Rubens, Poussin Exhibit comes to Paris in Autumn 2010
RUBENS, POUSSIN and 17th Century Artists
Jacquemart-André Museum, Paris, France
Institut de France
September 24, 2010 – January 24, 2011
This exciting exhibition opening September 24, 2010 at Paris’s Jacquemart-André Museum will new page in the history of art. The exhibit assembles around sixty paintings from some of the best private and public collections in Europe (Art museums in Lille, Nantes, Rennes, Oxford, Liège, and more) and offers a unique view of two great artistic movements of the 17th century: Flemish Baroque painting, of which Rubens is the chief protagonist, and the French Classical school led by Poussin.
In addition to exploring the two movements and their leaders, the exhibit digs deeper to examine the influence they had on each other.
An exhibition of discovery
The exhibition’s primary aim is to highlight the importance of the Flemish movement in France at the beginning of the 17th century by showing the works of the great artists who were present on the French artistic scene at the time (Rubens, Pourbus, van Thulden, etc.). A comparison of their paintings with those of the Le Nain brothers or Lubin Baugin reveals the strong influence of the Flemish Baroque school on French artists. The rest of the exhibition is devoted to the rise of French Classical art during the second half of the 17th century. It presents some new pictorial models, developed in France by Nicolas Poussin, Laurent de La Hyre, Eustache Le Sueur and Charles Le Brun, before being adopted by Flemish artists such as Bertholet Flemalle and Gérard de Lairesse. This is the note on which the exhibition finishes, thereby highlighting the reversal of influence which operated between these two schools during the 17th century.
The imprint of Rubens in Paris and the spread of Flemish painting in France
The grand master of the Baroque, Pierre-Paul Rubens, arrived in Paris in 1625 with his series of canvases depicting the life of Mary of Medicis, Queen of France and widow of Henri IV.
Commissioned four years earlier by the Queen, this imposing series of 24 pieces was destined to decorate the west wing of the Luxembourg palace in Paris. Today it hangs in the Louvre.
At the start of the 17th century, 70% of Antwerp’s artistic production was exported, a large portion of it to France. In Paris, Saint-Germain des Prés village fair, hosted by Nordic merchants, sold a great many Flemish works of art. As a result, French artists and their sponsors came into contact with the Flemish style and acquired a taste for it.
Flemish dominance on the French artistic scene
Under the reign of Henri IV, and then the regency of Mary of Medicis, Flemish painters, with Pierre-Paul Rubens foremost among them, obtained the lion’s share of royal commissions, including Philippe de Champaigne for portraits and Frans Snyders for animal art. This strong presence in France motivated French artists like the Le Nain brothers to adopt Flemish subjects and models in the field of genre painting.
The rise of French Classicism
The heyday of an artistic style from Flanders was succeeded by an “ideal” style of art started by Nicolas Poussin which exerted a poetic power that extended well beyond France’s borders. In fact, during the reign of Louis XIII, a truly French pictorial identity was forged, appearing simultaneously in the work of artists like Nicolas Poussin, who remained profoundly marked by his time in Rome, and other artists who never left Paris, such as Eustache Le Sueur and Laurent de La Hyre. They all developed a new pictorial language: French Classicism.
This exhibition traces the progression of Flemish and French painting through the 17th century and illustrates the intensity and wealth of the cultural exchanges between these two countries. The exhibition offers a new perspective on the 17th century which saw the overturning of great artistic movements. Flemish Baroque painting was followed by the French Classical school which, sustained by the political ascendancy of Louis XIV’s reign, in turn influenced the artistic movements of Europe.
Jacquemart-André Museum
158, boulevard Haussmann
75008 PARIS
Tel: + 33 (0)1 45 62 11 59
www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com
Rates: €10 (including audio guide)
Reduced rate: €8.50 (students, children from 7 to 17, job-seekers)
Free entry for children and the disabled
September 3, 2010
Posted in: France