Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection
Brand Quick Guide Prepared by Pidgeon Ward Consise Version | 20.05.19 1
Brand Quick Guide Prepared by Pidgeon Ward Consise Version | 20.05.19 1
Brand Quick Guide Prepared by Pidgeon Ward Consise Version | 20.05.19 1 Acknowledgements
Going public is a selection of works from This beautifully focussed exhibition and the Colin Holden Collection of Australian text for this accompanying publication and International prints, of which have been the work of Deirdre Cannon, Geelong Gallery is custodian on behalf Curatorial Assistant, and I thank her of the Colin Holden Charitable Trust. for her insight and research. Simone As a collector, historian, author, Mugavin, Marketing Coordinator, and curator the late Dr Colin Holden designed this elegant publication, and (1951–2016) shared his comprehensive Veronica Filmer, Registrar & Collection knowledge of Australian and International Manager, and John Stabb, Building & printmaking with Geelong Gallery’s Spaces Coordinator, have contributed audiences for over twenty years through to the dedicated storage, maintenance the development of scholarly, thought- and presentation of the Colin Holden provoking exhibitions and lectures. Collection. Lisa Sullivan, Senior Curator, had a long association with Colin Holden, Colin amassed a remarkable collection and has overseen all aspects of this of outstanding quality, and Geelong project with care and rigour. Gallery’s custodianship of it further Jason Smith, Director & CEO consolidates our distinctive, excellent representation of printmaking from the seventeenth century to the present day. The breadth and depth of the Colin Holden Collection adds materially and meaningfully to the range of researched, imaginative exhibitions we can curate.
I am grateful to Louise Box, Shane Carmody and Geoffrey Edwards, Trustees of the Colin Holden Charitable Trust, for their support of and valued commitment to Geelong Gallery.
James McArdell Rachel de Ruvigny, Countess of Southampton 1758
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection COVER Jean-Jacques Flipart Concours pour le prix de l’étude des têtes et de l’expression [Competition for the prize for the study of heads and expression] 1763 Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection
In 1689, the English diarist and collector These virtuosic engravers and etchers John Evelyn wrote enthusiastically of the developed new ways of closely imitating portrait prints he had begun collecting the texture, tone and spirit of existing in earnest, excitedly describing them painted portraits, elevating printmaking as ‘effigies of those who have made … to an art form that captured the status, a noise and bustle in the world, either occupation, achievements and character by their madnesse [sic] and folly, or of their subjects. a more conspicuous figure by their wit and learning’.1 As a newly minted These centuries saw portraiture extend connoisseur of printed images, Evelyn’s beyond the realm of the wealthy elite, statement reflects a particular focus of who could afford to commission and the European printing boom of the 17th display painted portraits in non-public and 18th centuries. This period fostered settings, as previously singular and a revived interest in portraiture, and privately owned images were made printmaking was used to reproduce available through democratic channels. existing painted portraits to illustrate There are clear parallels between books and pamphlets, or to be sold as printmaking and the contemporary relatively affordable artworks in their phenomena of mass media, the medium’s own right. Thus, printmaking provided reproductive nature a fitting vehicle new and expanded opportunities for for the propagation of celebrity. The the images of individuals who shaped exhibition’s title alludes to this increase the era’s political, societal and cultural in image trading, and subsequently, the milieus—or in Evelyn’s words, those who mercantile implications of ‘going public’: Going public—portraits from the Colin Holden Collection made a ‘noise and bustle in the world’— the likenesses of influential personages installation view, Geelong Gallery, 2020 to be disseminated and recognised. could now be bought and sold with relative freedom. So, as highly circulated Going public—portraits from the Colin visual representations of their sitters, Holden Collection assembles works portrait prints were charged with the from this pivotal era that illustrate task of communicating a carefully crafted how visual information about significant set of cues to a much wider audience individuals was brought into the printed than ever before. medium. Drawn from the collection of the late Colin Holden, who, like John Evelyn three centuries before him, was a passionate collector and connoisseur of prints, the exhibition features works by a number of the period’s master printmakers.
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 3 Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 4 After settling in Paris in the late 1640s, Although accounts from the period Robert Nanteuil quickly earned a describe him as a man of mediocre reputation as a skilled portraitist and intelligence and unscrupulous character, was appointed as Designer and Engraver public subscriptions were nonetheless to the King in the court of Louis XIV. instituted to pay his mounting debts— Throughout his career he engraved the writer François de La Rochefoucauld the likenesses of over two hundred remarking in 1672 that ‘no man with court members and the Parisian elite, so few amiable qualities was so his refined and physiognomically generally loved.’3 accurate impressions of sitters dominating engraving styles into the Nanteuil’s talent for masking flawed 18th century. This approach befitted characters with a quiet dignity can royal patronage at a time when be discerned in the rendering of the portraiture served a central role in Duke’s armour, of which no detail has asserting the power and influence of the been spared: each and every scallop, upper classes to their peers and subjects embossed ornament and fixing is alike. As print scholar William Ivins has precisely articulated, effectively observed, Nanteuil’s works constitute a encasing the Duke in an exoskeleton of ‘deliberately contrived net of rationality, valour. Nanteuil’s deft maneuvering of which was invented for the purpose of the burin is evident in the varying angles portraying the masks that did duty for the and applications of pressure he used to faces of the men in high places under cut into the printing plate, a technique the king’.2 To achieve this, Nanteuil that has produced fluid lines that taper masterfully exploited the innate formality and swell throughout the composition. of engraving to produce portraits The effect of this is clearly visible in the that uniformly convey his subjects as sheen on the Duke’s left arm, created by dignified and self-assured: two qualities areas of cross hatching and closely laid notable in his 1649 portrait of François de curved lines that gradually diminish to Vendôme, Duc de Beaufort [Cat. no. 12], a moment of negative space. Similarly, based on the painting by Jean Nocret. narrow interstitial lines and bold, deep incisions on the breast plate are skillfully François de Vendôme was a charismatic alternated to describe the lustre of highly Robert Nanteuil and vocal member of the French court polished metal. François de Vendôme, Duc de Beaufort 1649 during the 1630s, emerging as a natural favourite of the masses who bestowed upon him the title of ‘king of the markets’.
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 5 As a counterpoint to the highly This tonality allowed Morin to accentuate systematised clarity brought forth the personality and humanity of his by Nanteuil’s style of engraving, Jean sitters, a quality that in the eyes of Morin’s portrait of Henri II de Lorraine, historian Louis R Metcalfe translates to Duc de Guise [Cat. no. 11] after Justus a ‘peculiar sensation of familiarity with Sustermans provides an example of the human being represented’ in Morin’s how etching, a neighboring form of etchings.5 In Morin’s portrait, familiarity intaglio printing, can bring different is in part incited by the vulnerable dimensions of a sitter’s character to expression captured on Henri’s face, his light. Morin was the preferred engraver apprehensive and wary gaze seemingly of prominent academy painter Philippe at odds with his military regalia. A sense de Champaigne, and is best known for of curiosity about Henri’s personal life is his unique approach to the modelling of also prompted by his tousled lovelock— faces and heads. the section of hair worn over his left shoulder as a sign of devotion to a loved Identified by freely executed lines that one—inviting speculation as to who retain a sense of having been placed the object of this public declaration of by impulse rather than design, etchings romantic attachment may be. Compared often seem to stand in opposition to with the steely tenacity that emanates the formality typical of French print from Nanteuil’s portrait of François de portraiture from the era. Where engravers Vendôme, Morin’s humanistic regard use a v-shaped burin to extract metal of his subject yields an unexpectedly from the printing plate, etchers employ intimate encounter with a nobleman of a needle that creates fine lines that lack similarly high rank. the swelling quality of engraving, but produces a more idiosyncratic effect akin to drawing. So, in place of a terrain of tapering parallel lines, Morin assembled In the language of 17th and 18th century the features and textures of his sitter’s portraiture, clothing and accessories are faces using a seemingly improvised Jean Morin integral details that convey important Henri II de Lorraine, Duc de Guise c. 1630 series of tiny dots, ticks and flicks. information about a sitter’s social status. The tonality achieved with this manual These elements were carefully chosen technique resembles the stippling used by sitters and artists for the symbolic to create a mezzotint, an example of meaning they infer, as Pieter Stevens which can be seen in James McArdell’s van Gunst’s portrait of Henrietta Maria, portrait of Rachel de Ruvigny, Countess Queen of Great Britain [Cat. no. 14] after 4 of Southampton [Cat. no. 10]. Anthony Van Dyck demonstrates.
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 6 Henrietta Maria arrived in England from her native France as a fifteen year old to take her position as Queen consort of King Charles I, accompanied by a vast trousseau of finery. Importantly, as a devout Catholic marrying into the royal family of a resolutely Protestant country, she was an easy target for public hatred and suspicion. Portraits of Henrietta Maria thus aimed to suppress visual allusions to her nationality and religious beliefs, instead privileging symbols suggestive of traditional female virtues.
Her love of jewellery—especially pearls—is well documented, and as van Gunst’s work shows us, she was often pictured wearing them in a variety of presentations. Given their associations with wealth and prestige, the sheer volume of pearls in this portrait clearly asserts Henrietta Maria as a woman of significant means and rank. In addition to her crown, earrings and necklace, pearls adorn her fashionably ringleted hair and embellish the bodice and sleeves of her gown. Pearls also harbour allusions to purity and fertility—two qualities that any queen was expected to possess in order to secure the advancement of her royal family. At the time Van Dyck completed the original painted portrait in c. 1638, Henrietta had borne four out of the six children that would survive infancy. So, an interpretation of the pearl that reflects her maternal role is an entirely valid one.
Pieter Stevens van Gunst Henrietta Maria, Queen of Great Britain c. 1713–15
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 7 Conversely, depictions of pearls would Then, after the death of her brother in have had a particular religious resonance 1694, she embarked on a legal battle to with Henrietta Maria, having appeared in oppose the exclusion of women from her Catholic iconography since the Middle familial line of succession. Eventually Ages as a symbol associated with the she won, retaining the title of sovereign Eucharist and the Virgin Mary. There princess of Neuchâtel until her death are also accounts of a pearl cross that in 1707. Henrietta Maria brought with her to England which she regularly wore in Although her achievement of over- private settings, however, this piece of turning patriarchal power structures is pious jewellery has been omitted from objectively the most impressive aspect any visual representation. As much as of her life, it is Marie’s classification as the symbolic presence of pearls might a wealthy 18th century widow that takes appear to delineate a dutiful wife in precedence in this portrait—a position service of the English empire, then, evoked by her funereal black dress they can nonetheless be understood (that was often worn for the remainder as subtle evocations of Henrietta of a widow’s life after the death of their Maria’s own religious beliefs, and could husband) and the dark mantelet that potentially have been worn in covers her lace cap. As is customary with a deliberate act to assert her own mourning attire from the era, she wears identity as distinct from that of her no jewellery, however, illuminated at the English husband6—a gesture amplified rear left of the image, her hand hovers as images of her were circulated far and possessively over a crown decorated wide in print. with fleur de lys—the definitive symbol of French royalty. In Pierre Drevet’s engraving of Marie d’Orléans, Demoiselle de Longueville Though her status as an aging widow [Cat. no. 3] after the painting by foregrounds this work, Marie still Hyacinthe Rigaud, the use of costume clearly displays herself as a woman and symbolic items tells an altogether of royal heritage—even holding the different story. Marie, having eschewed ends of somber mourning garb with a number of early proposals, eventually aplomb. Overall, this work’s symbolic married Henri II de Savoie, Duc de overtones reinforce female gender Nemours in 1657 in her early thirties, norms whilst providing evidence of their though he was to die only two years later. transgression: a duality representative Pierre Drevet of Marie’s lasting legacy. Marie d’Orléans, Demoiselle de Longueville 1707
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 8 Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 9 As the discussion of works thus far Why then, have these critical elements reveals, printed portraits remain of her character biography been omitted inextricably linked to their original from her printed portrait? The answer painted versions long after they are lies in the specific context for which this released from the printer’s press. work was created. As a skilled draftsman In Going public, one work in particular and vignettist, Delvaux was a favourite that prompts a closer examination of artist of Parisian editor Hubert Cazin, this relationship is the portrait of Émilie who commissioned him to produce du Châtelet by Rémi Delvaux [Cat. no. 2]. illustrations for a variety of publications To today’s audiences, this three-quarter by philosophers, playwrights and poets. length image of a well-dressed woman The format of this work is consistent does not reveal much about its sitter, with that used for 18th century book so for more visual information we must illustrations, and a survey of Delvaux’s refer to the original portrait painted by prints reveal that the majority follow a Marianne Loir in c. 1745.7 similarly abbreviated convention. A dealer’s inscription in the margin of Loir’s portrait shows Émilie in a study, Émilie’s portrait which states that it is holding a mathematical compass in from ‘a large paper edition of ‘Voltaire’’, her right hand and a floral specimen in likely referring to its inclusion in a the left, with an astronomical model compendium of Voltaire’s writings, and papers on the desk behind her. also supports an understanding of Throughout this period, sitters routinely this print as an illustration designed to posed with the tools of their profession provide concise accompaniment to a as a way of communicating excellence written work. and achievements made in their field. Therefore, the array of scientific So, although there is a clear rationale implements and manuscripts placed in for this work’s lack of detail, the decision her midst would have clearly signalled to to remove these visual signifiers has an 18th century audience Émilie’s status clear consequences. Because Émilie’s as a leading scientist and philosopher. genius was recognised during her Indeed, Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, lifetime, a select community would have marquise du Châtelet (her full title) was understood the shorthand of the printed one of the few publically recognised portrait at the time of its publication. female intellectuals of the era. She Over the past two hundred years, authored the first French translation of however, Émilie’s achievements have Isaac Newton’s Principia, which detailed largely been overlooked or downplayed the basic laws of physics, amongst a host in historical discourse. Therefore, of other publications whose propositions this print currently denies its audiences Rémi Delvaux continue to govern scientific thought. a visual connection to her role in Émilie du Châtelet c. late 1700s scientific history.
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 10 Without referring back to the original painted portrait, the accomplishments of this exceptional woman are somewhat eroded in Delvaux’s print. What this shows us, then, is that the artistic and editorial license deployed in the creation of printed portraits remains relevant, and the context governing their creation must be factored into their interpretation.
Through their integration of new artistic Endnotes modes of expression, application of 1. Eric Chamberlain, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at symbolism and dissemination through Magdalene College, Cambridge: Prints and Drawings— non fine-art channels, reproductive Portraits, Cambridge: DS Brewer, 1994, p. xi. portrait prints promoted knowledge 2. William Ivins, ‘The tyranny of the rule’, Prints and and appreciation of their sitters far Visual Communication, Cambridge: Harvard University beyond the specific social, geographical Press, 1953, p. 82. and temporal contexts that generated their original painted manifestations. 3. Indianapolis Museum of Art, ‘François de Vendôme, Duc de Beaufort’, viewed 28 January 2020,
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 12 Illustrated catalogue checklist
Cat. no. 1 Cat. no. 2
Jean DAULLÉ Rémi DELVAUX French 1703–1763 French 1748–1823
Hyacinthe RIGAUD (after) Marianne LOIR (after) French 1659–1743 French c. 1715–1769
Hyacinthe Rigaud painting a portrait of his wife 1742 Émilie du Châtelet c. late 1700s engraving; state iv/iv etching and engraving 56.1 x 43.0 cm (sheet) 19.6 x 13.5 cm (sheet) 47.1 x 34.5 cm (plate) 13.0 x 8.4 cm (image) Colin Holden Charitable Trust Colin Holden Charitable Trust
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 13 Cat. no. 3 Cat. no. 4
Pierre DREVET Jean-Pierre-Julien DUPIN French 1663–1738 French mid-to-late-18th century
Hyacinthe RIGAUD (after) Claude-Louis DESRAIS (after) French 1659–1743 French 1746–1816
Marie d’Orléans, Demoiselle de Longueville 1707 Mademoiselle Contat, de la Comédie Française jouant le rôle de Suzanne dans engraving Le Mariage de Figaro [Mademoiselle Contat of the Comédie Française playing 56.4 x 40.8 cm (sheet) the role of Suzanne in The Marriage of Figaro] c. 1750 47.4 x 34.1 cm (plate) engraving Colin Holden Charitable Trust 26.6 x 19.8 cm (sheet) 19.8 x 11.5 cm (plate) Colin Holden Charitable Trust
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 14 Cat. no. 5
Gérard EDELINCK Flemish, French 1640–1707
François DE TROY (after) French 1645–1730
Charles Mouton c. 1692 engraving 45.5 x 34.9 cm (sheet) 42.8 x 34.9 cm (image) Colin Holden Charitable Trust
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 15 Cat. no. 6
Jean-Jacques FLIPART French 1719–1782
Charles-Nicolas COCHIN LE JEUNE (after) French 1715–1790
Concours pour le prix de l’étude des têtes et de l’expression [Competition for the prize for the study of heads and expression] 1763 etching and engraving 29.9 x 35.1 cm (sheet) 23.5 x 28.4 cm (plate) Colin Holden Charitable Trust
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 16 Cat. no. 7 Cat. no. 8
Nicolaes LAUWERS Pierre LOMBART Flemish 1600–1652 French 1613–1682
Anthony VAN DYCK (after) Anthony VAN DYCK (after) Flemish, British 1599–1641 Flemish, British 1599–1641
Lelio Brancacci c. 1630–40 Lucia Countess of Carlisle c. 1660–63 engraving; state iii/iv engraving; from the ‘Countesses’ series 36.2 x 23.9 cm (sheet) 34.5 x 25.8 cm (sheet) 22.1 x 16.8 cm (plate) 31.9 x 25.8 cm (image) Colin Holden Charitable Trust Colin Holden Charitable Trust
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 17 Cat. no. 9 Cat. no. 10
C MATHEY James McARDELL French c. 1730–1765 Irish 1728–1765
Jean-Baptiste SANTERRE (after) Anthony VAN DYCK (after) French 1651–1717 Flemish, British 1599–1641
Michel Richard de Lalande c. 1750 Rachel de Ruvigny, Countess of Southampton 1758 engraving mezzotint; state ii/iv 14.8 x 10.0 cm (sheet) 53.2 x 38.5 cm (sheet) 13.5 x 9.5 cm (image) 50.1 x 35.3 cm (image) Colin Holden Charitable Trust Colin Holden Charitable Trust
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 18 Cat. no. 11 Cat. no. 12
Jean MORIN Robert NANTEUIL French c. 1595–1650 French c. 1623–1678
Justus SUSTERMANS (after) Jean NOCRET (after) Flemish 1597–1681 French c. 1615–1672
Henri II de Lorraine, Duc de Guise c. 1630 François de Vendôme, Duc de Beaufort 1649 etching and engraving; state i/iii engraving 30.4 x 24.0 cm (sheet) 44.3 x 35.3 cm (sheet) 29.3 x 23.5 cm (image) 43.0 x 34.2 cm (plate) Colin Holden Charitable Trust Colin Holden Charitable Trust
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 19 Cat. no. 13
George Friedrich SCHMIDT German 1712–1775
Charles Etienne GUESLAIN (after) French 1685–1765
Gabriel Vincent Thevenard c. 1750 engraving 24.0 x 15.0 cm (sheet) 14.0 x 10.2 cm (plate) Colin Holden Charitable Trust
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 20 Cat. no. 14 Cat. no. 15
Pieter Stevens VAN GUNST Johann Jakob THOURNEYSER Netherlands 1659–1724 Swiss 1636–1711
H DESCHAU (after) Anthony VAN DYCK (after) c. 1600s Flemish, British 1599–1641 Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orléans, Duchesse de Montpensier Henrietta Maria, Queen of Great Britain c. 1713–15 (‘Mademoiselle’) 1671 engraving engraving 55.0 x 36.8 cm (sheet) 39.2 x 32.2 cm (sheet) 51.4 x 32.1 cm (plate) 38.8 x 31.6 cm (plate) Colin Holden Charitable Trust Colin Holden Charitable Trust
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 21 Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 22 Going public— Geelong Gallery Visit us portraits from the Colin Holden 55 Little Malop Street Geelong Gallery is located on Collection Geelong VIC 3220 Johnstone Park. The entrance is at A Geelong Gallery exhibition T +61 3 5229 3645 55 Little Malop Street, in Geelong’s 29 February to 30 August 2020 [email protected] arts precinct. geelonggallery.org.au Curator: Deirdre Cannon, Travelling by train— Curatorial Assistant, Geelong Gallery Geelong Gallery acknowledges the a 3 minute walk through Johnstone Traditional Owners of our land, the Park from Geelong Railway Station. ISBN 978-1-875237-26-5 Wadawurrung people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, Travelling by car— © Geelong Gallery past, present and emerging. 60 minutes from Melbourne CBD.
This publication is copyright. Follow us Apart from any fair dealing for the geelonggallery Government partners purposes of private study, research, geelonggallery criticism or review as permitted under geelonggallery the Copyright Act, no part may be geelong gallery channel reproduced by any process without Sign-up for our e-news at written permission. geelonggallery.org.au
Inquiries should be directed to the publisher.
Publisher: Geelong Gallery, 2020
Catalogue design: Geelong Gallery
Photographer: Andrew Curtis p. 3, 4, 9, 11, 12, 22
All other images: Geelong Gallery
Going public— portraits from the Colin Holden Collection 23