Hôtel Sandelin Museum, Saint-Omer In partnership with the Dunkirk Fine Arts Museum Masterpieces in dialogue European painting from BRUEGHEL to COROT 22/06 > 28/08/2016 PRESS PACK Masterpieces in dialogue contents European painting, from BRUEGHEL to COROT The exhibition p. 1 Partners p. 11 Practical information p. 17 Copyright-free images p. 20 The exhibition The exhibition Masterpieces in dialogue European painting, from BRUEGHEL to COROT 22/06 > 28/08/2016 This summer, the hôtel Sandelin Museum invites you to discover an exceptional exhibition comprising masterpieces from its collections of Western paintings and from the Dunkirk Fine Arts Museum. Brueghel, Ribera, Nattier, Boucher, Corot... Explore this fascinating dialogue of master painters. A timeless encounter, with the key word being “admiration”! The hôtel Sandelin Museum, like the Dunkirk Fine Arts Museum, is home to a great many masterpieces of painting. This unique exhibition presents an exploration of diverse genres: landscapes, portraits, genre scenes, historical paintings, still-lifes and religious scenes, dating from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Fun, interactive exhibition aids allow visitors to better understand why these paintings are today considered remarkable works and how they were perceived at the time of their creation. Don’t forget to request your free “visitor’s journal” (available at the front desk) dedicated to this exhibition spotlighting the treasures of these two important regional museums. This exhibition is organized and hosted in partnership with the Dunkirk Fine Arts Museum, currently closed to the public. 2 PRESENTATION This summer, the hôtel Sandelin Museum of Saint-Omer and the Fine Arts Museum of Dunkirk join together to present their visitors with a most colourful season of discoveries. Taking advantage of the Dunkirk museum’s closure to the public, several dozen masterpieces leave their home to enjoy a temporary stay at the lovely hôtel Sandelin, thereby entering into dialogue with the major works housed at the Saint-Omer site. Over 100 paintings from both collections, dating from the 15th to the 19th centuries, bring 18 exhibition rooms of the hôtel Sandelin Museum to life, representing no less than 65 major figures who left an indelible mark on the art of their time: the Brueghel dynasty, Van Dyck, Snyders, Carrache, Ribera, Giordano, Teniers, Lesueur, Boucher, Robert, Boilly, Prud’hon, Boudin, Corot and many more… Over and beyond the fame of these artists and what their oeuvres evoke, this exhibition questions and considers the very notion of the “masterpiece”: What makes a particular work stand out from the crowd? What makes a painter “great”? Must a masterpiece be beautiful? Do any essential criteria exist allowing for its definition? Can works be placed in hierarchical order? Does genius beget talent? An ambitious format, an exceptionally well-constructed subject, sure precise brushstrokes, the evident pleasure and facility of an expert exercising his trade, ingenious thought, expression, eloquence, originality, singularity… Such were the remarkable qualities and distinctive signs of masterpieces that guided our selection of works for this exhibition. These questions are considered by exploring the various pictorial genres developed between the 15th and 19th centuries: the difficult balancing of objectivity and creation in portraits; the anecdotal, familiar or moralizing characters of genre scenes; the skilful mixing of materials and the discreet symbolism of still- lifes; the science of laying out and of rendering the moment in landscapes; the lyricism and elevation of great historic or religious works… Throughout their tour, visitors are invited to contemplate, appreciate, discern and admire the most prestigious paintings from both museums’ collections. Certain encounters allow for the unique juxtaposition of works by the same artist, occasionally separated for several centuries, such as those by Bega, Leytens and Minderhout. Finally, this exhibition provides the opportunity to evoke certain recent studies, such as those of the Adoration of the Shepherds by Ludovico Carrache, The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis by Mathieu Elias, the Landscape with Skaters by Joos II de Momper and The Battle of Magenta by Alphonse de Neuville. The exhibition is complemented by numerous aids for an enriched experience: a “visitor’s journal”, game cards for children, a game for visiting families, a visitor’s guidebook in English and in Dutch, regular gatherings, guided tours and a dedicated publication. The goal of this exhibition is, by relying on the exceptional quality of these works, to be shared and enjoyed by the greatest number of visitors. It also allows for a new perception and interpretation of the hôtel Sandelin Museum collections, while nourishing a reflection on the future of the Dunkirk Fine Arts Museum. 3 The exhibition EXHIBITION ORGANISATION The exhibition is divided into six sections, allowing for an intermingling of genres, painters and periods and establishing a veritable dialogue between both collections, that of the hôtel Sandelin Museum of Saint-Omer and that of the Fine Arts Museum of Dunkirk. The presented works complement, interact and mutually enrich one another, while forming an extensive ensemble reflecting the great trends of European painting from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Each genre is in this manner illustrated by a series of truly exceptional works, offering visitors a fresh perspective on the notion of the “masterpiece”. > The Portrait > The Genre Scene > The Still-Life > The Landscape > The Religious Painting > The Historical Painting 4 EXHIBITION SECTIONS > The Portrait During the Middle Ages, the art of portrait painting was a luxury reserved for the elite, for the princes, nobles and other powerful persons who commissioned artists. Portraits from this period represent persons who played a preponderant role in the society of their time, persons readily identifiable by their attributes suited to their rank or function. Such was the case of political and religious figures, as well as wealthy and influential individuals, such as donors and patrons, whose ranks included – starting in the Renaissance – more and more rich merchants and bankers. The influence of these new sponsors allowed for the appearance – alongside works emphasizing the great power and fortune of the represented persons – of a new type of portrait focusing on the subject’s face and its traits, on expressing, by his regard, the nobility of the subject’s attitude rather than any evident wealth. Emphasis was lent the person’s physical presence and penetrating expression, as in Portrait of a Man by Adriaen Thomasz Key (Dunkirk Collection, 1585). During the 17th century, under the influence of Van Dyck and Rubens, Flemish portrait painting constituted a synthesis of the psychological, introspective approach and the decorative approach. In this manner, Thomas de Keyser, in his representation of Hendrick Verburg and Elisabeth van der Aa (Saint-Omer Collection, 1628 / Image 1), pays as much attention to the richness of their dress, reflecting their social position, as to their expressions. At the same time, artists produced more and more study heads or so-called 1 “fantasy figures”, constituting so many anonymous portraits or “expressive heads” (têtes d’expression), inspired by models, with the artists varying their subjects’ perspective, physical characteristics, eloquence, body movements and psychology. A few accessories suffice for these works – usually focused on the face or the head and shoulders – to lend their subject a particular identity or symbolic role. The work by Jusepe Ribera, The Philosophers’ Dispute (Saint-Omer Collection, 17th century), also shows two figures face-to-face, a theme dear to this painter. The heavy folds of their clothing and the books are dealt with like veritable still- lifes. Their body movements and expressions make for an especially eloquent painting and represent so many possibilities for the painter to take full advantage of his subject. The Woman Laughing by Van de Venne (Dunkirk Collection, 17th century), represents an old woman with an almost caricatural face whose striking expression, at once ironic and malicious, seems to invite us to view the world as a farce. In a masterful and nimble style, Van Dyck represents a Bearded Man (Dunkirk Collection, 17th century / Image 2), most likely the fragment of a much larger panel. Also starting during this period, and later to a much greater extent during the 18th century, painters lent the attributes of ancient heroes or gods or inserted literary references so as to magnify their models, as illustrated by Madame de Pompadour portrayed as Diana the Huntress by Nattier (Saint-Omer Collection, 1748). In the following century, portrait painting – a genre that attracted the greatest talents – mixed together natural attitudes, hyperreal details and codes of bourgeois representation 2 (Portrait of Citizen Bourgeon by Girodet, Saint-Omer Collection, 1800). 5 The exhibition EXHIBITION SECTIONS > The Genre Scene The following section gathers together genre scenes from the 16th to the 18th centuries that testify to the vitality of this type of representation, as well as the various currents of influence over time. The Flemish Primitives lent their fame to these scenes directly inspired by reality and illustrating social phenomena and everyday life, occasionally set upon a moralizing narrative background. In The Fires of Saint-Martin by Martin van Cleef (Dunkirk Collection,