La Belle Orgie

The orgy of revisionism which has recently been prompting museums here and abroad into reappraisals of such scorned, despised, and half-forgotten nineteenth century artists as Hans Makart, Wilhelm Bourgereau, Arnold Böcklin, and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes has led the Philadelphia Museum, in cooperation with the Musées de France, to resurrect Art in France under Napoleon III. Covering the years 1851 to 1871, an epoch which, until now, most art historians have blissfully ignored, this large and fascinating assemblage of architectural design, painting, sculpture, photography, and decorative arts will travel to the Detroit Art Institute (January 15 to March 18, 1979) and then to Paris; however, it bypasses New York.

Interestingly, the initiative for this enterprise came from the Philadelphians; according to Jean-Marie Moulin, chief curator of the Musée National de Compiègne and author of the catalogue introduction, “had it been proposed in France it would have had great difficulty seeing the light of day.” M. Moulin attributes French apathy toward, not to say horror of, this period (which, in fact, included not only the last years of Ingres and Delacroix but the emergence of Courbet, Manet, and Impressionism) to the national humiliation endured at the hands of the Prussians in the War of 1870. Needing a scapegoat for this inglorious defeat, French historians held Napoleon III responsible, simultaneously consigning to oblivion everything associated with his regime, including its art. Even today, according to M. Moulin, those French scholars attempting to explore the rich production of those years “have felt the scorn (sometimes tinged with indulgence) that has surrounded the period. . . . Even a hundred years later, passions are still burning.”

RB

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Ruth Berenson

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The orgy of revisionism which has recently been prompting museums here and abroad into reappraisals of such scorned, despised, and half-forgotten nineteenth century artists as Hans Makart, Wilhelm Bourgereau, Arnold Böcklin, and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes has led the Philadelphia Museum, in cooperation with the Musées de France, to resurrect Art in France under Napoleon III. Covering the years 1851 to 1871, an epoch which, until now, most art historians have blissfully ignored, this large and fascinating assemblage of architectural design, painting, sculpture, photography, and decorative arts will travel to the Detroit Art Institute (January 15 to March 18, 1979) and then to Paris; however, it bypasses New York.

Interestingly, the initiative for this enterprise came from the Philadelphians; according to Jean-Marie Moulin, chief curator of the Musée National de Compiègne and author of the catalogue introduction, “had it been proposed in France it would have had great difficulty seeing the light of day.” M. Moulin attributes French apathy toward, not to say horror of, this period (which, in fact, included not only the last years of Ingres and Delacroix but the emergence of Courbet, Manet, and Impressionism) to the national humiliation endured at the hands of the Prussians in the War of 1870. Needing a scapegoat for this inglorious defeat, French historians held Napoleon III responsible, simultaneously consigning to oblivion everything associated with his regime, including its art. Even today, according to M. Moulin, those French scholars attempting to explore the rich production of those years “have felt the scorn (sometimes tinged with indulgence) that has surrounded the period. . . . Even a hundred years later, passions are still burning.”