calendario eventi  :: 

X

5/3/2007

Four exhibitions

Musee d'Orsay, Paris

The Forest of Fontainebleau.
A Life-Sized Studio. From Corot to Picasso
from March 6 to May 13, 2007

From the late 18th century, artists had been going to the Forest of Fontainebleau to make their first studies "from life". As open-air painting developed, the Barbizon school of artists, followed by the Impressionists, invaded the forest to "work directly from Nature" and turned it into the most popular site in the art world throughout the 19th century. This success gave rise to hundreds of works of art which, whilst portraying the forest, also demonstrate the changes in landscape art.

In addition to presenting a series of works signed by the greatest artists, from Corot to Picasso, this exhibition raises the question of why the Forest of Fontainebleau attracted not only painters and photographers, but also writers and poets. It provokes thoughts about the close links, throughout the 19th century, between this very special site and the artists, who found inspiration in "the spirit of the place" and changed its image. For after "absorbing" the romantic forest created by the men of letters, the painters contributed to its reinvention. This was a prelude to its official recognition as an "Artistic Reserve" when, in 1874, the Forest of Fontainebleau became the first natural site in the world to be classified.

.................................

Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884)
from March 6 to May 13, 2007

Curated by Serge Lemoine and Dominique Lobstein

This pupil of Cabanel, who was at the height of his powers when he died at the age of 36, made a significant mark in the world of naturalist painting. In October 1868 he came first in the competition for admission to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and went on to become a major figure of the Salon despite failing twice to win the Prix de Rome. His portraits and figure paintings were always eagerly awaited by the critics, and regularly reviewed. They brought him a variety of awards and several paintings were bought by the State. Bastien-Lepage owed his success to the originality of his works which reflect a remarkable synthesis of the influence of his training and the most innovatory movements of the time. Zola saw him as "the grandson of Courbet and Millet". From the 1870s, Bastien-Lepage above all brought together the realism of peasant life and grand tradition, whilst also using lighter colours and dynamic compositions in the style of the new Impressionism. This retrospective is an opportunity to see a significant series of his creative works and to recognise today the fundamental role which his contemporaries had already attributed to him.


................................

Leon Spilliaert: Self-Portraits
from March 6 to May 27, 2007

Curated by Anne Adriaens-Pannier and Marie-Pierre Sale

Spilliaert (1881-1946) was the man of disturbing solitudes, hallucinated faces, infinite perspectives and enigmatic silhouettes. The originality of this interpretation already dominated the dark washes of his early years through which he indulged in intensive introspection resulting in his famous self-portraits as a visionary. He had affinities with his contemporaries in both painting and literature: Emile Verhaeren, Maurice Maeterlinck, Odilon Redon, Edouard Vuillard, James Ensor... Nevertheless, if he was influenced by the fin-de siècle spirit, his work would develop well beyond Symbolism. Throughout his career, Léon Spilliaert surprised and perplexed the public, inventing a symbolism of inner darkness that left its mark in Belgian art of the first half of the 20th century.

.................................

Photography at the Musée d'Orsay. 20 years of acquisitions: 1986-2006
from March 6 to May 27, 2007

Curated by Françoise Helibrun

From 1979 to its opening in December 1986, the Musée d'Orsay had special funds to build up, ex nihilo, a collection of old photographs, ranging from the early days of the medium in 1839 to the end of the First World War. Since the museum opened, the collection has steadily increased. This exhibition in the permanent photography gallery aims to highlight the richness of the collection with a selection of the museum's principal gifts, loans and acquisitions.

Daguerrotypes taken in Paris in June 1848, scenes of Egypt from the 1850s by J.B. Greene or Felix Teynard, calotypes by Charles Nègre, seascapes by Gustave le Gray, a collection of Felix Nadar portraits, a series of photographs by Lewis Carroll, an Atget album devoted to the Saint Séverin quarter, a collection by Paul Burty Haviland, a pictorialist and member of the Photo Secession group, an album of Baron de Meyer to commemorate the ballet Après-midi d'un faune [Afternoon of a faun], choreographed and performed by Nijinsky, original proofs by Alfred Stieglitz, autochromes by the Lumière brothers or Gimpel, and so on. This selection of works, while highlighting the development of photographic technique and the social customs it reflects, aims, above all, to emphasise the diversity of visual creation in this field.

Opening: march 6, 2007

Musee d'Orsay
1, rue de la Legion d'Honneur - Paris
Open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9.30am to 6pm and on Thursdays from 9.30am to 9.45pm
Admission: Full price : 7.5 Euros; Reduced rate : 5.5 Euros

stampa

permanent link