The Mississippi Museum of Art is presenting a special exhibition of 74 masterworks by seminal French artists of the 19th and 20th centuries including Edgar Degas, Eugène Delacroix, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Pablo Picasso, Henri Rousseau, and Vincent van Gogh. Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890). Daisies, Arles, 1888. Oil on canvas, 13 x 16 1/2 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.207. Image © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Photo: Travis Fullerton On view from April 4 through September 27, 2020, Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, and Their Times: The Mellon Collection of French Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts showcases major schools of French art including Romanticism, Impressionism, and Cubism spanning 150 years. An exceptional selection of work by modern French masters—among the most celebrated and recognized of the Western canon—the exhibition also reveals the connoisseurship of Paul and Rachel “Bunny” Lambert Mellon, among the most philanthropic art collecting couples of the last century. The Mellons’ personal interests, commitment to modernism, and prescient collecting strategies are evident in the grouping. Roger Ward, PhD, the Museum’s Deputy Director of Art and Programs, said, “This is the first traveling exhibition of the Mellon Collection since Mrs. Mellon’s bequest to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 2014. Included are works by all the best-known artists, both French and Dutch, of the late 19th century who abandoned the official methods of the French Academy and forged a new way of painting that came to be called Impressionism. We are thrilled by the opportunity to share these masterpieces with Jackson and our visitors from around the world.” Organized thematically, the exhibition opens with equestrian paintings by Degas, Eugene Delacroix, and Théodore Géricault followed by human figures and portraits by Gustave Courbet, Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and others depicted in informal settings. The next section features views of Paris (a frequent destination for the Mellons and members of their social milieu) and Impressionist and Post-Impressionist urban city-scapes by Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Utrillo, and Van Gogh. A grouping of paintings featuring water demonstrates some Impressionists’ skill at imitating…
Exhibitions
