The Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford Presents Clouet to Claude – French Master Drawings an exhibition on view through 23 December 2011.
While the Ashmolean Museum is celebrating the French artist Claude Lorrain, the inventor of landscape painting, in a solo exhibition, Christ Church will give a broader overview of French draughtsmanship by showcasing its rarely seen collection of French drawings.
Christ Church Picture Gallery, Oxford Claude Gellée, called Le Lorrain (1600- 82) Rocky landscape with trees
The French School is modestly represented among Christ Church’s Old Master drawings but this selection of over thirty drawings gives a powerful insight into this very rich national school. Spanning more than two centuries the exhibition allows the visitor to experience the breadth of French draughtsmanship.
At the beginning stand two elegant and highly refined drawings on vellum, one from the circle of the French court painter, François Clouet, a Horse with Trappings and the other by an anonymous French artist from around 1400 depicting an Archer. This gem of a drawing captures the tension of an archer before the arrow is released from the bow. At the end of the exhibition stand a spirited drawing by Claude Lorrain and a conversation piece of the early 18th century by François Boitard. The former depicts a landscape in bold brush-strokes created en plein-air and the latter the interior of the society-home of a French art-collector.
Between these two poles, the refined and highly polished elegance of the court-artist of the early 15th century and the modern observations of nature and landscape of the 17th century, lies the playful sensuality of Watteau – whose hand might be detected in two drawings in this show – as well as the classicism of one of the greatest French artists, Nicholas Poussin. Also on show will be a newly-discovered French drawing depicting St Veronica by the Baroque artists Guy François.
While the drawings on display allow the visitor to assess the calibre of French draughtsmanship, what becomes even more evident in the exhibition is that rather than having a strongly-unified national style, the French School is one of strong artistic personalities and varied influences. The viewer will, nevertheless, be able to celebrate the singular elegance and spirit of this original artistic school.
Christ Church Picture Gallery Christ Church, Oxford, OX1 1DP
Tel: 01865 – 276172
Fax: 01865 – 202429
Email: [email protected]
www.chch.ox.ac.uk/gallery
