Gardens and gods 12 June – 16 September 2018 Grand Trianon “grand & tranquil sojourn where we spend days but also moments; fountains, gardens, peristyle, palace full of pleasures, wherein the royal hand for whom everything is easy in its noble relaxation, has plotted the ornaments; show us, show us your charming appeal. ” Le Palais de Flore, ballet danced at Trianon on [ ] January 1689, Paris, Ballard, 1689. First entrance Press contacts Hélène Dalifard, Aurélie Gevrey, Violaine Solari +33 (0) 1 30 83 75 21 [email protected] presse.chateauversailles.fr follow us at chateauversailles.fr Press release p.6 Foreword by Catherine Pégard p.8 Foreword by Laurent Salomé p.9 contents timelines p.11 The life of Jean Cotelle (1646 - 1708) p.13 The Grand Trianon during the reign of Louis XIV p.15 the exhibition p.17 1- Depicting the groves in the 17th century p.18 2- The “Cotelle Gallery” p.19 3- Italian inspiration p.21 4- Lost decor from the Château of Saint-Cloud p.22 5- Restoration of the paintings in the “Cotelle Gallery” p.22 6- Cotelle and the dissemination of models p.24 7- Religious subjects p.25 8- In the service of the King p.25 the exhibition in the gardens p.27 Exceptional flower planting p.28 in connection with the exhibition p.31 Exhibition catalogue p.32 Explore the subject further p.33 Versailles inspires p.34 exhibition patrons p.37 A unifying patronage campaign p.38 Exhibition partners p.41 Practical information p.45 Jean Cotelle, gouache on paper, before 1693. before paper, on Cotelle, gouache Jean 4 Arethusa, pursuing with Alpheus Mountain or Water Star the of View Fouin / Christophe de Versailles © Château Jean Cotelle Thanks to the rediscovery of numerous archival pieces, we restoration of the works of art 1646-1708 now have a better understanding of the artist’s life. The son of a decorator and ornamentalist, Jean Cotelle Most of the paintings in the “Cotelle Gallery” required Gardens and gods probably trained under the portraitist Claude Lefebvre. restoration in order to renew the fresh colours and After a long stay in Italy, he returned to the French Royal precision of the design. The operation was carried out Versailles, 11 June 2018, Academy of Painting and Sculpture as a miniaturist. He thanks to support from multiple patrons (the Friends of Press Release was tasked with illustrating the Campaigns of Louis XIV. Versailles Society, Fondation du Patrimoine and individual Having earned a certain reputation, he was solicited by patrons) as part of the “Adopt a painting in the Cotelle Jean Cotelle 1646 - 1708. Gardens and gods is the first exhibition dedicated to the 17th-century painter. This “Painter Monsieur, the king’s brother, around 1680 to decorate Gallery” campaign launched in 2013. to the King” was an excellent miniaturist and a talented decorator who practised almost all painting genres. The the jewellery cabinet (which has since been lost) at the exhibition will present his entire career through a hundred or so works, including 21 paintings in the Grand Trianon Château of Saint-Cloud. The artist was also one of those to gallery that have been recently restored through patronage. For the occasion, the gardeners of the Grand Trianon receive a commission for a May for Notre-Dame cathedral Exceptional flower planting will also be replanting the parterres to reflect the depictions by Jean Cotelle. in Paris, depicting The Marriage at Cana. In 1693, he left Paris for Marseilles where he became assistant director The flower gardens of the Grand Trianon will echo the of the Opera and decorated the ceiling of the City Hall. exhibition. From June to September, the Trianon garden From 1687, after the Versailles of Charles Le Brun Thanks to his talents as a decorator he contributed to department will be replanting the parterres to reflect one of which the Hall of Mirrors was the culminating preparing the temporary decorations for the entry of the of Jean Cotelle’s paintings, titled View of the Grand Trianon achievement, the decor in the Marble Trianon, a secluded Dukes of Burgundy and Anjou into Avignon. After his from the parterres, with Flora and Zephyr. Replanted in like leisure palace set away from the court, paved the way for a return to Paris in 1703, his career appears to have been design, the parterre will reflect the colour scheme used new generation of painters who focused on the search for more low-key, and he shifted towards the creation of in the painting, with a palette of pinks, blues and whites ornamentation and representation of nature. Jean Cotelle drawings for engravings and gouaches for fans. He died on against a bold green background that evokes Cotelle’s was one of the central figures of this generation and a 24 September 1708 in Villiers-sur-Marne. gardens. well-known artist. The exhibition explores the different aspects of his career and creates, for the first time, an initial corpus of his works, His skills were much appreciated at the time and he was shining the spotlight on an artist whose contributions have appointed to carry out most of the decoration in the been overlooked by history. main gallery in Trianon, comprising 21 paintings which were produced between 1688 and 1693. For this location, measuring almost 53 metres long with 16 large windows positioned at regular intervals and looking out onto the gardens, the artist opted for canvasses in portrait format. They depict every grove in the gardens of Versailles with characters from mythology and fables, organised into two registers (earthly and heavenly) and modelled on the bucolic landscapes of the Bolognese painter, Albani. A unique set of paintings that reveals Louis XIV’s fondness for his gardens, the series remains an important source of reference among depictions of French formal gardens and continues to improve our knowledge of the groves of Versailles. In echo to these works, fourteen gouache illustrations by Cotelle, miniatures of the gallery paintings, will also be on display. Lead sculptures from the decor of some of the groves no longer in existence in the garden Jean Cotelle, View from the parterres of the Marble Trianon with Zephyr and Flora asleep, 1688-1693, oil on canvas. of Versailles, such as the Maze Grove and the Grove of © Château de Versailles, Dist. RMN- Grand Palais / Thomas Garnier the Domes, will exceptionally feature in the exhibition. Nevertheless the gallery, which was a royal commission and without doubt the artist’s major achievement, must not overshadow other aspects of his career. curators Scenography Béatrice Sarrazin: Head Curator for Heritage at the Musée National des Design: Scénografia, Nicolas Groult and Valentina Dodi Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon Graphic design: Graphica, Igor Devernay Lighting: Ponctuelle, Damien Joyeux Assisted by Clara Terreaux, Art Historian Parterres of the Grand Trianon © Château de Versailles / Thomas Garnier 6 7 foreword foreword by catherine pégard by laurent salomé President of the Établissement Public du Châ- Director of the Musée National des Châteaux teau, du Musée et du Domaine National de de Versailles et de Trianon Versailles Whether rediscovering little-known works or like a walk around the estate of Trianon. Big and small. Cotelle used both formats for his series individual artist contributes and, with Cotelle, suspended discovering an artist who is unknown to many people, of views of the Estate of Versailles, where the gods are time, the Italian sky, the precious colouring, the dramatic there is always something incredible about finding, This first exhibition devoted to Jean Cotelle, given over attending to their business and their love affairs. Which perspective, the voluptuousness of the gardens and the several centuries after the event, the explanation of a to the first overall restoration of the Trianon gallery of the two formats belongs to him most? References sensation of fresh air make us want to follow the gods’ commission or the fragments of a forgotten life. paintings since they were returned there a century ago in to the painter are full of ambiguity. Was he brilliant or heartaches and score settling. 1913, contributes to the desire to see this estate brought naive, revolutionary or archaic? He was the only painter Bringing Jean Cotelle’s works back to the gallery of the back to life to exist alongside Versailles in its own right, to have the idea of merging, as if the approach was quite Although the artist was sometimes described as puerile, Grand Trianon that bears his name involved a challenge: as Louis XIV and his successors wanted. natural, a freshly-drawn, precise depiction of modern it was perhaps because he confronts us with what some restoring his paintings, somewhat the worse for wear. Versailles with stories from mythology: reality and people – but Louis XIV was not one of them – hesitate The generosity of our patrons, particularly the Friends The exhibition, which brings together all kinds of arts, is eternity. The idea was so original that the two painters to allow to come to the surface: the vivacity of childhood of Versailles Society, along with the tenacity of Béatrice a testimony to the unrelenting work of all those involved who completed the decoration of the gallery in the new emotions. Sarrazin, Head Curator for Heritage at the Musée that allows us to share the magic. 2018 is an auspicious Palace of Trianon, Martin and Allegrain, did not try to The 17th century knew how to cultivate this most National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, year which, thanks to the skill of the gardeners, has copy it and simply populated their contributions with precious of all possessions as the finest flower in its revealed a set of works that, while retaining their transformed the parterres into a mirror image of Cotelle’s promenading courtiers.