Atlanta Museum Rides High
Friday April 14, 2006
Louvre Sending Masterpieces Exclusively to Georgia
By Stan Parchin
Friday, April 14, 2006
The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia and Paris' Musée du Louvre have embarked on a historic three-year collaboration that will bring major masterpieces of Western art to the United States. Corporate sponsors of the "Louvre Atlanta" partnership include The Coca-Cola Company, Delta Airlines and UPS.
Kings as Collectors, the High Museum's premiere exhibition of Year One, will be on view from October 14, 2006 through September 7, 2007. Displayed in the High Museum's new Anne Cox Chambers Wing (where all "Louvre Atlanta" shows will take place), the exhibition will feature 32 paintings assembled during the reigns of French Kings Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) and Louis XVI (r. 1774-1793). Among the painters represented in Kings as Collectors will be Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) and Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). One of the treasures on display through January 21, 2007 will be the famous Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione by Italian High Renaissance master Raphael (1483-1520). For the remainder of the exhibition, Poussin's Et in Arcadia Ego (1637-1639), a masterpiece of French Classicism reminiscent of later Italian Renaissance painting, will be on view. Accompanied by sculptures and antiquities, the paintings will help describe the role of France's Old Regime monarchs as artistic patrons and collectors.
Also on view during Year One will be two focus exhibitions. The King's Drawings (October 14, 2006 through January 21, 2007) will examine an impressive array of some 60 works on paper, most never seen before in the United States. Some were assembled from private collections by Louis XIV and his two successors. Others were drawn by artists who worked for the French crown, such as Charles Le Brun (1619-1690). The highlight of this show will be Raphael's Head of an Angel, a study completed for The Expulsion of Heliodorus (ca. 1512), one of his famous Vatican frescoes. Works by Northern Renaissance artists Matthias Grünewald (1475/80-1528) and Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), among others, will be included in this display. Extraordinary examples of ceramics, furniture, silver and tapestries will comprise Decorative Arts of the Kings (March 3 through September 2, 2007). The luxury items on view will illustrate the domestic tastes of France's three pre-Revolutionary rulers.
Year Two of the "Louvre Atlanta" arrangement will explore the development of the French museum's collection during the eighteenth-century Enlightenment and the Napoleonic Era. The primary exhibition will feature masterpieces from the Louvre's ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian, Greek and Roman art collections, showcasing antiquities that were of interest to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). One of the two dossier shows, Houdon in France and America, will be devoted to the work of French Neoclassical sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828), a student of classical Roman art. The master portraitist created remarkable marble busts of such notable intellectual personalities as François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), better known as Voltaire, Denis Diderot (1713-1784) and Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). The other focus exhibition will display Egyptian and Greco-Roman antiquities that Empress Josephine (1763-1814), Napoleon's first wife, assembled at Malmaison, her retreat on the Parisian outskirts.
Exhibitions in development for Year Three of the museums' partnership will emphasize the Louvre's involvement in contemporary issues and current projects. Contributions to The Louvre of Today and Tomorrow will come from the entire museum, including its new Islamic Art Department.
Image credit:
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) (Italian, 1483-1520)
Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, 1514-1515
Oil on canvas
32 1/4 x 26 3/8 in.
Musée du Louvre
Photo © Peter Harholdt; Used with permission of the High Museum of Art.
By Stan Parchin
Friday, April 14, 2006
The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia and Paris' Musée du Louvre have embarked on a historic three-year collaboration that will bring major masterpieces of Western art to the United States. Corporate sponsors of the "Louvre Atlanta" partnership include The Coca-Cola Company, Delta Airlines and UPS.
Kings as Collectors, the High Museum's premiere exhibition of Year One, will be on view from October 14, 2006 through September 7, 2007. Displayed in the High Museum's new Anne Cox Chambers Wing (where all "Louvre Atlanta" shows will take place), the exhibition will feature 32 paintings assembled during the reigns of French Kings Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) and Louis XVI (r. 1774-1793). Among the painters represented in Kings as Collectors will be Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) and Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). One of the treasures on display through January 21, 2007 will be the famous Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione by Italian High Renaissance master Raphael (1483-1520). For the remainder of the exhibition, Poussin's Et in Arcadia Ego (1637-1639), a masterpiece of French Classicism reminiscent of later Italian Renaissance painting, will be on view. Accompanied by sculptures and antiquities, the paintings will help describe the role of France's Old Regime monarchs as artistic patrons and collectors.
Also on view during Year One will be two focus exhibitions. The King's Drawings (October 14, 2006 through January 21, 2007) will examine an impressive array of some 60 works on paper, most never seen before in the United States. Some were assembled from private collections by Louis XIV and his two successors. Others were drawn by artists who worked for the French crown, such as Charles Le Brun (1619-1690). The highlight of this show will be Raphael's Head of an Angel, a study completed for The Expulsion of Heliodorus (ca. 1512), one of his famous Vatican frescoes. Works by Northern Renaissance artists Matthias Grünewald (1475/80-1528) and Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), among others, will be included in this display. Extraordinary examples of ceramics, furniture, silver and tapestries will comprise Decorative Arts of the Kings (March 3 through September 2, 2007). The luxury items on view will illustrate the domestic tastes of France's three pre-Revolutionary rulers.
Year Two of the "Louvre Atlanta" arrangement will explore the development of the French museum's collection during the eighteenth-century Enlightenment and the Napoleonic Era. The primary exhibition will feature masterpieces from the Louvre's ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian, Greek and Roman art collections, showcasing antiquities that were of interest to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). One of the two dossier shows, Houdon in France and America, will be devoted to the work of French Neoclassical sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828), a student of classical Roman art. The master portraitist created remarkable marble busts of such notable intellectual personalities as François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), better known as Voltaire, Denis Diderot (1713-1784) and Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). The other focus exhibition will display Egyptian and Greco-Roman antiquities that Empress Josephine (1763-1814), Napoleon's first wife, assembled at Malmaison, her retreat on the Parisian outskirts.
Exhibitions in development for Year Three of the museums' partnership will emphasize the Louvre's involvement in contemporary issues and current projects. Contributions to The Louvre of Today and Tomorrow will come from the entire museum, including its new Islamic Art Department.
Image credit:
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) (Italian, 1483-1520)
Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, 1514-1515
Oil on canvas
32 1/4 x 26 3/8 in.
Musée du Louvre
Photo © Peter Harholdt; Used with permission of the High Museum of Art.
Comments
I enjoy Mr. Parchin’s reviews/blogs on various art exhibitions. If they are in New York (where I can attend) or else where. His descriptions of the exhibits visualize them; as if one were actially there. Keep up the great work. About.com has so much to offer me in art and many other departments.