Auguste Bonheur
The paintings in the collection of the Dahesh Museum of Art represent a broad range of subject matter. The 19th century academy followed the traditions of drawing the ideal human form from the 17th and 18th centuries. Thus, many of the artworks on view represent the human form. Technical artistic standards were still of utmost importance but the academies fostered and valued a strict hierarchy of themes, including classical, religious, mythological, and allegorical subjects at the top. So what do we make of the other genres of landscape or still life that were considered of lesser importance?
A painting by Auguste Bonheur (French, 1824-1884),
Cattle by a Lake, is one such image. It could be classified as an animal or a landscape painting, the two lowest ranked genres of academic art. While not held high academically speaking, these images were appreciated by the public and were often produced by small groups or schools of like mined painters. Auguste Bonheur was in good company painting such imagery; his father was a landscape painter as was his sister
Rosa Bonheur.
For additional works by Auguste Bonheur,
click here.
Posted by Education Manager Jim Daichendt
The Houses of Parliament, Westminster
The Dahesh Museum of Art recently re-hung its permanent collection (open to the public on May 3, 2007). Included within the exhibition are several artworks that have not been on display for an extended period of time. One of the notable additions is by the artist David Roberts titled
The Houses of Parliament, Westminster. The painting depicts the oldest part of Parliament, where the walls date back to 1097 (rebuilt in the 14th century and 19th century after a fire destroyed much of the old palace). To learn more about the history visit the official website of
Parliament.
In Roberts’ painting, the viewer’s perspective is overlooking the Thames where a few boats meander into the foreground. This view has been recaptured a number of times by artists including Joseph Mallord Turner’s
Burning of the Houses of Parliament and a series by Claude
Monet.
The painting by Roberts at the Dahesh is an anomaly in respect to his oeuvre. He is most well known for his images of Egypt and the Holy Land, where he traveled to paint the monuments, architecture, and people. Later reproduced as hand-colored lithographs, his works are still sought after by collectors as some of the most popular illustrations of Egypt. To learn more about Roberts
click here.
Posted by Education Manager Jim Daichendt
Interesting Links
If you enjoyed our current exhibition
Napoleon on the Nile: Soldiers, Artists, and the Rediscovery of Egypt you might want to continue your exploration of the history of Egyptology at the Brooklyn Museum. Their exhibition entitled
Egypt Through Other Eyes, showcases works by scholars, explorers, and artists that were inspired by the Description de l'Égypte. If you can't make it to the show, check out their
Dig Diary, which chronicles their current archaeological expedition in South Karnak, Egypt, exploring the Temple Precinct of the Goddess Mut.
Posted by Educator Gretchen Burch
Reading The Stone
Our current show, Napoleon on the Nile, includes a graphical reproduction of the Greek text portion of the Rosetta Stone. Kids, especially, seem to be fascinated with the image when on gallery tours (“I see an omega!” Where does it say omega?”) and they ask the million-dollar question with much greater frequency than their adult counterparts: “What does this thing say?” As I couldn’t answer this question last time I was faced with it, I decided to look it up.
We know that the Rosetta Stone was the key to unlocking the Hieroglyphic writing system, and that
Jean-François Champollion cracked the code in 1822. Most people can guess that the Stone contains the same text in two or three separate written languages (both answers are really correct, as the text appears in Greek, Hieroglyphics, and
Demotic -a cursive form of the Egyptian language). But few know that the text is a proclamation relating to the anniversary of the coronation of Ptolemy V; basically an administrative document to be posted in a public place. The text is inscribed three times to be legible to three spheres of Egyptian life: Hieroglyphics is the system of the priest class, Demotic is the vernacular of daily life, and Greek is the language of the occupying force which was in control of Egypt. You can read the full translation here (
link).
Many of the facts above come from an
article on the website of the British Museum, the institution which currently houses the Rosetta stone. The Stone is in England because the French savants who found it had to forfeit it to the British as part of their surrender in 1801. It is an ironic turn of events, then, that it was a Frenchman (Champollion) who finally unraveled the Hieroglyphic system 20 years later. In this light, it’s not surprising that the British Museum article recounts the work of Thomas Young, an English physicist, before discussing the more groundbreaking and well-known discoveries of Champollion.
Posted by Educator Evan Foreman
It's Really Ink!
The
Rosetta Stone was found by Napoleon's savants in 1799 during his expedition to Egypt. When the French presence in Egypt was eventually squelched by the British, they demanded all the information and artifacts the French savants collected. Ultimately the savants were allowed to keep their research, but major artifacts, such as the Rosetta Stone, were taken by the British back to England.
In September, the
Dahesh Museum had the wonderful opportunity to have a renowned scholar Dr. Edward Bleiberg, Curator of
Egyptian Art at the
Brooklyn Museum, come speak about the translation of the Rosetta Stone. An engaging speaker, he also told a lesser known story of the stone. Most images we have seen of the Rosetta Stone show it with a shiny black surface, and the British Museum even added white paint to the engraved text in 1980 so it was easier to read. But conservationists discovered eight years ago that the French had covered the stone in ink to make copies of it before giving the stone to the British. The French never bothered to clean the stone, and the British never noticed the dried ink. So for nearly 200 years, it remained on display in its inked state. It has now been cleaned and even has a pink stripe across the top of its granite surface.
Read more about it on the British Museum's website:
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/conservation/cleaning2.htmlPosted by Educator Gretchen Burch
The Naked Truth
The New York Times reported on 9/30/06 (link to article) that a public school teacher was suspended for her students being exposed to nude imagery in the Dallas Museum of Art on a school sanctioned field trip. According to the article, the art teacher Ms. McGee had been denied transfer to another school in the district, that her annual contract would not be renewed and that a replacement had been interviewed."
The history of art is filled with nude sculpture and painting from ancient Greek statuary to contemporary photography. If students are to understand the arts and art history-is the nude figure off limits in our public schools? If not...should the nude be approached in a particular way? Was the decision made by the Principal and school board for Wilma Fisher Elementary School just ?The Dahesh Museum of Art collects and interprets art created by students and teachers of the European academy where an incredible amount of importance was placed on the nude figure in the training of artists. Students and teachers would be hard pressed to visit and not be exposed to a nude figure in this or any other museum.Posted by Education Manager Jim Daichendt
What Does A Self-Portrait Say?
Gérôme's choice of referencing Pygmalion is an appropriate one for an artist of the academy. These artists were striving for accuracy so real that the sculpture itself might look alive. Academic art did not leave room for individual interpretation of the figure like modern sculpture does. Academic sculptures judged to be the most successful were those that also appeared to be the most real. With the juxtaposition of both the model and the sculpture, only the material of the sculpture indicates which one is real and which one has been created. Their forms are identical. But in this self-portrait Gérôme is not only highlighting his work as a sculptor, but his skills as a painter as well. Though his sculptural skills seem flawless, he makes it clear using paint that one figure is a real model while one is a plaster figure.
Self-portraits like this one are an interesting topic to consider. Perhaps, for the reasons discussed above, Gérôme chose to compare himself to Pygmalion. But look around Gérôme's studio. How else is he portraying himself? Even though he is carving and molding a plaster cast, his studio is remarkably clean. He has also inserted other examples of his sculptural mastery into the painting, including the dancer with the hoop in the background, which was a model for another one of his sculptures. The bust on the shelf behind him is also another one of his sculptures, this time a portrait of the moon goddess Selene. Not only is he interested in the Greco-Roman sculptural heritage, the mask and other exotic objects placed along the back wall highlight his interest in foreign cultures.
Now that you have heard two different discussions of this painting, what do you think this self-portrait says about Gérôme? Does the painting remind you of any other self-portraits? How is it different from self-portraits you are familiar with? Think about how you would like yourself to be portrayed. What would you do with your own self-portrait?
Posted by Educator Gretchen Burch
Gérôme & The Story of Pygmalion
Working in Marble (or The Artist Sculpting Tanagra) by
Jean-Léon Gérôme is one of the most popular works in our permanent collection. The connection between the painting's subject matter and the Academy—with its concerns with classicism and pedagogy—are obvious. But the work’s affinities are varied and multilayered. Note, for example, the small image attached to the studio wall just behind the artist. This is a small reproduction of Gérôme’s own Pygmalion and Galatea—though not either of the two most famous versions, painted in the same year of 1890. The painting-within-the-painting combines the more expansive background of the
Metropolitan Museum version with the figure grouping from a
private collection version, all at a scale that seems much smaller than the almost three-foot height of both of the canvas versions.
The story of Pygmalion and Galatea, from
Wikipedia:Pygmalion was a lonely
Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of
ivory. According to Ovid he is 'not interested in women', but his statue is so realistic that he falls in love with it. He offers the statue presents and eventually prays to
Aphrodite the goddess of beauty and love. Aphrodite takes pity on him and brings the statue to life. They marry and have a son, Paphos.
What is the artist doing by invoking the story of Pygmalion? The myth has long been a favorite subject of artists, but why? What further conclusions can we draw based upon the fact that Gérôme has chosen to include a reference to Pygmalion in his self portrait (and more, a self portrait showing him at work on a classicized marble sculpture)?
Posted by Educator Evan Foreman
