Enfilade

Opening at Sèvres in September:

La Manufacture des Lumières: La Sculpture à Sèvres de Louis XV à la Révolution
Cité de la Céramique, Sèvres, 16 September 2015 — 18 January 2016

Curated by Guilhem Scherf

Jean-François Duret, La Mandoline ou La conversation espagnole, 1772 (Collection Sèvres—Cité de la céramique, SCC.2012.2.1)

Raconter l’histoire de la sculpture à Sèvres, de la création de la Manufacture par la volonté de Louis XV et de Madame de Pompadour jusqu’à la période révolutionnaire, permet de dévoiler tour à tour l’excellence du goût des élites de l’Ancien Régime pour la perfection des objets d’art et l’explosion d’une thématique nourrie par le siècle des Lumières.

La sculpture à Sèvres relève d’un processus minutieux partant d’un modèle en terre pour aboutir au biscuit de porcelaine. La surface de porcelaine, non émaillée mais polie, permet ainsi de rivaliser le marbre. Le biscuit de porcelaine, inventé par la Manufacture vers 1752, connait immédiatement un immense succès et a concurrencé la production venant de Chine puis celle de sa grand rivale saxonne, la Manufacture de Meissen.

Les artistes de la Manufacture ont su créer et diffuser des sujets remplis de charme, de délicatesse et de vie sur les thèmes de l’enfance, de la fable et de l’allégorie, de la littérature et de la vie quotidienne tout en innovant dans le domaine du portrait et de l’iconographie politique. Les biscuits exécutés sous la direction des sculpteurs du roi (Falconet, Pajou, Boizot), parfois inspirés par des compositions de Boucher ou de Coypel, ont délecté les amateurs du temps les plus exigeants.

L’exposition présente plus de 80 terres cuites et 120 biscuits de porcelaine, mais aussi des dessins, des estampes, ainsi que des modèles et des moules en plâtre originaux. Cette richesse des collections patrimoniales complétée par des prêts extérieurs, permet de montrer au mieux cette apothéose du goût et de l’excellence artistique que fut la création au XVIIIe siècle des célèbres biscuits de Sèvres.

Cet événement a été rendu possible grâce à la restauration financée par la Fondation BNP Paribas, des modèles originaux en terre cuite du XVIIIe siècle, étape initiale à la production des sculptures en porcelaine.

Après une introduction historique et technique, le parcours de l’exposition se décompose en dix sections. Elles abordent les thèmes du goût pour l’enfance, les animaux, la fable et l’allégorie, le surtout de table, la vie contemporaine, les sujets littéraires, les œuvres religieuses, les portraits, les statuettes des grands hommes et, enfin, la décennie révolutionnaire.

Aujourd’hui, la fabrication de biscuits se poursuit dans les ateliers de la Manufacture de Sèvres, pour certains issus du répertoire de Sèvres, pour d’autres fruits de l’imagination des artistes contemporains invités.

Le commissariat général de l’exposition est assuré par Guilhem Scherf, conservateur en chef au département des sculptures du musée du Louvre, spécialiste de la sculpture du XVIIIe siècle et auteur de nombreux ouvrages. La scénographie est confiée à Cécile Degos.

Le catalogue est édité sous la direction de Tamara Préaud par les éditions Faton. Une première partie traite de la Manufacture de Sèvres, des techniques et de la restauration des terres cuites et du dialogue des arts (l’estampe, la sculpture, le costume). La deuxième est le catalogue des œuvres exposées, selon dix sections. Quant à la dernière partie, elle présente le catalogue sommaire illustré de l’ensemble des sculptures du XVIIIe siècle conservées à Sèvres – Cité de la céramique.

La Cité de la céramique – Sèvres & Limoges et la Société Pyramis Design ont signé un accord de mécénat de compétence en matière de digitalisation 3D. Dans le cadre de l’exposition, grâce à cette technologie, une lecture inédite du surtout de table La Conversation espagnole sera proposée aux visiteurs, en regard de l’œuvre originale.

Tamara Préaud, ed., La Sculpture à Sèvres au XVIIIe Siècle (Dijon: Éditions Faton, 2015), 432 pages, 45€.

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Now on view at Mount Vernon:

Gardens & Groves: George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon, Virginia, 22 February 2014 — 30 May 2016

Countless photographs testify to the beauty of Mount Vernon’s landscape. Two hundred years after its creation, it continues to delight. Although the beautiful gardens, sweeping lawns, and inviting paths seem perfectly natural, these features were all carefully planned by George Washington. When he returned to Mount Vernon after the American Revolution, General Washington found the estate in need of extensive repairs and improvements. The buildings and grounds surrounding the Mansion lacked an overall design, having evolved over time with an eye more for practical function than beauty.

Between 1785 and 1787, George Washington completely transformed Mount Vernon’s grounds into a landscape very similar to the one that survives today. During this break from public affairs, few days passed without the General working on the landscape. To update Mount Vernon, Washington had his free and enslaved workers install such picturesque features as sweeping lawns, groves of trees, curving paths, vistas, and hidden walls (called “ha-has”). From laying out paths to tagging trees for transplanting, the General was involved in every aspect of designing and installing his gardens and grounds.

From the exhibition press release (27 January 2014) . . .

Mount Vernon invites visitors to explore George Washington’s design for the grounds of his estate, through the exhibition, Gardens & Groves: George Washington’s Landscape at Mount Vernon, on view until May 2016. Gardens & Groves is the first museum exhibition to focus specifically on Washington’s landmark achievements as a landscape designer combining rarely-seen original documents, artworks, and books with period garden tools, gorgeous landscape photography, and a stunning scale model of the Mount Vernon estate. In Gardens & Groves, visitors can view the first president’s spyglass, watering can, and garden roller, in addition to reading Washington’s notes and instructions for Mount Vernon’s landscape in his own hand.

Kitchen garden at Mount Vernon

“Each year, more than a million visitors enjoy the remarkable beauty of Mount Vernon’s gardens and grounds,” said Mount Vernon curator, Susan Schoelwer. “But few realize that the views that we enjoy today were all carefully planned by George Washington himself. Gardens & Groves aims to change that, as visitors have the opportunity to ‘unpack’ the landscape surrounding the Mansion, following in Washington’s footsteps to examine each of the elements in the design.”

The exhibit presents five 18th-century views of Mount Vernon—oil paintings of both river and land fronts of the Mansion, by Edward Savage; two detailed drawings of the layout of the grounds, by English admirer Samuel Vaughan; and a recently-acquired image of the Washingtons relaxing on the piazza in 1796, by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the US Capitol Building (due to their fragility, the Vaughan and Latrobe drawings were on view in Gardens & Groves through August 17, 2014).

“Bringing these five important works together presents a rare opportunity to see Mount Vernon through the eyes of artists who visited during George Washington’s lifetime,” said Mount Vernon exhibition curator Adam T. Erby. “These artworks record details of the landscape that we would not otherwise know—information that continues to inform our ongoing research and restoration efforts.”

Watering Pot, made in France or England, 18th century, copper, iron.

At the center of Gardens & Groves is a fascinating 8’x 9’x 11’ model of Mount Vernon’s landscape as Washington last saw it in 1799. Developed by Mount Vernon historians, archaeologists, and curators, this state-of-the-art model has returned home from a national tour in Mount Vernon’s traveling exhibition, Discover the Real George Washington: New Views from Mount Vernon. In addition to delighting viewers with its intricate craftsmanship, the model incorporates countless scenes from daily life—laundry drying in the laundry yard, a sailing ship on the Potomac, just-planted trees along the bowling green.

Such details introduce a broad view of the landscape, revealing two separate, but intersecting landscapes that existed at Mount Vernon: the pleasure grounds of the planter and the working spaces of the enslaved community. Gardens & Groves also tells the stories of the men and women, both hired and enslaved, who created and maintained George Washington’s gardens, and visitors will see some actual artifacts that they used, including a copper watering can and archeologically-recovered flower pot fragments.

An interactive touchtable will demonstrate the evolution of the landscape at Mount Vernon over time. Visitors will be able to scroll through three topographical maps created by Mount Vernon’s preservation staff, reconstructing the appearance of the landscape when Washington inherited the property, during an early renovation, and as it finally appeared at the end of Washington’s life. On each of the maps, visitors will be able to click on individual elements to bring up more information about a particular feature.

A list of ten facts about the landscape at Mount Vernon is available here»

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Published this spring in connection with the exhibition:

Susan P. Schoelwer, ed., The General in the Garden: George Washington’s Landscape at Mount Vernon (Mount Vernon: Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, 2015), 208 pages, ISBN: 978-0931917486, $35.

The General in the Garden provides an engaging, informative, and richly illustrated introduction to George Washington’s landscape at Mount Vernon—arguably the best-documented, best-preserved complex of gardens and grounds to survive from eighteenth-century America.

The book’s three essays, by Adam T. Erby, J. Dean Norton, and Esther C. White, chronicle Washington’s transformation of the estate in the years between the American Revolution and the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the stewardship of its gardens by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association since 1860, and the archaeology that led to the recent restoration of Washington’s showplace upper garden. Mount Vernon assistant curator Adam Erby examines Washington’s critical role in developing Mount Vernon’s landscape, arguing that the general drew on British design sources and gardening manuals but adapted them to his own circumstances, creating a truly American garden. J. Dean Norton, Mount Vernon’s director of horticulture, traces the evolution of the estate’s landscape and recreated gardens across the two centuries since Washington’s death. And Esther White, Mount Vernon’s director of historic preservation and research, shows how groundbreaking archaeological methods facilitated the discovery of Washington-era garden beds and borders of flowers, shrubs, and vegetables in his upper garden—a remarkable find that yielded one of the most significant eighteenth-century garden recreations of our time. Also included is a lavishly illustrated guide to Mount Vernon’s landscape features, introducing Washington’s beloved estate to a modern audience.

An interview with the authors of the book is available here»

Magasin des Modes Nouvelles Françaises et Anglaises (1 Juin 1789), Pl. 1, 2 et 3
(Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum)

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Press release (20 May 2015) from the Rijksmuseum:

New for Now: The Origin of Fashion Magazines
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 12 June — 27 September 2015

From 12 June, the Rijksmuseum presents a major retrospective of its rich collection of costume and fashion prints for the first time. The change in women’s and men’s fashion from the year 1600 up to and including the first half of the 20th century, and the development of the fashion magazine into the fashion glossies we know today, can be seen in more than 300 prints. The exhibition was designed by designer and co-curator Christian Borstlap, in collaboration with fashion illustrators Piet Paris and Quentin Jones.

The publishers of fashion prints did everything to make their product as attractive as possible. They attracted skilled illustrators for this purpose, some of whom went on to become specialists in this area: true ‘fashion illustrators’. The trick was to portray the models on the prints as skillfully as possible and with a great sense of elegance. The printmaker was responsible for transferring the design sketches onto an engraving that could reproduce the design. A so-called ‘colourist’ subsequently added colours to each individual image by hand.

New for Now shows prints by fashion designer Paul Poiret, among others. His ‘Fashion is Art’ statement marked the beginning of a new era. He presented his designs in two artfully designed series of works in bright opaque colours, which served as an inspiration for a number of artistically high-quality fashion magazines.

Many of the prints shown are from two important collections acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 2009: The Raymond Gaudriault Collection and The MA Ghering-van Ierlant Collection. All 8,000 prints from these collections can be seen online from June 2015. This is the result of a multi-year project in which the prints were catalogued, described and digitalised.

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The catalogue is available from the Rijksmuseum:

Georgette Koning and Els Verhaak, New For Now: The Origin of Fashion Magazines (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 2015), 204 pages, 20€.

Fashion changes constantly, but the desire to be ‘in fashion’ is eternal. For centuries people have eagerly followed the latest fashion trends. But how did one keep up in an age without internet, fashion blogs, Pinterest and glossy fashion magazines? New for Now explores how trends were spread before Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar appeared on the shelves. From the costume book in the 16th century by way of individual, hand-coloured fashion plates to the first fashion magazine to roll off the presses in 1785: Cabinet des Modes. There was no stopping after this, and one fashion magazine appeared hard on the heels of the other, reaching an absolute high point in the Gazette du Bon Ton in 1912, full of magnificent art deco illustrations.