: Coming down the homestretch of the finest year of exhibitions in
recent memory, the National Gallery of Art is offering two superb
French historical survey shows and a fascinating one-man (and
woman) display.
"The Age of Watteau, Chardin and Fragonard: Masterpieces of
French Genre Painting" on view through January 11, examines the
development of paintings of everyday life in Eighteenth Century
France. A complementary exhibition, "Colorful Impressions: The
Printmaking Revolution in Eighteenth Century France," through
February 24, explores one of the most innovative periods in the
history of color printmaking. Of more recent vintage, "Picasso:
The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier," through January 18,
comprises 50 likenesses created in 1909 by the Twentieth
Century's greatest artist of his companion of those days.
The genre painting extravaganza consists of 108 paintings by 27
artists, and it is a joy to behold. It is curated by Philip
Conisbee, senior curator of European paintings and curator of
French paintings at the National Gallery, in collaboration with
Colin B. Bailey, chief curator of The Frick Collection, and
Thomas W. Gaehtgens, director of Deutsches Forum für
Kunstgeschichte in Paris. Exhibited at the National Gallery of
Canada last fall, "The Age of Watteau" travels to the Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie (February 8-May 9).
The genre painting and printmaking shows are set in the context
of an Eighteenth Century France undergoing significant political,
social, economic and cultural changes, stimulated by the moral
principles of the Enlightenment. The works on view "formed a
constantly changing mirror of Parisian social life and culture,"
observes National Gallery director Earl A. Powell III.
Up to the Eighteenth Century, art in France was dominated by
history painting -- serious themes drawn from history, literature
or the Bible -- officially promoted by the Royal Academy of
Painting and Sculpture and given privileged position in the art
hierarchy of the day and exhibitions.
Reflecting the altered realities of French society and the arts,
thought and painting shifted away from history painting and the
religious and monarchial values of the prior century. In the new
century the latter took the form of genre painting and innovative
printmaking techniques.
Genre paintings chronicling daily life increased in standing and
quality during the decade following the death of King Louis XIV
in 1715. The hub of French society shifted from Versailles to
Paris. A sophisticated Parisian elite, flourishing in intimate
domestic settings -- as opposed to the pomp and ceremony of the
royal palace -- became interested in fine art based on
contemporary life and mores, real or imagined.
In the vanguard of genre painting in the age of Enlightenment was
Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), who broke with the tradition of
Grand Manner painting to specialize in the "fête galante" --
depictions of upscale couples in secluded parks engaged in
flirtatious conversations and amorous advances. Watteau
celebrated the newly relaxed social structure with finely
composed vignettes of the stage, such as "Love in the French
Theatre," circa 1716; a forlorn clown strumming his guitar and
serenading a would-be love in "Mezzetin," circa 1718-20, and a
portrait of a lovely adolescent on the brink of womanhood, "Iris
(The Dance)," circa 1719.
One of the great draftsmen of his time, Francois Boucher
(1703-1770) depicted amorous peasants, as in "Pastoral: The
Vegetable Vendor," circa 1735, views of pampered young women in
opulent surroundings, as in "A Lady Fastening her Garter (La
Toilette)," 1742, and a glimpse of an elegantly garbed young
couple feeding each other grapes, in "Is He Thinking of Grapes?,"
1747.
While Boucher celebrated the privileged life and material
splendors of the upper classes, Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin
(1699-1779) focused on activities of less exalted folks such as
servants and nursemaids, and children's pastimes. Represented in
the show by 13 canvases, many assembled on what Conisbee
accurately described as "a wonderful wall of Chardins," this
master of the domestic scene is one of the big stars of the
exhibition.
"The Kitchen Maid," 1738, and "The Governess," 1738, are
sympathetic figural studies "below the stairs" that convey
enigmatic, perhaps moral, messages. Also on view are two iconic
Chardin masterworks: "Soap Bubbles," circa 1735-40, and "The
House of Cards" circa 1740, both from the National Gallery
collection. These and other Chardin works consistently convey a
Vermeer-like sobriety and tranquility.
In addition to genre paintings by well-known, acknowledged
masters, the show includes works by highly accomplished artists
who deserve to be better known today, such as Nicolas Lancret,
Jean-Francois de Troy, Claude-Joseph Vernet and Jacques Sablet.
They are reminders of what a wealth of talented painters France
boasted in the Eighteenth Century.
The 412-page genre paintings catalog is illustrated with 186
color and 103 black and white reproductions. It contains detailed
essays by Bailey, Barbara Gaehtgens, Thomas Gaehtgens, Martin
Schieder, Katie Scott and Marianne Roland Michel. There are
entries on 113 works, a bibliography and a complete list of genre
paintings exhibited at Paris Salons, 1699-1789. Published by Yale
University Press in association with the National Gallery of
Canada, it is $49.95 (softcover).
"Colorful Impressions," organized by National Gallery curator of
Old Master drawings Margaret Morgan Grasselli, utilizes 115 color
prints to illustrate how new techniques transformed printmaking
in Eighteenth Century France. The first breakthrough came in the
1720s when German artist Jakob Christoffel Le Blon (1667-1741)
found that full-spectrum color prints could be made from four
basic inks -- black, blue, red and yellow. His mezzotint
portrait, "Louis XV," 1739, based on a painting by Nicholas
Blakey, one of the first full-color reproductions of a painting,
reflects the quality of Le Blon's pioneering efforts.
Energetic French printmakers built on Le Blon's innovations with
their own, creating increasingly elaborate techniques that
sought, with considerable success, to replicate drawings executed
in chalk, pastel, watercolor and gouache. Louis-Marin Bonnet
(1736-1793) was a leader in applying new means to replicate chalk
and pastel images. His "Head of a Young Woman Wearing a Cap,"
before 1764, after a Greuze work, shows his achievement in
chalk-manner prints, while his lovely "Tête de Flora (Head of
Flora)," 1769, after Boucher, documents his ability to make
pastel-like prints.
Among the pioneers in developing the "wash manner" technique that
produced smooth, richly hued replicas of paintings, watercolors
and gouaches, was Jean-François Janinet, (1752-1814), as
demonstrated by "Villa Madama," 1878. Janinet's pupil
Charles-Melchior Descourtist (1753-1820) created outstanding
wash-manner prints such as "Noce de village (Village Wedding),"
1785.
Further advances in the last decades of the Eighteenth Century
are documented in the exhibition by such masterworks as Janinet's
"A Woman Playing the Guitar," 1788-89, and "La Promenade
publicque," 1792, and "Les Plaisirs paternels (Paternal
Pleasures)," circa 1797, both by Philibert-Louis Debucourt
(1755-1832).
As curator Grasselli observes, the new color prints, allowing the
middle class to acquire affordable replicas of important works of
art, were a great commercial success. "Because of the breadth of
their imagery, the sheer numbers in which they were produced, and
the wide audience for whom they were made, these prints convey
the color and spirit of their times in a way that no other medium
can match," she says.
Grasselli, who brings both passion and knowledge to the subject,
wrote much of the valuable exhibition catalog. The lavishly
illustrated, 187-page volume includes informative chapters by
collector Ivan E. Phillips and curators Judith C. Walsh, Lehua
Foster and Kristel Smentek. One of the few books in English on
the subject, it was published by the National Gallery in
association with Lund Humphries, and sells for $65 (hardcover)
and $45 (softcover).
For many art lovers just about any Pablo Picasso exhibition is
cause for rejoicing, and the focused "Cubist Portraits" show at
the National Gallery is no exception. It consists of more than 50
paintings, drawings and sculpture that Picasso (1881-1973)
executed in 1909 of his mistress, Fernande Olivier. Both were 28
at the time.
Created during a period when the artist and Georges Braque were
developing the vocabulary of cubism, this unprecedented
assemblage offers insights into Picasso's evolving artistic
process. The images of Olivier, a professional model, represent
transformation of her likeness through experiments in pictorial
and sculptural form, "convulsive reformations of human
physiognomy," as the show's curator puts it.
Highlights include initial works on paper, such as "Bust of a
Woman" (private collection) and "Head of a Woman" (Art Institute
of Chicago); increasingly abstract oil portraits like "Woman with
Pears" (Museum of Modern Art) and "Nude in an Armchair" (private
collection), and the final group of melancholy likenesses
featuring the sculpture "Head of a Woman (Fernande)," shown in
two plaster versions and a spectacular cast in bronze, recently
acquired by the National Gallery.
This intriguing exhibition was organized by the National
Gallery's curator of modern and contemporary art, Jeffrey Weiss,
who wrote the 198-page catalog, accompanied by essays by art
curators Valerie J. Fletcher and Kathryn A. Tuma. Published by
the National Gallery in association with Princeton University
Press, the book is $45 (hardcover) and $39.95 (softcover).
The National Gallery of Art is on the National Mall between
3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue, NW. For information:
202-737-4215 or www.nga.gov.
