bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
L’art colonial, entre orientalisme et art primitif. Recherche d’une définition
Authors: Jarrassé Dominique
Published: June 2021

Colonial art between orientalism and primitive art : in search of a definition.

The notion of colonial art, common at the beginning of the 20th century, is not a well integrated field in the history of art ; to make it less disturbing, it is sometimes reduced to the production of travelling artists ; however, a broader definition would enrich an approach of miscellaneous artefacts by bringing it closer to history and anthropology, whose analysis only too often makes a point of denouncing ideology and ethnocentrism. Born from the 19th century orientalism, the notion came to associate primitive and native arts controlled by settlers with the usual production of modern exoticism, two forms of art which tend to make one. But, just as Angkor or Moroccan crafts, would not it be better to annex primitivism, as a form of colonial art, to the field of French art ? Isn’t it time to acknowledge that this hateful colonialism could give birth to masterpieces, such as Jannot’s low relief at the Musée des Colonies in the 1931 Exhibition ? One has to face the difficulties and delve into a knowledge of these productions, whether academic or avant-garde, of the ordering institutions and of artists, of their iconographic and ethnologic themes.
Voyages en Italie des artistes du Nord (1500-1800)
Authors: Garms Jörg
Published: June 2021

Northern artists travelling in Italy (1500-1800).

In the period extending from the re-discovery of classical Antiquity, with the flowering of the Italian Renaissance, to Neo-classicism, travelling to Italy never ceased, but, considering its chief purpose, i.e. the acquisition of the “ Grande Manière ”, it culminated both at the beginning and the end of this period. In-between, the desire to make a living in Italy by resorting to Northern specialities — applied arts, engraving, landscape painting, genre, still-life and portrait — nearly equalled to the main goal. Rome was the principal destination for the “ Grande Manière ” ; otherwise, the artists could sojourn in the princely courts and trading cities. Initially, the travels could be assimilated to the wanderings of craftsmen, later on, they were subsidized by princes, comunities or private patrons or organized by Academies. These numerous travels usually lasted from three to five years but could eventually extend to about twenty years.
Les illustrations de l’Insulinde dans l’Histoire générale des voyages de l’abbé Prévost (1746-1759) : vérité et ressemblance
Authors: Njoto-Feillard Hélène
Published: June 2021

Indian Archipelago as illustrated in Abbé Prévost's Histoire générale des voyages : truth and likeness.

The Histoire générale des voyages (1746-1759) knew an outstanding fame until the second half of the 19th century. Its author, Abbé Jean Prévost, was appointed by the Minister of the Navy Maurepas and by the Chancelor d’Aguesseau to oversee the translation and adaptation of this encyclopaedic project, which exerted such an influence on Rousseau, Voltaire, Abbé Raynal or Diderot. The plates, under the direction of C.N. Cochin the Young, largely contributed to the success of the book, even if the study of the illustrations of Indian Archipelago reveal an inaccurate approach, dictated by Prévost himself. Indeed, the level of truth, the richness of invention of the artists, as well as the refined etchings, give the impression of scenes taken on the spot, so that the demands of likeness come second to those of entertainment.
Alexandre Bida : un Orient en noir et blanc
Authors: Malembits Michèle
Published: June 2021

Alexandre Bida : A Middle East in black and white.

The works of Alexandre Bida (1813-1895), one of the pupils of Delacroix, were mainly inspired by four travels he made in Orient between 1843 and 1860. His originality is to be found in his choosing drawing, exclusively and, somewhat paradoxically, which choice proved to be in total adequacy with his iconographical tendencies. Breaking with orientalism and its picturesque, he is one of the first to adopt an ethnological approach, sensitive to the human touch, and to the different social and ethnic components. The need for the authentic leads him to reveal an aspect of the Orient often neglected by travelling painters : religion. He makes a point of showing Muslim in prayer or Jews in front of the Wailing Wall with a great regard for these communities. His good knowledge of Middle East enabled him to participate in the travel review Le
Retour d’Afrique, portrait d’explorateur : autour de l’expérience d’Henry Morton Stanley
Authors: Leduc-Grimaldi Mathilde
Published: June 2021

Back from Africa : Portraits of an explorer, Henry Morton Stlanley.

Thanks to the portraits of Henry Morton Stanley, made under his control, a new iconographie type is born : the explorer in Central Africa. The widespread diffusion of photographs meant for individuals or magazines, their frequent reproduction on the front pages of his books of adventures, establish his reputation as a star in the society of his time. The first pictures of the explorer feature him as a big game hunter. Later, they underline the work of the reporter and scientist. Finally, the military attitude prevails ; his posture becomes swaggering and his clothes borrow more and more from military uniforms. The head-gear will remain the only distinctive mark of the explorer.
André Joubin à Constantinople : un chargé de mission au Musée impérial ottoman (1893-1894)
Authors: Du Crest Xavier
Published: June 2021

André Joubin on a special mission in the Ottomon Imperial Museum (1893-1894).

The Turkish journey of André Joubin (1868-1944) on a mission as a deputy heritage curator at the Ottomon Imperial Museum in Constantinople puts the Middle East journey to the test of modernity ; it is a turning point in the artistic and scientific relations between the two countries and, in a more general way, in the Eastern travel experience. From the middle of the 19th century, French artists or official representatives follow each other in Turkey and their presence tends to be permanent, for the greater renown of France. As a representative of French museology and archeology in Turkey, André Joubin acquired a great insight in the men as well as in the history and art of their country and perhaps was one of the first French Turkish scholars. Nonetheless, his mission highlights how hard it was for Europe to admit the part the Turks played in the construction of their own heritage and how disturbing it was to face a local competence.
Fujita Tsuguji, Ce qu’il faut savoir sur la réalisation des tableaux de guerre. Traduction annotée
Authors: Lucken Michael
Published: June 2021

Fujita Tsuguji : What should be known on the making of war paintings ?

Fujita is acknowledged as one of the great artists of the École de Paris in the 1920’s. But it is less common knowledge that, during the Second World War, he was one of the active members of the Japanese association of military painters. So, as better to understand the motives that spurred him to paint these great huge battle sceneries to-day at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, it is interesting to refer to the articles he wrote at the time. Hence, the present translation of a famous article published in 1944 : What should be known on the making of war paintings ? One finds there that Fujita involved himself in this work with a very particular zeal and that, for many reasons : sentimental, political, but also aesthetic, which explains his present rediscovery.
Un dessin de Noël Coypel pour Hercule assommant Cacus : une attribution attestée
Authors: Bédard Sylvain
Published: June 2021

A drawing by Noël Coypel for Hercules clubbing down Cacus : a certified attribution.

This article connects a double study from the nude drawn by Noël Coypel (1628-1707) (Paris, École nationale des Beaux-arts) with a painting in the Lille Museum, Hercules clubbing down Cacus given back to the painter by J. Thuillier, some forty years ago. The drawing, whose composition is almost similar to the painting’s, confirms, at first glance, this attribution. On the other hand, the date 1669 on the Parisian sheet — a nude executed at the life-class at the Academy where he would teach — allows us to give a more precise chronology of the painted work, originally done for the decoration of the antichamber of the petit appartement haut of Louis XIV at the Tuileries, but withdrawn from the palace during the Revolution.
Le livre de raison de don Joseph de Çagarriga : un témoignage sur l’orfèvrerie barcelonaise en Roussillon au XVIIe siècle
Authors: Hernandez Laurent
Published: June 2021

About Barcelonese silver-plate in the 1 7th century : Don Joseph Cagarriga’s house-book.

This study reveals the data to be found in a manuscript kept in the Roussillon area (private collection) concerning Catalan silver-plate in the 17th century. Don Joseph’s house-book, so far unpublished, gives complete information about a small silver statue, dated 1666, meant for Millas’s parish (Elne diocese) and ordered by Don Joseph Cagarriga to be made by an unknown Barcelonese silversmith. The nationality of the artist as well as the liturgy that went with the reception of this outstanding piece of silver-plate highlights the fact that strong cultural relationships persisted between Roussillon and Catalonia even after the Pyrenees treatise.
Graver l’Antique : Mellan, Baudet et la collection de Louis XIV (1668-1681)
Authors: Aumaître Annelaure , Morisseau Céline
Published: June 2021

Annelaure Aumaître et Céline Morisseau : Engraving Antiques : Mellan, Baudet and Louis XTV’s collection.

The book of prints made by Claude Mellan and Etienne Baudet between 1668 and 1681 reproduces the sixty -one sculptures of Louis XIV’s collection of Antiques shown in the Louvre and Tuileries. It belongs to a collection of engraved plates entitled “Tableau du Cabinet du Roi, statues et antiques des Maisons royales”. The quality of this book resides in the continuity of the style of the two artists and in the extreme accuracy of the translation of sculptures into engravings, which makes it possible to identify, localize and enrich the history of some of the items of the collection. Finally, Mellan’s technique proves to be far richer in information than Baudet’s, so that one can imagine where the sculptures were and their supposed display in the King’s lower appartments at the Tuileries.
L’obliquité et l’empaquetage : deux procédés novateurs dans la photographie soviétique des années 1920-1930 et leur application par Boris Ignatovitch
Authors: Ivanova Olga
Published: June 2021

Olga Ivanova : “Obliquity and compacting” : two innovating procedures in soviet photography in the 1 920’s and how Boris Ivanovitch used them

Boris Ignatovitch started as a photograph in post-revolutionary Russia. At the end of the 1920’s, with other artists, among them Rodchenko, he concentrated on finding new photographic procedures, that is obliquity and compacting.

These innovations were soon accused of formalism by the ideological commissions of the reigning power. The polemic took place in 1931-1932, between the October groups and the “ROPF”.

The interpretation of photography takes the upper hand over its inner qualities. After the decree of April 23th 1932, and the emergency of socialist realism, the use of obliquity and compacting is banished from soviet photographic language.

Boris Ignatovitch is compelled to keep to themes and ways of representation imposed by the propaganda of the Party.
Hans Bellmer : l’anagramme et l’estampe au service d’un rêve surréaliste
Authors: Flahutez Fabrice
Published: June 2021

Fabrice Flahutez : Hans Bellmer : Anagram and print at the service of a surrealist dream.

The rich literature concerning Hans Bellmer’s photographs should not conceal the fact that his printing experience highlights the central point on which the whole approach of the artist is focused. : poetic anagram. The function of printing in the artist’s evolution is highly interesting. Besides, it is at the center of a research linked to technique. Thus the deliberate use of some specific techniques is a scrupulous choice on Bellmer’s part, so that the anagram can fully develop itself. They will be dealt with separately and what they added to the process of creation will be brought to light.
Mise en scène du livre en noir et blanc : Les Épiphanies de Henri Pichette, mise en page de Pierre Faucheux (1948)
Authors: Jaubert de Beaujeu Marie-Laure
Published: June 2021

Marie-Laure Jaubert de Beaujeu : The theatrality of a black and white book : Pierre Faucheux ’s page layout for the Epiphanies of Henri Pichette

The question of the use of black and white has special implications in the field of book design. In 1948, Pierre Faucheux’s layout for the Epiphanies, a dramatic poem written a year before by Henri Pichette and published by K Editor, belongs to the tradition of visual poetry and proposes a theatrical book in which page design makes the most of typographic elements and the metaphoric power of the contrast between black and white. Considerations such as these are of particular importance in book design, given the key role played by this medium as a vehicle of the written word and the abstract exactitude of black an white. Their pertinence stems also from the construction of a space-time specific to reading -from the marks made by metal type to the screen used in the halftone blocks -which depends on the organization of the black and white elements and variations of typographical “colour”.
Les traités artistiques et la peinture sur pierre (XVIe-XVIIe siècles)
Authors: Collomb Anne-Laure
Published: June 2021

Anne-Laure Collomb : Artistic treatises and painting on stone (1 6 th and 1 7th centuries).

Around 1530, Sebastiano del Piombo invents a new technique, painting on stones, which knew an important fashion in the 16 lh and 17th centuries. It answers the questions asked by the Paragone. Painting on stone has the advantage of lasting as long as sculpture. From the middle of the 16th century, new supports -alabaster, agata, marble and pietra paesina-are used in numerous experiments. The question of preservation comes second. From now on, the use of patterned stones goes with the taste for valiable curiosities and is linked with the Wunderkammern. Painting on marble and other patterned supports unites the genius of the artist and that of Nature. Nature can imitate Painting.
Le parti catholique et la peinture religieuse des années de « l’ordre moral » (1873-1879)
Authors: Amiot Emmanuelle
Published: June 2021

Religious painting and Catholics in the “moral order” years (1873-1879).

Mac Mahon’s presidency (1873-1878) was a favorable period for religious painting, but also a disturbed political and religious time. While the State and town councils led a very active policy in favour of it, the Church persevered in its silence about what was being painted in churches. However, no truly religious painter was acknowledged by the Catholic art theorists. In spite of the obvious lack of orthodoxy, the priests did not protest. Even Catholic critics accepted with an open mind some experiments that theorists morally banished from the field of religious painting, in particular, naturalism and eclectism. Unexpectedly, this genre flourished at that time, outside strict orthodoxy and with the silent agreement of the clergy.
Kub, cube, cubisme : Picasso et Braque en 1912
Authors: Versari Maria Elena
Published: June 2021

Kub, cube and cubism : Picasso and Braque in 1912.

This article follows the complete history of the term “cubism” in France, both among the critics and the popular press of the early 1900s. In particular, it analyses the latter’s ironic association of the modern artistic movement with the Swiss-German food company Maggi’s most famous product of the time -the bouillon cube. It then examines the reception of this popular pun by the two artists most commonly linked to cubism, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Underscoring Braque’s and Picasso’s ironic integration of the term inside their works in 1912, the article maintains that these works should be read as a critical response to efforts by artists and critics of the time to create a definitely formal and conceptual codification of a “cubist aesthetics”.
Le Cézanne d’André Breton
Authors: Semmer Laure-Caroline
Published: June 2021

Cézanne as seen by André Breton.

In the footstep of Dada and against cubism, surrealists, and particularly André Breton, take Cézanne as an example to condemn a unilateral vision of painting founded on classical views.

Cézanne being turned into a classical artist by critics in a specific political context, plus the claims of cubist artists, compelled Breton to go by his own artistic rules and to condemn Cézanne. But in the single example of a text devoted to Cézanne in 1937 in L'Amour fou he considers the specificity of reassessing Cezanne’s painting, in particular by using the concept of the “halo” so dear to himself. In this text, he gives way to a very personal view of Cezanne’s painting, but also to esthetic lines close to the surrealist questionings that, for militant reasons, he will stop developing.
Je ne cours plus depuis longtemps les galeries. Deux lettres d’André Chastel, une réponse de Jean Hélion
Authors: Chevrefils Desbiolles Yves
Published: June 2021

Two letters from André Chastel with an answer from Jean Hélion.

The archives of painter Jean Hélion (1904-1987) kept in the Institut de la Mémoire contemporaine, are composed of several hundreds of letters, among them three letters exchanged with Art historian André Chastel (1912-1990) at the end of the seventies. Three letters ! Very little, indeed, between two personalities whose ideas and careers, far from the trends and ways of the period, could have, indeed, triggered a richer exchange. The careful reading of these letters, together with two short other texts from the beginning of the sixties, enables the writer to assess this epistolary rendez-vous that came too late.
L’ornementation primitive dans la Grammar of Ornament d’Owen Jones (1856)
Authors: Varela-Braga Ariane
Published: June 2021

The Grammar of Ornament of Owen Jones (1856).

By starting his Grammar of Ornament with a chapter on primitive ornaments, Owen Jones shows a precocious attention to cultures whose productions were still considered as exotic items. However, this interest, exceptional for his time, still remains unknown. Jones urges European artists to look into the system of ornementation developed by these populations. Even if his vision of natives remains rooted in the tradition of the 18th century, he is the first to pay serious attention to ornaments of that type in so important a publication. Altough inspired by the theories of Semper, he sketches a theory of the origins of ornamentation beyond the influence of technics and materials, finding its justification in the will to adorn, which characterizes human nature.
Des projets inédits concernant les pompes funèbres du Grand Condé par Pierre Paul Sevin (1687)
Authors: Chantrenne Damien
Published: June 2021

Unpublished drawings about the funerals of the Grand Condé by Pierre Paul Sevin (1687).

Conde died on December 11 1686. For this nationwide event, two designers, Jean I Berain and Pierre Paul Sevin, conceived drawings of projects for funeral ornaments at Notre-Dame of Paris and the Jesuit church Saint-Louis, under the leading of Father Ménestrier. Berain’s drawings were prefered to Sevin’s because of their classical inspiration, while Sevin, who had already worked with Menestrier long before 1686, faithfully rendered the latter’s notion of a decoration loaded with symbols and writing. However, Paul Sevin's designs, known from unpublished drawings, don’t mean any excessive dependance on Menestrier. The artist expresses his skill through very personal means, placing a staircase, for instance, in each mausoleum, a novelty at the time which completly changed the relationship between the corpse of the deceased and the congregation, thus serving the funeral service better.
Les maisons Grou : trois formes d’architecture civile à Nantes au XVIIIe siècle
Authors: Marquez-Gomez Maria del Carmen
Published: June 2021

The Grou Estate : three kinds of civil architecture in 18th century Nantes.

Kept in the public record offices in Loire-Atlantique, the sharing out of the estate of widow Grou, the wife of Guillaume Grou, a ship-owner and merchant in 18th century Nantes, represents a precise documentary source about the landed property of an upper middle class person. Indeed, it includes the detailed description of the five houses for renting which belonged to him, one of which being his own town house, on Feydeau Island. These houses, -all close to the commercial port, on the bank of the river Loire were meant to be rented for residential or professional purposes. The study of this group of houses enables us to follow the evolution of the Nantes cityscape, which tends, on one hand, to uniformize façades and create a whole and, on the other hand, to improve the laving out of apartments. Besides, the study of the drawing of Guillaume Grou’s estate and of his country house leads to establish that the profits from trading were often invested in the purchase of country houses around Nantes.
Les péripéties d’un inachèvement : l’église Saint-Louis des Chartrons à Bordeaux
Authors: Leulier Renée
Published: June 2021

An eventful incomplation : Saint-Louis des Chartrons’ church in Bordeaux.

The Bordeaux suburb of Les Chartrons was separated from the town by Château Trompette and its glacis. Building a parish church was a lasting concern of the archbishop and the project was taken up again in 1749, and was supported by intendant Tourny ; the latter asked architect André Portier, a pupil of Jacques V Gabriel, for grand plans of the church which had to be integrated in a vast urban scheme. The latent conflict between the intendant and the councillors, the premature death of Tourny junior, the intendant of Guyenne, the marshy nature of the ground and the high cost of such a project led to the church being left incomplete. This failure is also due to the fact that the building bore the stamp of the taste and practices of religious architecture of the years 1720-1740 then rejected by the advocates of a new “ greco-gothic ” ideal.
Un modèle de retable de Jean Barbet pour l’église paroissiale Saint-Geniès d’Avignon
Authors: Banel Nathalie
Published: June 2021

An alterpiece pattern after Jean Barbet for Saint-Geniès’s church in Avignon.

In 1643, an estimate for a new altarpiece in the parish church Saint-Geniès’s in Avignon was signed, in which it was stated that the the artist would have to use as a pattern a plate in the famous book by Jean Barbet, Livre d’Architecture, d Autels et de Cheminées, first published in Paris in 1633. Art history offers few opportunities to testify to the references used by artists. Saint-Geniès’s case is all the more remarkable as it concerns a Parisian pattern to be used in a town which was still a papal property immersed in Italian culture. Several hypotheses are put forward : François Royers de La Valfenière, the architect of the church, might have provided Barbet’s pattern, or, and that’s more likely, the patron, an Avignon nobleman, might have wanted to follow the Paris fashion.
Maiestas. Rome et la puissance des images
Authors: Gilles Sauron
Published: June 2021

Majestas : Rome and the power of images.

On the pretext of making the goddess Minerva and the mortal Arachne meet for a competition about the most beautiful tapestry, Ovid, in the 6th book of his Metamorphoses, opposes two aesthetics : on one hand, that of majesty (majestas) meaning hierarchy used, according to him by the Augustan power in the attempt to renew public art in Rome and the provinces, and, on the other hand, realistic aesthetics (ueritas) presented by him as a means of demystifying the powerful. Besides, at the beginning of the 5th book of his Fasti, Ovid presents Minerva as a goddess answerable “sine ui” for Jupiter’s fearful sceptre.

This awareness the Rome aristocracy had of the power of images, after P. Zanker’s happy wording, brought about a number of creations — especially in the crucial period of the end of the Republic and the institution of the Empire — , to which much research has been devoted in the course of the last decades.
Le renouveau des représentations mythologiques dans la propagande impériale de Trajan à Septime Sévère : l’exemple de la Gigantomachie
Authors: Nafti-Martin Amel
Published: June 2021

The renewal of mythological representations in Imperial propaganda from Trajanus to Septimius Severius : the example of Gigantomachy.

The use of the mythological representation of the fight between The Giants and the Olympians acquires renewed favour in the Roman Imperial days. From the sources, Trajan is likely to be responsible for it. Gigantomachy seems to counterbalance the historical relief : the fable acts as an allegory of the civilizing and transcendental Imperial victory. This topic of hellenistic origin spreads through microasiatic models, notably inspired by the frieze of the Great Altar of Pergamon. Gigantomachy meets with a real success in Minor Asia because of the Hellenistic heritage from the romanized cities, as well as in Gaul because of the merging of the myth with the local cult of Jupiter Taranis, to whom the Emperor was associated.
Pierre-Joseph Pezerat. Architecte français à la Cour impériale du Brésil (1825-1831)
Authors: Gonçalves-Machado Marco-Antonio
Published: June 2021

Pierre-Joseph Pezerat, a French architect at the Brazil Imperial court (1825-1831)

This study deals with the realizations in Rio de Janeiro of the architect Pierre-Joseph Pezerat (1801-1872) and with the role he played in the context of the strengthening of Brazil’s independence, during the period called the “Primeiro Reinado” (the first Empire) between 1822 and 1831. The architect’s arrival in Brazil is part of a number of scientific and military missions, which were meant to “civilize”. That raises the question of the way the new Brazilian elite was recruted in Europe by the Imperial House, on one hand, and, on the other hand, that of the French stylistic influence on 19th century Brazilian architecture. We wish to show to what extent art history can and should be taken into account as an enlightening element in the history of Brazil and, more precisely, of the exchanges between France and Brazil. Our approach combines an analysis specific to art history and a study of historical sociology.
Figures de l’alliance franco-russe : tableaux de marines autour de 1900
Authors: Zeisler Wilfried
Published: June 2021

Representations of the Franco-Russian Alliance : Paintings of seascapes around 1900.

The Franco-Russian Alliance, the outcome of an old tradition of exchanges, led to several official visits from 1891 on. As it was clearly linked with the maritime history, the alliance was often representated by French and Russian navy painters such as Chigot, Couturier, Bogoliubov, Gtritsenko and Tkatchenko who, being often trained seamen, depicted the main visits they witnessed : that of the Mediterranean Sea Russian squadron in Toulon in 1893, Nicolas II’s visit in 1896 and Félix Faure's visit to Cronstadt in 1897. Whether they caught precise moments of the encounter or set forth a more general vision, these representations testify to a time when people believed in the promises of the alliance : peace, prosperity and power. Some works of art were bought or ordered by the State to become official presents, such as the paintings offered in 1896 by Russia to the towns and institutions that had welcomed its seamen in 1893. Although they are seldom on show, these works are original in that they are in keeping with a Russian fad which swept through France at the end of the 19th century.
Veut-on en finir avec les Monuments historiques ? Un point de vue
Authors: Monnier Gérard
Published: June 2021

A end to Historical Monuments ? .

The decisions made since the 1980’s about preserving historical monuments have strong consequences, both on the content and the procedures. First on the content, because the intellectual and scientific approach has led to substituting new criterions to those justifying the preservation of the buildings of the past “in the name of art and history”. On the procedures, because the technical and politic choices had brought the decision closer to the reality and made room for new actors. In order to carry out its regalian mission, the State administration has met with great difficulties about the recent heritage ; several 20th century masterpieces are in a pitiful state and town councils, egged on by local societies, have asserted their ability to take charge. Today, the question of the devolution of preservationd has come to a turning-point, with the decision of the government to transfer the ownership of many listed monuments to local authorities. The aim of this paper is to analyse these innovations, to show that the changes in the content and procedures interact with one another and bring about a metamorphosis of preservation. The consequences will be asssessed : do the answers to these new questions lead to firm and lasting solutions or, on the reverse, do they raise dynamic and unexpected problems ?
Une utopie du vingtième siècle : le château de Villandry et La Demeure historique (1923-1937)
Authors: Gourbin Patrice
Published: June 2021

A 20h century Utopia : Villandry and La Demeure historique (1924-1957).

At the beginning of the 20th century, Joachim Carvallo restored Villandry Castle and its gardens which, according to him, reflected the ideal natural social order. In 1924, the same Carvallo created La Demeure historique, a society of private owners of historical monuments. In order to defend these historical dwellings, their purpose was to find financial solutions to maintain their integrity and also promote, thanks to the example of French castles, lineage, authority and hierarchy. Under German occupation, the society assumed Vichy’s government would support its wish to become the exclusive service in charge of private monuments. But the opposition of the service des Mouments historiques did not allow the creation of the global status claimed by the society. After the Liberation, solutions to make room for the castle in the modern world depended on the laws of the market and not on the moral contract passed between the owner and the nation that Joachim Carvallo had dreamed of.
Les premières années de l’École du Louvre, 1882-1914
Authors: Picot-Bocquillon Sophie
Published: June 2021

The first years of the École du Louvre (1882-1914).

In 1882, the École du Louvre opened its doors to an handfull of students wishing to study specific archeological points and ancient languages. A few years later, in spite of the reserves of the director, History of Art was part of the programme of the school. These changes led to a more varied and numerous public : they found a real pleasure in lessons illustrated with slides, in lectures where plasters went from hand to hand and in activities organized in the museums by the curators. However, the aim of the school was, through practical teaching, to train museum professionals. This ambition was not satisfied, so narrow were the openings. The school had to rely on a disinterested public to establish its originality and strenghten its position in spite of a certain lack of coherence in the definition of its programmes and missions.
La Céramique. La redécouverte d’un vitrail de l’Exposition universelle de 1878 au musée des Monuments français
Authors: Baguelin Isabelle
Published: June 2021

La Céramique : the rediscovery of a stained glass of the Universal Exhibition of 1878 at the musée des Monuments français.

The stained glass window picturing La Céramique belonged to a programme related to industrial arts decorating the Palais du Trocadéro during the Universal Exhibition of 1878. The deal was with L. Ch. A Steinheil who drew the cartoons and contracted out the execution of the yvork to Charles Leprévost and the stained glass painting to Louis Bonnot. As a tribute from Steinheil to his friend Theodor Deck, the stained glass celebrated artistic craftmanship, here the pottery, and French artistic production ; besides the style of the work announces the new formulas of Art nouveau and the development of domestic stained glass in France. Rescued from destruction when the first Palais du Trocadéro was pulled down in 1937 and rediscovered in 1997, this work must be restored and displayed in the future Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine in Paris.
Les musées et la sculpture française des XVIe et XVIIe siècles : une nouvelle approche
Authors: Bresc-Bautier Geneviève
Published: June 2021

Museums and French 16th and 17th century sculpture : a new approach.

This article deals with the relative inferiority in which sculpture from the Middle-Ages to the 19th century is kept in museum institutions. Rarely shown for their own sake, the collections are more often than not split up and exhibited either with other artefacts or else in rooms devoted mainly to painting. Many works, sometimes in poor condition, remain in sto¬ rage, uncatalogued. The author notes that progress has been made, however, over the last twenty years in the Louvre, in Ecouen and in many other regional museums. To obtain a new and better “visibility” of sculpture, a policy of more frequent restoration is necessary, as is a deeper study of the works, not only in show but also in storage : this would lead to the editing of proper scientific catalogues and, finally to a more attractive presentation, especially on the occasion of specific exhibitions, still too few and far between.
Une enquête de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art : les peintures italiennes des collections publiques françaises
Authors: Laclotte Michel
Published: June 2021

An Inquiry of the National Institute of Art History : italian paintings on french public collections.

The importance, richness and the variety of italian paintings, which are maintained in France, are well recognized. The National Institute of Art History has launched in 2001 a challenging task to develop an inventory and create an index list, as complete as possible, of these resources. It consists, either for known or unknown paintings, to relate how all partners, collectors and also curators put these paintings in their ultimate conservation place : museum, church or other institution. After an elaborate and large survey of many several institutions, this index is made by the combination of data coming from professors, researchers, and museum staff. However, some questions still subsist about the paintings included in the index : which are the criteria of selection for choosing a picture or another, even though it is a copy or a mediocre painting ? And which kind of data base we must elaborate : composed with descriptive forms, historical and bibliographical informations, should they be on access on web line ? Responses can come only from a collaborative project among art historians, professors, researchers and fellows of the National Institute of Art History.
Le paysage peint : un « petit genre » à l’heure du renouveau de la grande peinture d’histoire
Authors: Miscault Marie-Aude de
Published: June 2021

The painted landscape : a “petit genre ” at the time of the renewal of great history painting.

The 18th century saw the big development of landscape painting. Yet, since the writings of Félibien in the previous century, the Royal Academy which influenced ah artistic production, imposed a hierarchical classification by genres, among which the “landscape” was made one of the most “negligible”. However, the increase and diversification of works with this theme imposed the use of more varied and specific terms, while the word “landscape” corresponded only to the representation of countryside. The whole of these paintings still remains bound together with a coherent discourse, like that of Roger de Piles, who distinguished in this genre not themes but a “country style”, too present in France in the 18th century, as well as a “heroic style”, for which Poussin remains to be the unsurpassable model. This last style, which we know from the paintings of ruins, storms, as well as from the genuine historical landscape, and which was valued much by the artistic literature, contributed to the evo¬ lution of the status and definition of the genre.
Un grand décor de Charles Meynier sous le Directoire : la galerie des muses de Boyer-Fonfrède
Authors: Mayer-Michalon Isabelle
Published: June 2021

A geat decor by Charles Meynier under the Directoire : the gallery of the Muses of Boyer-Fonfrede.

Between 1795 and 1800, Charles Meynier (1763-1832) worked on a great decor for the town residence of the toulousan industrialist François-Bernard Boyer-Fon-frède (1767-1845). This gallery was to represent Apollo and the nine Muses. Among the nine paintings that were initially projected, only five were executed and presented at the Salon in 1798 and 1800 ; the decor was never completed and the gallery never saw daylight. The paintings of Meynier, which were in private possession until 2003, were acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art. The discovery of an architectural drawing that represented the initial project for the gallery, and numerous drawings or preparatory sketches found in various public and private collections, have allowed the reconstitution of the genesis of this important decor which, although unfinished, remains to be one of the most important representatives of the Directoire.
Le phénomène de la location de tableaux par les marchands de couleurs parisiens au XIXe siècle
Authors: Roth-Meyer Clotilde
Published: June 2021

The phenomenon of renting paintings by Parisian colour merchants in the 19th century.

In 1817, the painter, restaurateur, colour and painting merchant Alphonse Giroux suggests the rental of paintings, pictures and etchings of the greatest artists. In the following decades, around twenty merchants from Paris and the province will rent works to amateurs and painters. Even if these people have several reasons for renting a painting (for a party, for copying) they are also offered a range of other services. For Giroux and his fellow merchants, the rental of the works of living and non-living artists certainly has the purpose of diffusion of these paintings, but also in a wish to offer their clients the means to improve themselves. The link between this phenomenon, the exhibition and the selling of works, and the artistic materials and pedagogic manuals, clearly appears as the response to a real expectation from the members of the Parisian artistic life in the 19th century.
Le château d’Ancy-le-Franc entre 1844 et 1902 : redécouverte et réécriture du passé
Authors: Bélime-Droguet Magali
Published: June 2021

The castle of Ancy-le-Franc between 1844 and 1902 : rediscovery and rewriting of the past.

When Anne-Charles, Marquis of Clermont-Montoison, and Gaspard-Louis-Aimé from Clermont-Tonnerre bought the castle of Ancy-le-Franc in 1844, they found a dwelling in which the original Renaissance organisation of spaces had mostly disappeared. The addition of dividing walls and mezzanine floors as well as the setting up of wallpaper or paintings over the very old decorations had largely changed the physiognomy of the building’s interior. The complete restoration of the Chateau Ancy-Lefranc was made between 1844 and 1902. In the mind of Gaspard-Louis-Aimé de Clermont-Tonnerre, it was a matter of regaining the soul of a Renaissance residence, by means of various interventions on decoration, and by getting rid of the quasi-totality of later constructions. However, since he could not completely erase the “outrage of the past”, and in order to live comfortably in this castle, it was necessary to conserve certain old additions like the mezzanines, or to bring some “modern” comfort thanks to the installation of radiators, the restoration for the most part became an interpretation. And it is exactly this 19th century interpretation of the 16th century seen today at Ancy-le-Franc. Besides, the enhancement and the preservation of the painted decoration were not for free. In fact they were to add value to the history of the Clermont-Ton-nerre family. Also the contemporary image of the residence is in reality largely dependent on the scenario that the Clermont-Tonnerre family conceived for itself in the 19th century. To do this, the family knew how to emphasise decorations from the 16th century, which had long been obscured during many decades, and they re-established a historical continuity by means of restorations that contributed to saving this invaluable ensemble.
Henry Lerolle (1848-1929), peintre naturaliste et chrétien
Authors: Amiot Emmanuelle
Published: June 2021

Henry Lerolle (1848-1929) : naturalist and Christian painter.

Henry Lerolle, a naturalist painter and a friend of Maurice Denis, developed a religious way of painting from the 1870s until the beginning of the 20lh century, which is at the same time characteristic of the naturalistic movement at the end of 19th century and revealing of a personal evolution which manifests itself with the painting exposed at the Salon in 1885, A l’orgue, conserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This evolution, which demonstrates the complexity of his work, is probably linked to his friendships in the impressionist milieu as well as to his activities as a collector. His admiration for Degas and Puvis de Chavannes is certainly in the origin of his taste for the synthesis and decentred compositions, where a singularity is expressed by the emptiness, not very different from Lerolle’s preferences for music.
Maurice Denis (1870-1943) et le Stic B
Authors: Stahl Fabienne
Published: June 2021

Maurice Denis (1870-1943) and the Stic B.

The “Stic B” is a range of matt paint, invented immediately after the first world war in order to cover up and enrich the rough reinforced concrete surfaces. It was basically used as surface paint, whereas its inventors set their heart on renovating the mural adornment by developing with it a semi-fresco painting. Maurice Denis (1870-1943), a painter and a recognized critic, who at that time enjoyed an actual notoriety as a decorator, was the first to use it as a decorative paint in 1927, and contributed to assure its promotion among the artists in the 1930s and 1940s. The study of his decors painted in Stic B, nourished by a rich and unseen documentation, conveys a precious clarification of the chemical composition, the conditions of its use and the critical fortune of this material little known today.
« L’œil danse » : décors et costumes de Robert et Sonia Delaunay pour Cléopâtre
Authors: Rappe Felicia
Published: June 2021

The eye dances : decors and costumes of Robert and Sonia Delaunay for Cléopâtre.

In 1918, Serge Diaghilev, founder of the Ballets Russes, approached the Delaunays with the suggestion to create new costumes and a new stage design for the ballet Cléopâtre. Sonia Delaunay applied the principle of her “simultaneous” art works (based on the research of M.-E. Chevreul) to the costumes, while her husband Robert created a dynamic, extremely colourful stage design. Cléopâtre is highly challenging for the observer’s visual perception, equalling the demands of the modern city on people’s eye. Concerning Sonia Delaunay’s objective to integrate people into modern everyday life by way of applying her art to private interiors and Robert’s later monumental mural decorations, Cléopâtre represents an important, previously underestimated leg in the artists’ œuvre.
L’œuvre de Marianne Werefkin à Ascona
Authors: Khomenko Irina
Published: June 2021

The work of Marianne Werefkin in Ascona.

The museum of Ascona in Switzerland is the owner of the archives of Marianne Werefkin, a Russian artist who left Russia in 1896 with the intention to renew the creative expression in her work. She lived 20 years in Germany and took refuge in Ascona at the beginning of the First World War to finally stay there until her death in 1938. These archives comprise a collection of writings, which are rich in philosophical and artistic considerations of this artist. In Ascona Werefkin’s style established. The subject of her paintings is the man whom she puts alone on the road of life in the middle of a landscape which carries a mystical/symbolic message, by revealing her idea on the question of which way to choose in life. Her philosophy and her search of transcendence is what connect Werefkin to Russian symbolic tradition, which advocates the quest for the eternal source of all things. This quest is expressed differently by Werefkin in her different periods. At the end of her life, Werefkin covers the Ideal that she searched in the figure of the monk, which concentrates on this complex symbolism, reuniting the symbols of transcendence, nature and God.
La peinture en question. Entretien avec Gérard Garouste, réalisé par Thi-Von Muong-Hane
Authors: Muong-Hane Thi-Von , Garouste Gérard
Published: June 2021

Painting in question. Interview with Gérard Garouste.

The work of Gérard Garouste emerged in the 1980s, at the time when conceptual art occupied the forefront of the artistic scene. According to him, painting is one of the possible ways to pursue the heritage of Marcel Duchamps, who had the attitude of a painter when posing his brush. But following the end of the 19th century — which lacked its avant-garde — the contemporary artists took the official art for the bad art, and lost themselves in an escalation of originality. Already then, the traditional techniques were considered as surpassed, and the artists used them were seen as backward-looking. However, Gérard Garouste claims that painting is a way of expression as current as the multimedia art, but with a mystical dimension. Besides, from his point of view, the esthetical quest is a cultural business and should be relativised. In his paintings, he tries to go beyond the beautiful and the original, using basically painting to give primacy to the subject and to generate a questioning. He does not hesitate to paint in a figural way.
L’objet pour passion : remarques sur la démarche intellectuelle de Raymond Koechlin (1860-1931), historien de l’art
Authors: Tomasi Michele
Published: June 2021

The object as a passion : remarks on the intellectual approach of the art historian Raymond Koechlin.

Raymond Koechlin’s activity (1860-1931) as a member of the “Société des Amis du Louvre et du Conseil des musées nationaux” is very well-known today. His role in the UCAD and the character of his collection would deserve a study too ; therefore, this article is devoted to his historiographic production. On one hand it is the question of showing how Koechlin’s interests and method were affected by his activity as a collectioner of oriental art objects. On the other hand, the study aims to show that Koechlin’s Alsacian origins and his education in the Ecole libre en Sciences Politiques profoundly marked his approach to European and Asiatic cultures. The writer’s historiographic position is thus defined better, without disregarding the relationship between his colleagues and French and German friends.
Le confort dans les châteaux bourguignons aux XIVe et XVe siècles
Authors: Moreau Christophe
Published: June 2021

Comfort in the Burgundian Castles of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries.

Until now most studies of medieval castles have focused on military aspects. Such research, however, does not take into account the increasingly residential nature of castles in the later years of the fifteenth century. This shift led to a change in the architecture and configuration of castles and fortified housing. A survey of the comfort equipment found in the castles of the Duchy of Burgundy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries reveals two main categories of installments. Thematically defined by their relation to fire and water, these categories emerge from a close study of both sites and archives. The first axis of this research is based on the element of the fireplace, the second concentrates on water conducts found in Burgundian fortified sites and on the question of hygiene, focusing specifically on latrines. Accounting records provided major source material for this research.