America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting
May 21 – August 20, 2017 West Building, Main Floor, Northeast Galleries
Joseph Ducreux, Le Discret, c. 1791, oil on aluminum, transferred from canvas, Spencer Museum of Art
This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.
When Joseph Bonaparte, elder brother of Napoleon, arrived in the United States in 1815, he brought with him his exquisite collection of eighteenth-century French paintings. Put on public view, the works caused a sensation, and a new American taste for French art was born. Over the decades, appreciation of French eighteenth-century art has fluctuated between preference for the alluring decorative canvases of rococo artists such as François Boucher and Jean Honoré Fragonard to admiration for the sober neoclassicism championed by Jacques-Louis David and his pupils. This exhibition brings together sixty-eight paintings that represent some of the best and most unusual examples of French art of that era held by American museums and tells their stories on a national stage.
The exhibition highlights smaller museum collections, less well-known paintings, and diverse locations across the United States, from Pittsburgh and Indianapolis to Birmingham and Phoenix.
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America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
Noël Nicolas Coypel, 1690–1734, The Abduction of Europa, 1726–1727, oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Acquired with the kind assistance of John Cadwalader, Jr., through the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Orville Bullitt (by exchange), the Edith H. Bell Fund, and other Museum funds, 1978, The Philadelphia Museum of Art / Art Resource, NY
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
Jean Honoré Fragonard, 1732–1806, Blind Man’s Buff, c. 1750–1752, oil on canvas, Lent by the Toledo Museum of Art; Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, 1749–1803, Portrait of Madame Adélaïde, c. 1787, oil on canvas, Collection Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky. Restored by income from the Marguerite Montgomery Baquie Memorial Trust, 1993, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
Nicolas Lancret, 1690–1743, Portrait of the Actor Grandval, c. 1742, oil on canvas, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Herman C. Krannert (60.247)
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
François Hubert Drouais, 1727–1775, Les Portraits de MM. de Béthune jouant avec un chien (Children of the Marquis de Béthune Playing with a Dog), 1761, oil on canvas, Collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art, Eugenia Woodward Hitt Collection
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 1755–1842, Portrait of a Young Woman Playing a Lyre, c. 1786, oil on canvas, Cincinnati Art Museum, Gift of Emilie L. Heine in memory of Mr. and Mrs. John Hauck (1940.981)
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
Nicolas de Largillierre, 1656–1746, Self-Portrait, 1707, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons’ Permanent Fund
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
Jean Siméon Chardin, 1699–1779, Young Student Drawing, c. 1738, oil on panel, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1725–1805, The Drunken Cobbler, 1776–1779, oil on canvas, Portland Art Museum, Oregon, Gift of Marion Bowles Hollis
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
Pierre Peyron, 1744–1814, The Death of Alcestis, 1794, oil on canvas, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, Purchased with funds from gifts by Mr. and Mrs. Jack L. Linsky, Mrs. George Khuner, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, anonymous gift, Lady Marcia Cunliffe-Owen, William Walker Hines, and Mrs. Alfred Elliott Dieterich
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
François Boucher, 1703–1770, Idyllic Landscape with Woman Fishing, 1761, oil on canvas, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Herman C. Krannert (60.248)
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
Jean-Baptiste Oudry, 1686–1755, A Young Rabbit and Partridge Hung by the Feet, 1751, oil on canvas, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, Mrs. F. F. Prentiss Fund and Special Acquisitions Fund (1982.47)
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
Pierre Jacques Volaire, 1729–before 1802, The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, 1777, oil on canvas, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, Purchased with funds from the Alcy C. Kendrick Bequest and the State of North Carolina, by exchange
America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paintings
Anne Rosalie Bocquet Filleul, 1752–1794, Portrait of Benjamin Franklin, 1778 or 1779, oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of the Honorable Walter H. Annenberg and Leonore Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation, 2007, The Philadelphia Museum of Art / Art Resource, NY
Organization: The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
