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| Louis-Léopold Boilly, The Happily Married Couple. 1807, Black and white chalk, with stumping on brown paper. Joan Taub Ades Collection. |
The exhibition is in the Clare Eddy Thaw Gallery, an incredibly intimate room. I was fortunate enough to visit when there were only a few people in the gallery, all moving from left to right then right back out the door. The works are hung along each wall, smaller works directly above others. If this layout does anything it enhances certain prominent pieces such as Boucher's Reclining Nude with Outstretched Arm and Jean-Baptiste Greuze's Head of a Sorrowful Woman. Other notable artists include Jean-Francois Millet and Francesco Panini.
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| Francesco Fontebasso, A Scene of Sacrifice. Pen and brown ink, over black chalk, on two pieces of paper. Joan Taub Ades Collection. |
There is a suggestion of a background, very little furniture and nothing on the walls. Her neck is bent down over her work, and you know if she has been at work for a while she aches. She wears a simple bonnet and cotton garment, completely focused on the project at hand. She is not alone in this show. There are not grand ladies and princes (nay they can be found at the next exhibition over, "Illuminating Fashion") but everyday men and women, even children.
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| Achille Michallon, Peasants Gathering Fruit near Naples, 1822, Pen and brown ink and wash, over traces of black chalk. Joan Taub Ades Collection. |
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| Jean-Baptiste Pillement, River Landscape with a Goatherd and Goats. 1797/98, black and red chalk with watercolor. Joan Taub Ades Collection. |
One particularly captivating piece is River Landscape with a Goatherd and Goats by Jean-Baptiste Pillement. The painting was completed in 1797/8, inspired, no doubt, by the artist's new surroundings. When the French Revolution began, Pillement moved to south France, a move that proved not only to be an escape, but also inspirational.
The calm river flows through the landscape which is elevated by rocks and hills. Goats are herded across an uneasy bridge. The landscape is lovely and ideal, but incredibly muted against the reds and blues of the figures. The figures in the image pop, and only they stir, it seems, where no wind rustles trees, goats refuse to budge, and the river, lazy and slow, gently pushes a boat.
I moved along through the show at the same pace as the river, steady and slow. Absorbing all the fine details of line and shadow these artists have created. The figures in this collection are easy to connect with, and unless you are claustrophobic, you may find yourself wanting to take another turn around the room. Their humble dress and settings suggest they were not all people of great elegance, but the compositions and presentation prove the period was an age of elegance.
Exhibition catalog.
Your readers might also be interested in an exhibit at the Worcester (Mass.) Art Museum, "Leisure, Pleasure, and the Debut of the Modern French Woman." "The exhibition presents prints and drawings from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that illustrate an overall shift in the depiction of women in France." The Worcester museum has some lovely collections and an intimate feel. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteOh these paintings at the Morgan are so beautiful! Thanks for sharing them.
ReplyDelete@Katherine Louise Thank you! I will add it to my exhibition list!
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