Enfilade

From the Château de Malmaison:

Un Semblant de Bonheur: Dessins de la Donation Osiris
Musée National du Château de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, 24 October 2012 — 21 January 2013

Curated by Céline Meunier and Alain Pougetoux

Château de Malmaison (Wikimedia Commons)

This exhibition presents, for the first time together, all the [47] drawings of Daniel Iffla, called ‘Osiris’, who donated Malmaison to the French State in 1906. This unique collection contains drawings from the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, from Dutch, Flemish, Italian and French masters. Among the most famous you will find Aelbert Cuyp and Frans van Mieris, Francesco Guardi, Giambattista Tiepolo and Giulio Romano, Jacques Callot and François Boucher… But also some of Osiris’s contemporaris as the Orientalist artist Alexandre Bida or the animalier Antoine-Louis Barye. Several techniques are represented among them, as you will see with the delicate watercolors of Eugène Lami, illustrator of Alfred de
Musset’s poems.

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The more complete, French description:

En 1906 Daniel Iffla dit Osiris, après avoir offert en 1903 le château de Malmaison à l’Etat, lui fait don de sa collection personnelle d’œuvres d’art, à charge pour celui-ci de l’exposer dans un pavillon à son nom. Après la réouverture en 2011 du pavillon consacré à la présentation de cette collection (200 peintures, sculptures, meubles et objets d’art) le musée a souhaité mettre en valeur l’ensemble des dessins dont la trop grande fragilité ne permet pas une présentation permanente dans cet espace.

Ces quarante-sept dessins et aquarelles, font ainsi l’objet d’une exposition exceptionnelle qui va permettre de les présenter au public tous réunis pour la première fois. Une part importante d’entre eux appartient aux XVIIème et XVIIIème siècles. Parmi ces dessins anciens on rencontre des maîtres hollandais et flamands comme Hendrick de Clerck, Aelbert Cuyp ou Frans van Mieris, des artistes italiens comme Francesco Guardi et Giambattista Tiepolo, ou Giulio Romano, mais aussi des français tel Jacques Callot, et surtout une magnifique série de quatre dessins de
François Boucher. (more…)

From UMMA:

Benjamin West: General Wolfe and the Art of Empire
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 22 September 2012 — 13 January 2013

Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe, 1776 (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)

How is it that an American painter came to define the British Empire? Benjamin West’s iconic painting The Death of General Wolfe (1776) depicts the death of James Wolfe, the British commander at the 1759 Battle of Quebec, one of Great Britain’s most famous military victories, during what in this country is known as the French and Indian War. In conflating a momentous contemporary event with the genre of large-scale history painting, West flouted the conventions of academic painting and the work became one of the most celebrated paintings in Britain. The artist went on to produce six versions of the painting, one of which belongs to the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan. Through approximately 40 works, from Michigan, Canadian, and British collections, this ambitious and thematically focused exhibition will include the Clements canvas as well as other depictions of James Wolfe and his death on the battlefield. A fully illustrated catalogue published by the Museum as part of its UMMA Books series accompanies the exhibition.

From UMMA:

Discovering Eighteenth-Century British America: The William L. Clements Library Collection
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 22 September 2012 — 13 January 2013

Mark Catesby, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, 1731-43, hand-colored engravings (William L. Clements Library, 16791)

This significant exhibition provides glimpses of British America in the 1700s and is designed to complement the Museum’s concurrent exhibition Benjamin West: General Wolfe and the Art of Empire, which features the Clements collection’s major painting The Death of General Wolfe. William L. Clements assembled an outstanding array of primary sources on North America dating between 1492 and 1800, with a heavy emphasis on early European exploration and discovery and the eighteenth-century wars for control of the continent. The exhibition features a mix of rare items from Mr. Clements’s original donation and pieces the Library has acquired since 1923 to complement and enhance its strength in eighteenth-century American history.

This exhibition is part of the UM Collections Collaborations series, co-organized by and presented at UMMA and designed to showcase the renowned and diverse collections at the University of Michigan. The UM Collections Collaborations series is generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

From the University of Michigan:

The Geometry of War: Fortification Plans from Eighteenth-Century America
William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, 15 October 2012 — 15 February 2013

The eighteenth century was a time of intensive military activity in Europe and in the Americas. Much of this centered on fortified towns or positions. The period from the 1680s to the French Revolution has been called the “classic century of military engineering,” a time when earlier forms of artillery fortifications were perfected and frequently tested in battle.

Designing, constructing, and recording fortifications was the job of the military engineer. He followed well-tested principles of design, based on geometry, to construct fortified places. These were recorded in detailed plans, many of surprising beauty and complexity. The Clements Library is rich in examples, manuscript and printed, and offers a sample illustrating the science of fortification in eighteenth-century America.

From the University of Parma:

Guglielmo Du Tillot Regista delle Arti nell’Età dei Lumi
Palazzo Bossi Bocchiarma, Parma, 28 October 2012 — 27 January 2013

Curated by Gianfranco Fiaccadori, Alessandro Malinverni, and Carlo Mambriani

La mostra Guglielmo Du Tillot, regista delle arti nell’età dei Lumi si terrà a Palazzo Bossi Bocchi dal 28 ottobre 2012 al 27 gennaio 2013 (inaugurazione sabato 27 ottobre ore 18,00). L’esposizione, che si fregia del patrocinio delle ambasciate di Francia e di Spagna in Italia, è stata realizzata in collaborazione con Biblioteca Palatina di Parma, Soprintendenza per i Beni Storici Artistici ed Etnoantropologici di Parma e Piacenza, Archivio di Stato di Parma e IPSIA “Primo Levi” di Parma; l’obiettivo è di raccontare a un vasto pubblico l’impatto culturale e artistico della figura di Du Tillot, Intendente della Real Casa inizialmente e Primo ministro in seguito. Attraverso un ricco panorama di opere, talvolta inedite, di pittura, scultura, architettura, incisione, numismatica e arti decorative, nonché di preziosi volumi conservati nei fondi antichi della Biblioteca Palatina e della Biblioteca di Busseto, verrà illustrata la riforma artistica e culturale che permise al piccolo stato borbonico di emergere in Italia e in Europa come non era accaduto nemmeno sotto la dinastia farnesiana, facendo di Parma l’«Atene d’Italia».

Il percorso della mostra – ideata e curata da Gianfranco Fiaccadori e Alessandro Malinverni (Università di Milano) e Carlo Mambriani (Università di Parma) – si articola in due sezioni: la prima, preceduta da un inquadramento biografico del protagonista, è incentrata sulla trasformazione di Parma in «Atene d’Italia»: il ruolo del ministro, di Annetta Malaspina e della loro cerchia; le nozze dei principi come eventi di propaganda artistica e dinastica; l’istituzione dell’Accademia e l’appoggio fornito ai suoi artisti; il rinnovo delle residenze, delle manifatture e del tessuto urbano. La seconda sezione è dedicata alla committenza privata di Du Tillot a Parma e a Parigi, durante il breve esilio: l’allestimento delle sue residenze, gli acquisti di libri e di opere d’arte, gli artisti prediletti.

Tra i numerosi artisti presenti in mostra, oltre all’architetto Ennemond Alexandre Petitot, fedele collaboratore del ministro, e ai vincitori dei concorsi accademici degli anni Sessanta, si segnalano i protagonisti della ritrattistica settecentesca parmense, come Giuseppe Baldrighi e Pietro Melchiorre Ferrari, ed europea, del rango di Jean-Marc Nattier, Anton Raphael Mengs, Laurent Pecheux e Louis-Michel Van Loo.