likely have been in the original space. One example to be seen at the messenger’s station is a circa 18th-century, brace-back Windsor chair made by Walter MacBride, who worked at 63 Pearl Street in the vicinity of the Tavern. Another such object is a circa 1770–85, mahogany tilt-top tea table, which was likely made in the vicinity of lower Manhattan where many furniture makers were known to have worked at the time. The table features details characteristic of New York style, such as a flat top (rather than the dish top that was popular in other regions), a vase-form pedestal with a cup and square, webbed feet, all of which are typical of New York-made furniture. Although made later than the time period for the office (circa early 19th century), a pair of brass andirons with the rare mark of New York City craftsman David Phillips is included in the exhibition to exemplify other common, locally produced objects during that period. Phillips may have been working earlier as an apprentice near the neighboring South Street Seaport. In a small yet authentic homage to the important document that guided the reconstruction of the office, a leather-bound account book with entries dating from 1765 at the Garret Abel Company of South Street in lower Manhattan, will be seen placed on the clerk’s desk, representing the Foreign Affairs cashbook that informed the object selection for the exhibition. In addition, a facsimile of a page from the actual Foreign Affairs cashbook from 1785 will hang on the wall near the visitor area.
Other featured objects in the exhibition include the negotiation table, made in New York of mahogany and pine in the Chippendale style, circa 1780. The table has carved knees and claw-and-ball legs and is composed of three heavy, solid boards. The strongly carved, original legs have fully developed shells and robust feet. Placed centrally in the room, this is where much of the official business would have been conducted, maps examined and debate likely to have occurred. Another highlight of Governing the Nation from Fraunces Tavern will be found hanging above the clerk’s desk: British engineer Bernard Ratzer’s engraved map, Plan of the City of New York in North America, published in 1776 by Jeffreys & Faden, London, commonly referred to as the ‘Ratzer Map’. One of the best depictions of the city before the Revolutionary War, it was originally issued in 1770 and was heavily influenced by a 1767 map of New York by British engineer John Montresor. The map offers a bird’s-eye view of lower Manhattan Island, eastern New Jersey, and western Brooklyn and includes the city’s important landmarks, many of which are listed in the legend or key. Additionally, an excellent example of a late-18th-century book press with the rare feature of a built-in drawer will also be seen in the office. Such pieces of equipment were used to copy the multitude of correspondence and documents generated by the office.
Governing the Nation from Fraunces Tavern is made possible through a major gift from Stanley and Elizabeth Scott who are longtime supporters of the Museum.
Fraunces Tavern Museum’s mission is to preserve and interpret the history of the American Revolutionary era through public education. This mission is fulfilled through the interpretation and preservation of the Museum’s collections, landmarked buildings, and varied public programs that serve the community. Visit the rooms where General George Washington said farewell to his officers and where John Jay negotiated treaties with foreign nations. Explore six additional galleries focusing on America’s War for Independence and the preservation of early American history.
Exhibition | 25 Artists Fascinated by Piranesi
Opening next week in Dublin; from Hélène Bremer’s website:
For the Love of the Master, 25 Artists Fascinated by Piranesi
The Coach House Gallery, Dublin Castle and the Casino Marino, 17 June — 18 September 2022
Curated by Hélène Bremer
William Chambers, Casino Marino in Dublin, designed for James Caulfeild, the 1st Earl of Charlemont, starting in the late 1750s and finishing around 1775.
2020 marked the tricentenary of the birth of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778). The Italian architect, antiquarian, etcher, vedutista, designer, and writer was one of the foremost artistic personalities of 18th-century Rome. His interpretation of the classical world was of great significance not only during his lifetime, but also long after his death. Ireland’s Office of Public Works presents the international exhibition For the Love of the Master: 25 Artists Fascinated by Piranesi to celebrate his legacy in the 21st century, with work from a group of international artists including Emily Allchurch, Pablo Bronstein, Léo Caillard, and Michael Eden. Many of the pieces on display were made specifically for this occasion. One of the show’s locations, the Casino Marino, an important 18th-century neo-classical building, serves to link Piranesi and Ireland, present and past.
Exhibition | Copy-Cat
Villa Welgelegen, Haarlem, following the 2009 restoration, view from Haarlemmerhout park (Wikimedia Commons, August 2009). Designed by Abraham van der Hart, the house was commissioned by Henry Hope of the banking family and constructed between 1785 and 1789.
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Now on view in Haarlem:
Copy-Cat
Paviljoen Welgelegen, Haarlem, 8 April — 24 June 2022
Curated by Hélène Bremer
De tentoonstelling Copy-Cat stelt de vraag centraal wat de grenzen van reproductie zijn en wanneer een kopie een zelfstandig kunstwerk met een eigen betekenis wordt. Geïnspireerd door dit thema selecteerde curator Hélène Bremer werk uit diverse kunstdisciplines. Er zijn foto’s, keramiek, beeldhouwkunst en design te zien allemaal geïnspireerd door de beeldhouwwerken van Paviljoen Welgelegen, zorgvuldig gemaakte 21e -eeuwse replica’s. Kopieën dus. Bezoekers kunnen werken bekijken van Laurence Aëgerter, Ellen Boersma, Nicolas Dings, Carla van de Puttelaar en een Belgisch/Franse gelegenheidscollectief bestaande uit de ontwerpers Victor Ledure, Studio Joachim-Morineau, Marina Mankarios en Adèle Vivet.
And from Bremer’s website:
“There is no such thing as a copy. Everything is a translation of something else.”*
The 18th-century building, Paviljoen Welgelegen, the seat of the King’s commissioner of the province of Noord-Holland in Haarlem, stages every three months a contemporary art exhibition under the name Dreef exposities, produced by a guest-curator. Copy-Cat presents art inspired by the classical sculpture that is part of the fabric of the house. The original 18th-century sculptures commissioned in Rome by Henry Hope from Francesco Righetti are now part of the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. There they are prominently displayed in the central hall. In Haarlem they are not missed, though; the sculptures are replaced by bronze copies made in 2009. This theme of copying classical art has been the red threat in selecting artists for this project. However, the cycle of copying literally is broken by the participating artists. Each in their own way appropriate the classical idiom. On view are a selection of photographs, ceramics, and sculpture.
Participating artists: Laurence Aëgerter, Ellen Boersma, Nicolas Dings, Carla van de Puttelaar, and a Belgian/French design collective consisting of Victor Ledure, Studio Joachim-Morineau, Marina Mankarios, and Adèle Vivet.
* David Hockney in Spring Cannot Be Cancelled, with Martin Gayford (London: Thames & Hudson, 2020).
Carla van de Puttelaar, Copy-Cast, 2022, photographic print on eco cotton, 130 × 300 cm, edition 1 of 3; shown alongside a work by the Belgian sculptor Gilles Lambert de Godecharle (1750–1815), which was taken from the storage depot for the occasion of the exhibition.
Exhibition | Dressed by Nature: Textiles of Japan
Opening later this month at Mia:
Dressed by Nature: Textiles of Japan
Minneapolis Institute of Art, 25 June — 11 September 2022
Festival kimono decorated with carp ascending a waterfall made in Akita Prefecture (detail), late 19th–early 20th century, cotton (Minneapolis: Mia, purchase from the Thomas Murray Collection, 2019.20.84).
The Japanese archipelago is home to extremely diverse cultures that made clothing and other textile objects in a kaleidoscope of materials and designs. This exhibition will focus on the resourcefulness of humans to create textiles from local materials like fish skin, paper, elm bark, nettle, banana leaf fiber, hemp, wisteria, deerskin, cotton, silk, and wool. It will showcase rare and exceptional examples of robes, coats, jackets, vests, banners, rugs, and mats, made between around 1750 and 1930, including the royal dress of subtropical Okinawa, ceremonial robes of the Ainu from northern Japan and the Russian Far East, and folk traditions from throughout Japan.
Exhibition | The Three Perfections
Now on view at Mia:
The Three Perfections: Image, Poem, and Calligraphy in Chinese Painting
Minneapolis Institute of Art, 18 December 2021 — 4 December 2022
Zheng Xie (1693–1765), Qing dynasty, Bamboo and Rocks, detail, ca. 1760, 68 x 39 inches, ink on paper (Minneapolis: Mia, gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton 95.54.2).
Western viewers are often curious about why Chinese artists write on their paintings and what the characters say. This exhibition answers such questions and explores the idea of integrating fine painting, poetry, and calligraphy, known as the ‘Three Perfections’, in a single artwork.
In traditional China, painting was regarded as ‘silent poetry’, and poetry as ‘painting with sound’. Both could only be manifested through the ‘art of handwriting’—calligraphy. Scholars and scholar-artists used calligraphic brushstrokes in their paintings and considered their artworks to be vehicles of self-expression. As a result, painting was not only considered the only art pure and lyrical enough to stand on an equal footing with poetry and contemplative thought, but also something through which one could experience sight, sound, smell, touch, and emotions.
Exhibition | Venice in the 1700s
Francesco Guardi, The Return of the Buncintoro from S. Nicolò di Lido (detail), ca. 1778, pen and brown ink and wash, over black chalk
(Minneapolis: Mia, the John R. Van Derlip Trust Fund 2021.25)
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Now on view at Mia:
Venice in the 1700s
Minneapolis Institute of Art, 22 January — 16 October 2022
By the 1700s, the once mighty seafaring republic of Venice had been in decline for 300 years. Yet the island city still had one undiminished power—magic. Grand palaces, churches, flotillas of elegant gondolas floated above luminous reflections. Intricate systems of canals and walkways offered endless unexpected perspectives. Centuries of exquisite art could be found everywhere. With much support from tourists who flocked to see the city’s wonders, Venice’s artistic tradition continued to flourish. Three great artists and their families dominated: Antonio Canale (known as Canaletto), Giambattista Tiepolo, and Francesco Guardi. Mia has long had fine prints and drawings by the first two. This presentation celebrates the recent addition of Mia’s first outstanding Guardi drawing.
Exhibition | Making East London Porcelain
Now on view:
Making East London Porcelain
Stratford Library, London, 1–30 June 2022
It is now over 250 years since the earliest dated pieces of Bow porcelain were produced in London. The success of the Bow Porcelain Factory reminds us that Newham was a global centre for experimentation and creativity during the middle of the eighteenth century. As part of our Making London Porcelain Project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), scientists and curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Ashmolean Museum have been researching 15 objects owned by Newham Borough of London. Using scientific analysis, we have been trying to better understand the materials and processes used to create such incredible works of art.
Making East London Porcelain is part of a collaborative science-led heritage project between the V&A Museum and Newham Borough of London, which has been made possible by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) Capability for Collections Fund. Focusing on the celebrated Bow Porcelain Factory, this project brings communities together to explore Newham Borough as a place of creativity, experimentation, and entrepreneurship in the mid-eighteenth century. Co-curated with sixth-form students from Chobham Academy (Newham) and Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School (Chelsea), the exhibition explores how heritage science and re-making practices can help us better understand the places we live today and inspire us to innovate and experiment tomorrow.
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Exploring Bow Porcelain
Stratford Library, London, Wednesday, 15 June 2022, 6.00pm
Join us for an object-handling workshop with local artists as we celebrate the launch of the exhibition Making East London Porcelain.
Take part in a conversation with local ceramic artist Julia Ellen Lancaster, one of the Explorer Leach 100 Artists, whose work offers a modern twist on sculptural figures and historic clay recipes, such as those made by the Bow Porcelain Factory. You will have the opportunity to handle and examine historic pieces of eighteenth-century Bow porcelain from Newham’s special collections guided by V&A Ceramics Curator, Dr Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth, and learn about how historic making processes inspire and influence ceramic artists in Newham today.
Online Exhibition | William Hogarth’s Topographies
Portrait of William Hogarth from a detail of the trade card of John Smith, printseller, at Hogarth’s Head, ca. 1760
(Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, 749.00.00.02, Box 105)
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From The Lewis Walpole Library:
William Hogarth’s Topographies
Online, The Lewis Walpole Library, open from 17 May 2022
Curated by Pierre Von-Ow, with Cynthia Roman and Susan Walker
This online exhibition explores William Hogarth’s engagement with topography, an important, if lesser-known aspect of his art. Topography is understood for this project in the broad definition provided in Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755): “Description of particular places.” First, a series of engraved illustrations that the artist produced in his mid-twenties for the Travels of the French explorer Aubry de La Motraye (1723) offers an opportunity to study his methods to represent territories he only visited through textual descriptions. Then the Five Days Peregrination (1732), an impromptu trip to Kent on which Hogarth embarked with four fellows to satirize the tradition of the Grand Tour as well as the practice of antiquarians in Britain, demonstrates his irreverential relationship with historical traces of the country’s past. Finally, Hogarth’s engraved frontispiece for Joshua Kirby’s influential treatise on perspective is read in the light of the longer tradition of perspective studies in Britain and contemporary debates about the respective roles of the eye and of mathematical rules in the representation of space.
Drawing primarily from the extensive collections of Hogarth’s graphic work at the Lewis Walpole Library and other Yale collections, Hogarth’s Topographies seeks to contribute to recent historiographic efforts that re-read Hogarth’s work in a more international perspective, most notably the Hogarth and Europe retrospective at Tate Britain (November 2022 — March 2023), which stresses the necessity of approaching the artist’s work in the light of a broader European and global context that resonates in his production.
Exhibition | Luis Paret (1746–1799)
Luis Paret y Alcázar, The Shop of Geniani, 1772, oil on panel, 49 × 57 cm
(Madrid: Museo Lázaro Galdiano)
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Now on view at the Prado:
Paret
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 24 May — 21 August 2022
Curated by Gudrun Maurer
In the words of Javier Solana, President of the Royal Board of Trustees of the Museo Nacional del Prado: “Luis Paret is possibly the 18th-century Spanish artist who most deserved a major exhibition of the type now opening at the Museo del Prado.” With the invaluable collaboration of private and public lenders and the support of Fundación AXA, the Prado has thus reunited most of the artist’s known paintings. They include Masquerade, The Puerta del Sol, Paret’s Daughters, View of Bermeo, and The Annunciation to Zacharias, in addition to a remarkable group of drawings such as Hannibal at the Temple of Hercules in Cadiz and The Oath of Allegiance to don Fernando as Prince of Asturias, which together allow for an appreciation of the richness and variety of a painter alert to the changes of his day and one characterised by a remarkable originality and versatility.
In this first monographic exhibition on Paret organised by the Prado, Gudrun Maurer, the museum’s Curator of 18th-century Painting and Goya and the curator of the exhibition, has surveyed Paret’s professional career with the aim of singling out the excellent technical level and striking originality with which the artist depicted his chosen subjects while also presenting the new information on Paret’s working method obtained from the scientific analysis of his paintings undertaken by the Museum’s technical department.
The exhibition offers a complete survey of Paret’s career and is divided into nine sections. The first provides a unique opportunity to compare a key drawing from his early period with the first documented painting by his celebrated fellow-Spaniard Francisco de Goya, who, like Paret, was born in 1746. The two artists started their careers (Paret in fact five years before Goya) after being singled out in competitions organised by different Fine Arts Academies: Paret by the Academia de San Francisco in Madrid and Goya by the one in Parma, Italy. Those two works which brought the artists recognition—both, in fact on the subject of Hannibal—are now on display in the exhibition, one loaned from the Academia de San Fernando and the other in the Prado’s collection. In general, the two paintings reveal the importance of both academic competitions and the period of training in Italy for artists’ careers. The comparison with Goya also emphasises Paret’s notable technical and compositional skills at this early date while the marked artistic personalities of the two artists are evident in the different styles of their works.
Luis Paret y Alcázar, Masquerade, detail, ca. 1767, oil on panel
(Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado)
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The next section starts with a small group of early drawings by Paret from the collection of the Prado and the Biblioteca Nacional de España. They reveal the artist’s originality in his inventive and versatile approach to the subjects and the modernity of his choices. Subjects include The Necromancer, The Glory of Anacreon, and Roman Military Trophy. The principal work in this room is one of Paret’s earliest known paintings, Masquerade of 1767 from the Prado’s collection. It once again reveals Paret’s modernity in the context of his time, as an artist who from the outset was able to respond to the new demand for images of society in the public and private space and which reflected the varied fashions and customs of the different social classes. Displayed here are other small-format cabinet paintings on innovative subjects in the context of Spanish art of this period, such as Scene of a Boudoir (previously Play Rehearsal) from the Prado; The Letter from the Musée Goya in Castres; Geniani’s Shop from the Museo Lázaro Galdiano; and The Puerta del Sol from the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Cuba. In addition, paintings on rarely depicted episodes from life at the Spanish court, such as The Royal Couples and Charles III dining before the Court (both in the Prado), offer a panoramic view of different facets of contemporary society and also demonstrate the success Paret enjoyed between 1766 and 1775, the year he was exiled.
Luis Paret y Alcázar, Zebra, 1774, Black pencil, gouache brush and opaque pigment gouache (Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado).
The third section presents one of the artist’s exquisite coloured drawings of birds alongside Zebra from the Prado’s collection and a private collection respectively, works executed by Paret for the Natural History Cabinet of the Infante don Luis, Charles III’s brother, who appointed Paret his painter in 1774. They reveal the artist’s ability to combine an almost scientific depiction of his subjects with landscape settings of great subtlety and refined beauty.
The fourth section focuses on Paret’s few known portraits, which are notable for their exquisite technique and personal, intimate nature. They also mark the transition between the artist’s Madrid phase and his years in Bilbao. The four known Self-portraits of around 1770–75 to 1780 reflect the painter’s powerful, self-confident personality but also his different states of mind. This is evident during his exile in Puerto Rico when he portrayed himself not just as a jíbaro or local peasant in 1776 but also in the melancholy Self-portrait in the Studio of 1777 which Paret sent to a trusted individual in Madrid, as the inscription detected by the recent X-radiograph reveals. Shown alongside these works are other portraits such as those of the artist’s wife and their daughters, compositions enhanced by complex floral ornamentation; a portrait of a typical Enlightenment gentleman (on loan from the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando); and that of Antonio Sancha from the Biblioteca Nacional de España. Finally, there are compositions on the theme of motherhood, such as the small painting of The Virgin and Child from the Abelló Collection, The Orange Seller from Patrimonio Nacional, and the two floral bouquets from the Prado. Flowers were an enormously important motif in Paret’s work and one that reveals the virtuosity characteristic of all the paintings in this section.
The fifth section opens with a painting of The Circumspection of Diogenes which Paret sent from Bilbao in 1780 to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and which led to his nomination as an Academician of Merit. His subsequent enhanced reputation is evident in the large-format religious compositions that he executed in Bilbao, such as The Invention of the True Cross painted for the Gortázar family and their family chapel (private collection) and The Martyrdom of Saint Lucy for the parish church of Santa María in Larrabezúa (now in the Museo Diocesano de Arte Sacro in Bilbao). These exceptionally exquisite paintings of great technical and compositional delicacy demonstrate Paret’s importance in the context of 18th-century Spanish art. Their presence in the exhibition makes it possible to appreciate his mastery in devising subjects that were unusual in the context of the day and his ability to create scenes of a monumental nature with extremely dynamic figures. Furthermore, they reveal the artist’s extensive knowledge of classical sculpture and the work of the Old Masters such as Rubens, as well as his exceptional manner of combining grandiose, classical beauty with lighter Rococo resources such as a markedly pastel palette. The juxtaposition of these works with small-format paintings and drawings on religious subjects—including The Apparition of Saint Michael to Charles VIII of France and Saint Francis of Paula (private collection), a unique subject in Spanish art—and with a number of his designs for religious monuments in Bilbao further reveals Paret’s multifaceted nature in this pictorial genre.
Luis Paret y Alcázar, Self-portrait Attired in Blue, ca. 1780, oil on paper affixed to canvas (Colección Abelló).
The next section is devoted to paintings and drawings on bucolic subjects and classical, erotic ones produced for private clients. These reveal Paret’s enormously original powers of invention, including The Triumph of Love over War from the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao and the drawings of The Eclogue from the Prado, which are shown together with paintings on similar subjects from real life, albeit with a certain critical element, such as Gallant Scene of High Society and Gallant Scene of Low Life (private collection), Saying the Rosary from Patrimonio Nacional and the drawing of The Procuress and the Lovers from the Prado. The small painting of Young Woman asleep in a Hammock from the Prado establishes a connection between the two worlds through references to classical sculpture and modern society, the latter including the exoticism of the Caribbean.
The seventh section features eight of the nine currently known views of the Basque Country painted by Paret, executed for the Prince of Asturias, for private clients and as commissions for Charles III. These are now divided between museums in Spain, France, and the UK. The group constitutes a striking survey of landscape and also of the variety of society of the day, its different working and leisure activities and the region’s ports and coastline. These notably complex paintings in both technical and compositional terms are among Paret’s most important creations from his time in Bilbao. Also on display are the two fine drawings of ports in the Basque country, loaned from private collections, which reveal the artist’s masterly ability in the use of different media, such as black chalk, pen, and brush, which he employed to capture the characteristics of these landscapes and the brilliant effects of light observed in nature.
The eighth section focuses on two oils on canvas executed by the artist for the chapel of San Juan del Ramo in the church of Santa María de la Asunción in Viana: The Annunciation to Zacharias and The Visitation of the Virgin to Saint Elizabeth. In these striking paintings, which are among the last produced by Paret during his Bilbao period, the remarkable quality and technical and compositional complexity achieved by the artist reaches its peak. Furthermore, they reveal the original way in which he made use of models to add liveliness and expressivity to his figures and scenes, as well as the excellent technique that he employed to describe all the details in his works with enormous naturalness and variety. Also evident is the way in which Paret applied a modern, art historian’s eye to make use of the Baroque and Neo-classical styles in order to emphasise the era of the scenes depicted. Finally, this section includes a group of excellent preparatory drawings for one of these paintings (private collection) and for the mural decoration of this chapel (Museo del Prado).
Luis Paret y Alcázar, The Oath of Allegiance to Ferdinand VII as Prince of Asturias, 1791, oil on canvas, 237 × 159 cm (Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado).
Following his return to Madrid in 1789, in 1792 Paret was appointed Vice-secretary of the Academia de San Fernando and Secretary to its Architectural Committee, receiving few commissions for paintings but producing numerous drawings of beautiful scenes and figures for book illustrations and other projects. The paintings from the end of the artist’s career are displayed in this ninth section of the exhibition. They include three allegories of one of the provinces of Spain, works of enormous classical beauty which are the only ones now known from a series of ten paintings executed in 1789 for the headquarters of the Five Major Guilds in Madrid (private collection and Museo del Prado). The one in the Prado was only rediscovered five years ago and was acquired for the Museum. Finally, visitors will be able to appreciate an example of Paret’s creative process through the painting of The Oath of Allegiance to don Fernando as Prince of Asturias, its remarkable preparatory drawing in the Louvre, two preliminary drawings of details for that work (Biblioteca Nacional), and an infrared reflectograph that reveals an excellent underdrawing. Other equally important examples are shown in a video.
The exhibition closes with an unfinished painting of The Botanical Garden from the Paseo del Prado. It depicts the entrance to the garden, located close to the Museo del Prado.
This extremely comprehensive survey of Paret’s career furthers an analysis of his approach and techniques while promoting his recognition as the most important Spanish artist of the 18th century alongside Goya.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue by the curator Gudrun Maruer with texts written by her, by other specialists, and by the technical staff of the Museo del Prado and the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao.
Gudrun Maurer, ed., Paret (Madrid: Prado, 2022), 288 pages, €28.
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