Félix Bracquemond, Vive le Tsar!, 1893, etching. Purchase, W. McAllister Johnson Fund, 2006 (49-003). Photo: www.bernardclarkphoto.com
Exhibitions
Between the Lines: 19th-century French Prints
Frances K. Smith Gallery
1 April - 5 August 2007
19th-century French prints have been explored through the principles of taste and collecting, in terms of technique and process, and through stylistic and formal analysis. Another approach is to examine the contexts in which the works were produced. In order to discern these contexts, we can view the artists' subjects and their treatment through the prisms of history and biography. This synthesis allows us to 'read between the lines' and gain a better understanding of the relationship between the artist and his practice, his milieu, and more significantly his times.
In the early-19th century, artists worked with a deep sense of the past. They reacted to the tumult of the French Revolution and Napoleonic era by reflecting on history and its implications for the future. By the middle of the 19th century, however, political upheaval combined with rapid industrialisation and urbanisation encouraged artists to look more actively at the present. As a result, they redirected their attention to everyday concerns, from contemporary politics to the people around them.
Drawn from the Art Centre's rich collection, works by Honoré Daumier, Théodore Géricault, Édouard Vuillard and others reveal this important shift in the way artists responded to their surroundings. Their prints show that, over the course of the century, evocations of France's past were supplanted by impressions of contemporary life, resulting in a tension between past and present in 19th-century French art.
On Thursday 3 May, Annabel Hanson will give a talk in the exhibition at 12:15 pm as part of the Art Matters series. Admission is free.
Annabel Hanson
This exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Professor Vojtech Jirat-Wasiutynski, whose expertise and passion for 19th-century French art inspired countless students at Queen's University. The Art Centre marks his passing in July 2006 with sadness and respect.