Online Study Day | Joshua Johnson: Conversations and New Discoveries
This online study day is held in conjunction with the the exhibition, which closes January 23:
Joshua Johnson: Conversations and New Discoveries
Online, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland, 14 January 2022.
Joshua Johnson, Portrait of Benjamin Franklin Yoe and Son Benjamin Franklin You Jr., 1809, oil on canvas mounted onto hardboard, 37 × 26 inches (Hagerstown: WCMFA, Gift of F. Sydney Cushwa).
The exhibition Joshua Johnson: Portraitist of Early American Baltimore presents a rare opportunity for Johnson scholars and art historians to study a significant group of Johnson’s works in one place.
Join WCMFA staff and colleagues Friday, January 14, for a day of intriguing, in-depth conversations about portraitist Joshua Johnson (ca. 1763–1824/25), one of the first professional African American artists. Joshua Johnson: Conversations and New Discoveries will be held from 9am to 4pm (EST) via Zoom. Organized in conjunction with the final days of the exhibition, this study day will address a variety of topics, including Johnson’s life and historical context in antebellum Maryland, his patrons, artistic style and technique, and connoisseurship. A broad range of speakers and special guests will offer unique perspectives and expertise about this fascinating artist in an informal, conversational format.
The first monographic presentation of the artist’s work since 1988, Joshua Johnson: Portraitist of Early American Baltimore contextualizes Johnson both historically and culturally and explores the key forms of natural symbolism represented in his paintings. Johnson was a freed slave who achieved a remarkable degree of success as a portraitist in his lifetime by painting affluent patrons in his native Baltimore such as politicians, doctors, clergymen, merchants, and sea captains. The exhibition is accompanied by a scholarly catalogue available for purchase from the museum.
To register for the study day, please email Donna Rastelli at drastelli@wcmfa.org or call 301.739.5727.
S C H E D U L E
9.00 Introduction by Sarah Hall (Director Washington County Museum of Fine Arts) with Opening Remarks by Kellie Mele (Director of Education for WCMFA)
9.30 Who Was Joshua Johnson? — David Terry (Associate Professor of History and Geography at Morgan State University) and Daniel Fulco (Agnita M. Stine Schreiber Curator at Washington County Museum of Fine Arts)
10.30 The Artist’s Patrons — Mark Letzer (President & CEO, Maryland Center for History and Culture), Stiles Colwill (Stiles T. Colwill Interiors), and Linda Crocker Simmons (Curator Emerita, Corcoran Gallery of Art)
11.15 Roundtable Discussion — This hour-long conversation features our panelists discussing Johnson’s influence and style, addressing his predecessors and contemporaries, some of whom are on view in a companion exhibition at the WCMFA.
12.15 Lunch Break
1.15 Johnson’s Cultural and Historical Context and Relationship to Baltimore Society — David Terry, Daniel Fulco, and Philippe Halbert (PhD candidate, Department of the History of Art, Yale University)
2.15 Connoisseurship: Technique, Materials, and Conservation. See the Yoe family portraits up close with Heather Smith (Conservator, Maryland Art Conservation), Sian Jones (Art Conservator), and Stiles Colwill.
3.15 Future Directions — In this concluding segment, panelists will discuss Johnson in public and private collections. Other topics include the art market as well as new research and directions in the field.
P A N E L I S T S
David Terry is Associate Professor of History and Geography at Morgan State University in Baltimore. He previously was the executive director of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum and was a research specialist in African American history for the Maryland State Archives. He holds a doctorate in history from Howard University, a Master of Arts in African American history from Morgan State University and a Bachelor of Arts in American studies from the University of Maryland-College Park.
Mark Letzer is the President and CEO of Maryland Center for History and Culture in Baltimore. Letzer is an expert in Maryland silver and decorative and fine arts. He became connected with MCHC when he was researching for his book, The Diary of William Faris: The Daily Life of an Annapolis Silversmith, which was published in 2003. In addition, he has written numerous articles on Maryland silver and decorative arts and lectured on the topic. Previously, he served as the Chief Development Officer for the Maryland Historical Society.
Anne Verplanck is Associated Professor of American Studies for Penn State-Harrisburg. She teaches courses in American art and visual culture, social and cultural history, American decorative arts and material culture, museum studies and heritage studies. Prior to becoming part of the Penn State-Harrisburg faculty she worked in the museum field for 30 years. She is the former Curator of Prints and Paintings at Winterthur Museum where she also served as Interim Director of Museum Collections and Interim Director of the Research Fellowship Program.
Linda Crocker Simmons has spent over 40 years in the museum field. Since 1998 she has held the title of Curator Emerita for the Corcoran Gallery of the Art. She has also worked with private and institutional clients including the Alice Ferguson Foundation at Hard Bargain Farm in Accokeek, Maryland. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in studio art and art history from American University; a Master of Arts in art history from the University of Delaware; a certificate in arts administration from Harvard University and remains a.b.d. for her PhD from the University of Virginia. She is an expert in the field of American painting from the end of the 18th century into the early 20th century.
Stiles Colwill has been the President and Chief Designer of Stiles Tuttle Colwill Interiors in Lutherville, Maryland, for nearly 30 years. Colwill also operates Halcyon House Antiques with New York City antiques firm John Rosselli & Associates. He previously served as a Board of Trustees for Baltimore Museum of Art where he served as chairman for five years. He also spent 16 years with the Maryland Historical Society.
Heather Smith is the Owner and Chief Conservator of Maryland Art Conservation LLC (formerly Art Conservation Services) in Baltimore. In 2005, she began her career with ACS after receiving her Master of Art Conservation at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, the previous year. She is a professional associate of the American Institute for Conservation.
Sian Jones is the previous owner of Art Conservation Services before retiring in 2018 after more than 30 years. She studied art conservation at the State University of New York at Oneonta, and studied art at Goucher College in Baltimore.
Phillipe Halbert is a doctoral candidate with the Department of History of Art at Yale University. He studies the intersection of art and identity in Colonial America and early modern Europe. For more than a decade he has been an independent museum consultant and has served as a guest curator at a variety of historic sites and museums. He has a Master of Philosophy in art history, criticism and conservation from Yale University and a Master of Arts in American material culture from the University of Delaware. He was a dual major in French and Francophone studies and history at The College of William and Mary where he received his undergraduate degree.
This exhibition is generously supported by grants from the following: National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Foundation, an anonymous donor, Mr. & Mrs. James N. Holzapfel, Dr. & Mrs. George E. Manger, the Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area (part of the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority), Maryland Marketing Partnership, Community Foundation of Washington County MD, Inc., Dr. & Mrs. Robert S. Strauch, and Mr. & Mrs. Thomas B. Riford.
Exhibition | Turner in January
From the National Galleries of Scotland:
Turner in January
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, 2–31 January 2022
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Durham, 1801, watercolour over pencil on paper, 41 × 25 cm (Edinburgh: Scottish National Gallery).
The National Galleries of Scotland has presented an exhibition of the work of J.M.W. Turner every January for more than a century. This year’s exhibition will showcase all of the 38 watercolours by Turner that were given to the National Galleries of Scotland in 1900 by the art collector Henry Vaughan.
The exquisite works in the Vaughan bequest range from early wash drawings of the 1790s, to the colourful, atmospheric, and wonderfully expressive late works executed on visits to the Swiss Alps during the 1830s and 1840s.
Highlights of the bequest include a series of spectacular views of Venice such as The Piazzetta, Venice and Venice from the Laguna, which capture the drama and explosive skies of late summer Adriatic storms and demonstrate the artist’s consummate mastery of atmospheric lighting effects.
A booking for the Scottish National Gallery must be made in order to enjoy this exhibition.
More information on Henry Vaughan and the bequest is available here»
Exhibition | Alison Watt: A Portrait without Likeness
Alison Watt, Centifolia, detail, 2019, oil on canvas, 76 × 62cm
(Collection of the Artist, © Alison Watt)
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Closing this month at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery:
Alison Watt: A Portrait without Likeness
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, 17 July 2021 — 9 January 2022
Curated by Julie Lawson
Alison Watt (born 1965) is widely regarded as one of the leading painters working in the UK today. This significant body of new work consists of sixteen paintings made in response to the practice of the celebrated eighteenth-century portrait artist Allan Ramsay (1713–1784) and are on show for the first time.
Left: Allan Ramsay, Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Margaret Lindsay of Evelick, 1758–60, 74 × 62 cm (National Galleries of Scotland). Right: Allan Ramsay, Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Anne Bayne, ca.1739, 68 × 55 cm (National Galleries of Scotland).
Alison Watt | A Portrait Without Likeness explores the artist’s continuing fascination with Ramsay’s portraits. Watt, most known for her beautiful and intricate large-scale paintings of drapery and folds, has long been an admirer of Ramsay’s portraits of women, in particular the intensely personal images of his first and second wives, Anne Bayne (died 1743) and Margaret Lindsay of Evelick (1726–1782). Both portraits reside in the Gallery’s collection and will be shown alongside Watt’s new work.
The exhibition is the fruit of a long period of study of Ramsay paintings, in addition to the drawings and sketchbooks from his extensive archive held by National Galleries of Scotland. Watt has said, “Looking into an artist’s archive is to view the struggle that takes place to make a work of art. A painting is a visual record of the inside of the artist’s mind. A painting is something that takes place over time; it is not static. To look at a work of art is to engage with an idea, and that is not a one sided activity. It’s more of a conversation.”
Alison Watt, Fortrose, 2019, oil on canvas, 61 × 46 cm (Collection of the Artist © Alison Watt).
A Portrait Without Likeness is accompanied by a publication featuring conversations between the artist and Julie Lawson, the Chief Curator of European, Scottish Art, and Portraiture at National Galleries of Scotland, who has curated the exhibition, as well as an essay from art historian Dr Tom Normand and a new work of short fiction by Booker Prize-nominated novelist Andrew O’Hagan.
Normand writes: “The fascination with flowers is uncommon within Watt’s oeuvre, but she has recently been engaged with the works of Allan Ramsay held in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Most particularly she has reflected upon his painting The Artist’s Wife, Margaret Lindsay of Evelick, painted between 1758 and 1760. This is an exquisite and mysterious portrait. At one level a tender study of his second wife, some thirteen years younger than the artist, at another a poignant essay on the enigma of human passion.”
Alison Watt, Julie Lawson, Tom Normand, and Andrew O’Hagan, Alison Watt: A Portrait without Likeness (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2021), 96 pages, ISBN: 978-1911054450, £20.
Exhibition | Traveling in Style: A Coach Restored
Beekman Family Coach, ca. 1770, made in England; wood (ash and spruce by analysis), iron, and leather. 8 feet × 13 feet × 52 inches
(New-Historical Society, Gift of Gerard Beekman 1911.25)
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Now on view at the New-York Historical Society:
Traveling in Style: A Coach Restored
New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, 2 July 2021 — 20 February 2022
The Beekman Family Coach returns to the New-York Historical Society on 2 July 2021. Over the past year, this rare coach—one of only three horse-drawn vehicles used in 18th-century America to survive in original condition—was painstakingly restored to its 1790s appearance through a generous grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
New York merchant James Beekman purchased the coach in 1771 for £138. An expensive luxury that became the crown jewel in his fleet of carriages, the coach was repainted at least five times between 1771 and the 1790s.
Conservator Brian Howard and his team meticulously restored the coach, beginning with the removal of a thick layer of old varnish applied during the mid 20th century. Underneath lay five layers of historic paint, including a light celadon green color from the 1790s that is again visible today. Among other surprises, conservators discovered that the interior of the cab retained most of its original fixtures and materials—wood benches and storage lockers, wool wall coverings, carpeting, and coach lace, enameled Russian leather trim, and flax insulation.
Conservation and display of the Beekman Family Coach is being supported in part by a Federal Save America’s Treasures grant administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Exhibition | France and Russia: Ten Centuries Together
Pierre-François Drais, snuffbox, made in Paris between 1776 and 1789, with portraits added sometime between 1814 and 1830; gold, enamel, and lapis lazuli, mounted with miniatures in watercolour on ivory (London: V&A, 905-1882). The portraits depict Marie Antoinette and her children Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte (1778–1851), the Dauphin Louis (1781–1789), and Louis-Charles the future Louis XVII (1785–1795), along with a sculptured bust of Louis XVI.
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From the press release for the exhibition:
France and Russia: Ten Centuries Together / Франция и Россия: 10 веков вместе
Exhibition Halls of the Patriarch’s Palace and the Assumption Belfry, Moscow, 7 September 2021 — 9 January 2022
The Moscow Kremlin Museums present the exhibition France and Russia: Ten Centuries Together as part of the cross-cultural year between Russia and France, highlighting their interregional cooperation. The project, dedicated to the centuries-long history of cultural and diplomatic relations between the two countries, showcases over two hundred artifacts: memorial objects, archival documents, and artworks from national Russian and European museums. The exhibition explores the history of Russian-French relations through intertwining fates of outstanding personalities including prominent statesmen, scientists, writers, artists, and craftsmen. The chosen approach aims at reconstructing the character of the relationship between the two countries as an immediate, multifaceted, somewhat contradictory, but an ultimately fruitful process for both parties.
The show opens with a unique charter, dating back to 1063 and recalling the important political event of the 11th century: the dynastic marriage of Princess Anna Yaroslavna, daughter of the Great Prince Yaroslav the Wise, to King Henry I of France. The charter, provided by the National Library of France, is believed to be the only surviving document that bears the handwritten sign of the cross and monogram of King Philip I with his mother’s authentic signature ‘ANA RHNA’ (Queen Anne) placed underneath in Cyrillic letters. Visitors are also afforded the rare opportunity of seeing the Reims Gospel—a unique illuminated manuscript of great cultural and historical significance. Generously offered for the exhibition by the Municipal Library of Reims, it will take centre stage among the key objects on display.
Among the later period pieces featured in the exhibition is a drawing by artist J. Desmarets capturing Peter I and Louis XV in Paris on 11 May 1717 and presented to the Soviet leaders as a diplomatic gift in 1944 to commemorate the visit of Charles de Gaulle, the Chairman of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, to Moscow. The development of the 18th-century political dialogue between Russia and France is chronicled through paintings and sculptures, weapons, textiles, and jewellery commissioned for the Russian Imperial Court from famous French masters or created by prominent French artists invited to Russia. The passion for French art is evidenced by luxurious tapestries, the ceremonial dress of the young Emperor Peter II, the exquisite lacework adorning the gowns of Russian monarchesses, the pieces from the silver Paris set owned by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, and magnificent weapons, including a pair of pistols belonging to Emperor Peter II and made by the Arquebusier du Roi (royal gunmaker) Jean-Baptiste Laroche.
J. Desmarets, Peter I and Louis XV in Paris on 11 May 1717, 1717, ink, watercolour, red chalk, and gouache on tinted paper (Moscow Kremlin Museums)
Portraits from the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts recreate a gallery of outstanding political and cultural figures from the reigns of Empresses Elizaveta Petrovna and Catherine the Great. The section on Catherine the Great’s reign showcases pieces from the legendary Orlov porcelain service executed by the Parisian silversmiths Jacques and Jacques-Nicolas Roettiers along with the precious desk clock with inkstand—the work of a Parisian master—that belonged to the Empress. Unique pieces from the collection of the Pavlovsk Museum and Heritage Site will hark back to Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna’s tours of Europe. The years preceding the Great French Revolution are epitomised by the rare memorial objects and are captured in the portraits painted by Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, Queen Marie-Antoinette’s favourite artist.
A special section of the exhibition is devoted to relations between Russia and France during the reign of Emperor Alexander I. Here, visitors will see a magnificent cased set of weapons made by the famous French gunsmith and bladesmith Nicolas-Noël Boutet—the gift presented to the Russian governor-general of Paris, Baron Fabian Gottlieb Fürst von der Osten-Sacken from the grateful Parisians. Another highlight is the Olympic porcelain service produced at the Sèvres porcelain factory and presented in 1807 by Napoleon to the Emperor Alexander I in commemoration of the Treaty of Tilsit. The star of the Order of the Holy Spirit, awarded to Alexander I by King Louis XVIII after the former’s victory over Napoleon and the restoration of the monarchy in France, is another showpiece not to miss! The exhibition introduces visitors to the history of ‘Russian Nice’ and feature stories of the World Exhibition that took place in Paris in 1867. It also offers insights into the process of strengthening of Franco-Russian friendship and formation of the Franco-Russian Alliance at the turn of the 19th century.
Participating Institutions
The Moscow Kremlin Museums, the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon, Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Museums of Castles Malmaison and Bois-Préau, National Library of France, the Reims Municipal Library, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, the State Hermitage, Museum and Heritage Site ‘Pavlovsk’, the Russian State Library, the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents
Svetlana Amelekhina et al. Frantsiia i Rossiia: Desiat’ vekov vmeste / Франция и Россия: 10 веков вместе (Moscow: Muzei Moskovskogo Kremlia, 2021), 383 pages, ISBN: 978-5886783872. Available here»
Exhibition | Les Adam: La Sculpture en Héritage
Now on view at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy:
Les Adam: La Sculpture en Héritage
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, 18 September 2021 — 9 January 2022
Curated by Pierre-Hippolyte Pénet and Guilhem Scherf
Originally from Nancy, the Adam family is the largest dynasty of French sculptors of the 18th century. Over three generations, its members worked in Rome, Paris, Versailles, and Berlin in the service of the Pope and European monarchs such as Louis XV, Louis XVI, Frederick II of Prussia, and Catherine II of Russia. This the first retrospective devoted to them brings together one hundred masterpieces from national and international institutions as well as from private collections, bearing witness to the Adam family’s virtuosity at the heart of Europe during the Enlightenment.
Originaire de Nancy, la famille Adam est la plus grande dynastie de sculpteurs français du XVIIIe siècle. Sur trois générations, ses membres déploient leurs talents auprès des plus grands mécènes et participent à plusieurs chantiers majeurs. Formés en Lorraine dans le contexte d’essor artistique des règnes des ducs Léopold et Stanislas, Jacob Sigisbert Adam, ses trois fils Lambert Sigisbert, Nicolas Sébastien et François Gaspard ainsi que leurs neveux Sigisbert François, Pierre Joseph et Claude Michel dit Clodion, œuvrent à Rome, Paris, Versailles ou Berlin au service du pape et des monarques européens comme Louis XV, Louis XVI, Frédéric II de Prusse ou Catherine II de Russie. Première rétrospective à leur être consacrée, l’exposition réunit cent chefs-d’œuvre issus d’institutions nationales, internationales mais aussi de collections particulières. Permettant de dévoiler plusieurs sculptures prestigieuses inédites qui témoignent de la virtuosité de la famille Adam au cœur de l’Europe des Lumières, elle est accompagnée d’un catalogue de référence sur le sujet.
Commissariat: Pierre-Hippolyte Pénet, conservateur du patrimoine chargé des collections du XVe au XVIIIe siècle, palais des ducs de Lorraine – Musée lorrain, et Guilhem Scherf, conservateur général du patrimoine, adjoint au directeur du département des Sculptures, musée du Louvre.
The full press packet is available here»
Pierre-Hippolyte Pénet and Guilhem Scherf, eds., Les Adam: La Sculpture en Héritage (Paris: Snoeck Édition, 2021), 343 pages, ISBN: 978-9461616234 35€.
British Art Studies, November 2021
The latest issue of BAS:
British Art Studies 21 (November 2021)
Redefining the British Decorative Arts, Guest Edited by Iris Moon
Michelle Erickson, Cauldron, from the series Ply-MYTH, 2019, wheel thrown with lifecast shell and industrial artifacts, made from indigenous North Carolina woodfired stoneware with copper wash, 16 × 19.5 inches (Collection of the artist). Additional information is available here»
“Decorative arts place pressure upon the hierarchies inherent in British aesthetics, and by extension British culture, from the enlightenment to the present day. The specters of history and the possibilities of the future haunt in equal measure this special issue of British Art Studies, which challenges readers to rethink the British decorative arts. Through a series of thought-provoking articles by artists, curators, scholars, and a scientist, the issue asks readers to question their assumptions about the decorative arts, and by extension, the notions of belonging, possession, and home that such arts have helped to shape in British culture. Issues of race and identity, empire and nation, and collective and subjective desires, far from being alien aspects of the decorative arts, have long gestated within the discourses of taste and aesthetics that emerged in tandem with Britain’s rise as a center of capitalism. Many of the articles have as their touchstone the eighteenth century, when London became the finance capital of the world . . . ” (from Iris Moon’s introductory article).
A R T I C L E S
• Unhomely: Redefining the British Decorative Arts, by Iris Moon
• England Am I? Elizabethan Clothing, Gender, and Crisis in Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts, by Sarah Bochicchio
• Microorganisms, Microscopes, and Victorian Design Theories, by Ariane Varela Braga
• Tarnished Silver: Interpreting the Material Culture of the Atlantic Slave Trade Negotiations of 1715, by Max Bryant
• Cherokee Unaker, British Ceramics, and Productions of Whiteness in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Worlds, by R. Ruthie Dibble and Joseph Zordan
• Defining a New Femininity? Josiah Wedgwood’s Portrait Medallions of Sarah Siddons and his Femmes Célèbres by Patricia F. Ferguson
• Classical Histories, Colonial Objects: The Specimen Table Across Time and Space, by Freya Gowrley
• Serving as Ornament: The Representation of African People in Early Modern British Interiors and Gardens, by Hannah Lee
• Ruth Ellis’s Suit, by Lynda Nead
• Colonial Trash to Island Treasure: The Chaney of St. Croix, by Jessica Priebe
• In the Flesh at the Heart of Empire: Life-Likeness in Wax Representations of the 1762 Cherokee Delegation in London, by Ianna Recco
F E A T U R E S
• The Chelsea Porcelain Case, British Galleries, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, convened by Iris Moon
• Unpacking Wedgwood: An Interview with Roberto Visani, by Caitlin Meehye Beach
• Wild Porcelain, cover collaboration with Michelle Erickson
• What’s in a Label? Revising Narratives of the Decorative Arts in Museum Displays, convened by Iris Moon
• Another Crossing: Artists Revisit the Mayflower Voyage, by Glenn Adamson
• In Sparkling Company: Presenting Eighteenth-Century Britain in Western New York State, by Christopher Maxwell
Iris Moon is an assistant curator of European ceramics and glass in the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she recently participated in the reinstallation of the British Galleries. She has taught at Pratt Institute and The Cooper Union and her research on European decorative arts and architecture has been supported by fellowships from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Clark Art Institute, and the Getty Research Institute. Her new book, Luxury after the Terror, will be published in spring 2022 by Penn State Press.
Online Roundtable | The Animation of Decorative Arts in 18th-C France
From The Met:
The Animation of Decorative Arts in Eighteenth-Century France
Online, 14 December 2021, 6.00pm (Eastern Time)
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 10 December 2021 until 6 March 2022, this live event takes place online. Watch on YouTube or Facebook (no login required).
Discover how furniture and decorative arts came to life in the literature, dance, and theater of eighteenth-century France, a theme later explored and elaborated by Disney in the classic animated film Beauty and the Beast.
• Wolf Burchard, Associate Curator, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Met
• Alicia Caticha, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University
• Sarah Lawrence, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Curator in Charge, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Met
• Meredith Martin, Associate Professor of Art History, Department of Art History, and Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
• David Pullins, Associate Curator, European Paintings, The Met
Reimagining the Ballet des Porcelaines
The Ballet des Porcelaines cast in the Venetian Room, Albertine Headquarters, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, NYC. From left to right: Daniel Applebaum (Prince); Georgina Pazcoguin (Princess); Tyler Hanes (Sorcerer). Photo by Joe Carrotta.
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As part of the media preview of the exhibition Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, guests were given a special chance to see the first performance in centuries of the Ballet des Porcelaine. A publication, noted below, is forthcoming. Additional information about the performance, including credits, is available here.
The original Ballet des Porcelaines, written by the comte de Caylus and staged around 1740 at a château outside of Paris, was based on an Orientalist fairy tale in the same literary milieu as Beauty and the Beast (1740). The story tells of an Asian sorcerer who lives on a ‘Blue Island’ and transforms anyone who dares to trespass into porcelain cups, vases, and other wares. When the sorcerer turns a captive prince into a teapot, a princess comes to rescue her lover by stealing the sorcerer’s wand and turning him into a pagod, an eighteenth-century version of a porcelain bobblehead. Displayed today in museums like The Met, pagods were collectible trinkets that inspired Oriental caricatures in the performing arts. European choreographers mimicked the features and gestures of these porcelain figures, which persist in such iconic, problematic productions as The Nutcracker’s “Chinese Tea” dance.
Scheduled Performances
6 December 2021, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
2–3 March 2022, The University of Chicago
18–19 March 2022, Princeton University
16–17 June 2022, Waddesdon Manor
19–21 June 2022, Royal Pavilion, Brighton
25–26 June 2022, Capodimonte, Naples
28–29 June 2022, Palazzo Grassi, Venice
2–3 July 2022, Sèvres Museum, Paris
Meredith Martin, with contributions by Phil Chan and Charlotte Vignon, Reimagining the Ballet des Porcelaines (Turnhout: Harvey Miller/Brepols, 2022).
In addition to the performance and the book, many readers will find this recorded conversation fascinating as well:
Phil Chan and Meredith Martin, hosted by the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, “Reimagining the Ballet des Porcelaines: A Story of Magic, Desire, and Exotic Entanglement,” YouTube, posted 9 November 2021, 63 minutes.
Phil Chan and Meredith Martin have reimagined this lost Baroque work with an all-Asian American creative team, aiming to make it meaningful and relevant for a multiracial and contemporary audience. This talk explores their process and performance plans and features performances by Martha Graham Principal Dancer Xin Ying and actor, singer, dancer, choreographer Tyler Hanes.
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Note (added 15 December 2021) — The posting has been updated to include the cast photo by Joe Carrotta.
Exhibition | Bordeaux-les-Bains: Les bienfaits de l’eau
Chapuy after Bonfin, Vue des Bains Orientaux à Bordeaux, ca. 1798, engraving
(Archives Bordeaux Métropole)
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Now on view at the Bordeax Archives, along with this online component:
Bordeaux-les-Bains: Les bienfaits de l’eau, 18e–20e siècle
Archives Bordeaux Métropole, 19 May 2021 — 25 February 2022
Tour à tour convoitée, redoutée, maltraitée, domestiquée, l’eau—un des quatre éléments naturels de la culture occidentale—redevient au XVIIIe siècle un élément fondamental de l’hygiène. Ce bien naturel précieux multiplie les usages au fil du temps : l’eau qui lave, l’eau qui soigne, l’eau qui fortifie, l’eau qui délasse. Et si l’histoire de Bordeaux est intimement liée à celle de son fleuve, c’est bien l’eau qui en constitue l’essence même.
Depuis l’Antiquité, les Bordelais se baignent dans la Garonne. Au XVIIIe siècle, les pratiques évoluent et les techniques se développent : des bains flottants sur le fleuve aux bains-douches dans les quartiers, des établissements d’hydrothérapie à la natation en piscine. C’est à la découverte de cette histoire méconnue que vous invitent les Archives Bordeaux Métropole autour d’une sélection de documents de toutes natures, témoignages d’une incroyable aventure humaine et collective. L’artiste Laurent Valera propose un contrepoint contemporain avec une nouvelle série d’œuvres en dialogue avec les documents d’archives.
Frédéric Laux and Jean-Cyril Lopez, Bordeaux-les-Bains: Les bienfaits de l’eau, XVIIIe–XXe siècle (Archives Bordeaux Métropole, 2021), 96 pages, ISBN: 978-2360622870, 12€.
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