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BONJOUR, MONSIEUR COURBET! THE BRUYAS COLLECTION FROM
THE MUSÉE FABRE, MONTPELLIER
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 The Meeting or Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet, 1854, is an oil on canvas by Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-77). It is from the exhibition Bonjour Monsieur Courbet! on view at the VMFA March 27-June 13, 2004. © Museé Fabre, Montpellier
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The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts presents the American premiere of the international touring exhibition Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet! The Bruyas Collection from the Musée Fabre, Montpellier March 26-June 13, 2004.
The exhibition, which showcases one of France's premiere regional art museums, will then travel to Williamstown, Mass., Dallas and San Francisco. "A number of the masterpieces to be shown in Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet! stem from the extraordinary relationship that developed between Gustave Courbet, the greatest French artist of the mid-19th century, and the collector Alfred Bruyas," says Dr. Michael Brand, VMFA director. |
Brand says another highlight of the show "is Courbet's huge painting of The Bathers, which Bruyas bought after it caused a sensation at the 1853 Salon in Paris." Bruyas also earned a place in the history of French art by adding then-contemporary art to the collection of the Musée Fabre in his native city of Montpellier. Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet! is "an international exhibition that will investigate Bruyas' artistic preferences, his friendships with renowned painters such as Delacroix, Courbet, Millet and Rousseau, and his determination to create a collection that would showcase the best of French painting of his time," Brand says. "Bruyas was a strong, rather eccentric character, and his relationship with artists and his strongly held beliefs about the importance of his own collection resulted in fascinating stories that the exhibition will bring alive for visitors," he says.
In 1854, Bruyas invited Courbet to spend time in Montpellier, where the artist painted his masterpiece in which Bruyas is seen welcoming the artist to his town. The painting is one of the treasures of the Musée Fabre and is said to be a key work in any understanding of 19th-century modernity. Among other paintings included in the exhibition are nine by Courbet, four by Delacroix and others by the likes of Millet, Corot, Cabanel and Glaize, together with animalier sculptures and watercolors by Barye and an exceptional selection of drawings by artists such as Delacroix, Ingres, Huet and Rousseau. The exhibition includes nine portraits of Bruyas.
To amplify the exhibition's topic, VMFA has organized two related shows under the unifying theme of Stories of Passion and Art: Courbet, Van Gogh, Warhol + Friends. The satellite shows, which are on display only in Richmond, are Van Gogh and Gauguin: An Artistic Dialogue in the South of France, also on view March 26-June 13, and Best Friends: Portraits of Sydney and Frances Lewis, on view Feb. 18-July 11.
"The common thread that runs from then to now and through each of these distinguished exhibitions is woven from intense stories of friendship and creativity," Brand says. Van Gogh and Gauguin: An Artistic Dialogue in the South of France focuses on the intense intellectual and artistic exchange between Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin around the time of the visit they made to the Bruyas collection in December 1888.
"Van Gogh and Gauguin worked and lived together in Arles in the south of France for a few months in the fall of 1888 as part of van Gogh's long-held dream to establish a studio in which painters could collaborate and find inspiration. They also made a special trip to Montpellier to see the Bruyas collection," says Kathleen Morris, associate director for exhibitions and collections management at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Morris is co-curator with Brand of Van Gogh and Gauguin. The highly-focused exhibition will bring together a key group of paintings by the two artistic masters reflecting the impact they had on each other's art and the inspiration they drew from the art of the previous generation during and after their experiment in Arles.
"The exploration of this critical episode in the careers of van Gogh and Gauguin provides a fascinating counterpart to the exhibition of the Bruyas collection," Brand says. (Many of the paintings from the Bruyas collection that sparked heated discussions and disagreements between van Gogh and Gauguin in 1888 will be shown in Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!)
Best Friends: Portraits of Sydney and Frances Lewis will feature portraits of Richmonders Sydney and Frances Lewis by many of the top artists whose work they collected, including Andy Warhol, Chuck Close and Alex Katz. The exhibition "presents a lively mix of styles and media as it celebrates the contributions of these renowned contemporary collectors and their embrace of adventurous new art," Brand says.
Inspired by their encounters with Warhol, the Lewises became interested in Contemporary art in the early 1960s and soon befriended many of the artists whose works they acquired. Through their national company, Best Products, they built an additional Contemporary collection, often exchanging household appliances and other merchandise for works of art. In 1985, the Lewises gave their collection (which also included extraordinary holdings of Art Nouveau and Art Deco) to VMFA and helped construct a new wing to house it.
Their generosity helped transform VMFA into one of the top museums in the United States. The Lewis portraits have never before been shown together in public. A selection of some 25 paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs will be on view, including works of Photorealism, Pop Art, Conceptual Art and West Coast Funk. Some of the other artists represented are Robert Arneson, Jack Beal, Roy DeForest and Robert Morris. Best Friends was organized by John Ravenal, curator of Modern and Contemporary art at VMFA.
Brand notes that the 2004 "blockbuster spring" exhibitions will be the museum's last major gallery presentations before the institution begins a $100-million expansion program.
In Virginia, Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!: The Bruyas Collection from the Musée Fabre, Montpellier is supported in part by the Julia Louise Reynolds Fund. It was organized by the Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass., with the Dallas Museum of Art and the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, under the auspices of FRAME. The exhibition was produced by an international curatorial team. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Following the VMFA showing, the exhibition will be on view at the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass. (June 27-Sept. 6, 2004); the Dallas Museum of Art (Oct. 17, 2004-Jan. 2, 2005); and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (Jan. 22-April 3, 2005).
"We have supported the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in many of its major projects and exhibitions over the past 12 years," says Richard S. Reynolds III, president of the Richard S. Reynolds Foundation. "This exhibition exemplifies the collaboration between VMFA and The Julia Louise Reynolds Fund, particularly in light of the fact that the works in the Bruyas collection are coming to Richmond as a result of another collaboration: the French Regional and American Museums Exchange. Through The Julia Louise Reynolds Fund, we are proud to help make VMFA the first U.S. destination for this extraordinary exhibition."
Admission to Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!: The Bruyas Collection from the Musée Fabre, Montpellier and Van Gogh and Gauguin: An Artistic Dialogue in the South of France is $7 for adults. Tickets for those 13-18 or with full-time-student ID are $4. Children 12 and under and VMFA members will receive free tickets and should visit the ticket desk in the lobby on the day of their visit. State employees with a valid State ID will receive $1 off each ticket purchased on Fridays and Saturdays from now until June 1. An audio tour will be available for an additional $3. Visitors to Best Friends: Portraits of Sydney and Frances Lewis are admitted free.
Presented by Wachovia
Underwritten by The Julia Louise Reynolds Fund
Additional support provided by The Council of VMFA