Paris 1900 THE CITY OF ENTERTAINMENT. 2 April - 17 August 2014

Transcription

1 Paris 1900 PRESS RELEASE January 2014 THE CITY OF ENTERTAINMENT 2 April - 17 August 2014 Tuesday-Sunday 10.0 am to 6.0 pm Late opening until 8.0 pm on Thursdays Avenue Winston Churchill Paris INFORMATIONS The exhibition Paris 1900, The City of Entertainment is an invitation to the public to relive the splendour of the French capital at the time when the Paris Exposition Universelle was heralding the arrival of the 20th century. More than ever before, Paris was seen throughout the world as a sparkling city of luxury with a sophisticated way of life. Over 600 works will plunge visitors to the Petit Palais into the atmosphere of Belle Époque Paris. There will be paintings, objets d art, costumes, posters, photographs, films, furniture, jewellery and sculptures. The technical inventions, the cultural effervescence, and the sheer elegance of Parisian women will be staged and displayed as representative legends of that Paris whose image has been promoted in literature and the cinema throughout the world. An inventive and original scenography integrating the new-fangled cinematograph into the museum trail takes the visitor on a journey similar to that made by the 51 million tourists who flocked to Paris in The trail is organised around six pavilions and begins with a section called Paris, window on the world a reference to the Exposition Universelle. New railway stations were built for the Exposition: the Gare de Lyon, the Gare d Orsay and the Gare des Invalides, as well as the first Metro line, the Métropolitain. This extraordinary event will be commemorated in the exhibition with architectural projects, paintings, films and also picturesque souvenirs and pieces of scenery and decoration that have been kept since the time. René François Xavier Prinet Le Balcon, Oil on canvas Caen, Musée des Beaux-Arts But Paris 1900 is far more than a tribute to the Exposition Universelle. Paris at that time offered many more opportunities for wonderment and for spending your money. In the luxury shops and the art galleries, art-lovers could discover the creations of the pioneers of Art Nouveau. They are presented here in a second pavilion devoted to masterpieces by artists such as Gallé, Guimard, Majorelle, Mucha, and Lalique. The third section is allotted to the fine arts and underlines the central place that Paris occupied on the art scene. At that time talents from everywhere were converging on the French capital to train in studios, to exhibit in the Salons and to sell their wares in the expanding network of art galleries. The international aspect is evoked with paintings by Edelfet, who was Finnish, Zuloaga, a Spaniard, and the American Stewart. But the show also holds up for comparison paintings by Cézanne, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, and Vuillard, alongside works by Gérôme, Bouguereau and Gervex, artists whose acclaim ranged from Academicism to Impressionism (now finally recognized), to late Symbolism, with new figures to contemplate such as Maillol and Maurice Denis, while the art of Rodin reigns supreme. Mucha La Nature, Karlsruhe, Badisches Landsmuseum

2 The visitor is next confronted by the creations of Paris fashion, then at its zenith. Its success was emblazoned on the monumental doorway to the Exposition Universelle, which was surmounted by the figure of a Parisian woman dressed by Jeanne Paquin. The fashion houses of the Rue de la Paix attracted a vastly wealthy cosmopolitan clientele, and also served as inspiration for the clothes of the midinettes. The finest treasures of the Palais Galliera, like the famous evening cape by Worth, will be accompanied by large society portraits by La Gandara and Besnard, and paintings depicting the world of milliners and dressmakers errand girls by Jean Béraud and Edgar Degas. The remaining two pavilions offer a taste of the world of entertainment in Paris: from the triumphs of Sarah Bernhardt to the successes of Yvette Guilbert, from Debussy s Pelléas et Mélisande to l Aiglon by Edmond Rostand, from opera to café-concert, and from the circus to the brothels. The illustrations of the bright as well as the dark side of this city abandoning itself to pleasure give substance to the idea that it remained the capital of the world and the source of all gratifications. Legendary venues like the Moulin Rouge and Le Chat Noir became favourite subjects for artists like Toulouse-Lautrec. From the great demimondaines Liane de Pougy and La Belle Otero to the horrors of prostitution and drugs, the exhibition shows the other side of the picture, themes which would prove to be influential in aesthetic revolutions. The legend of the Belle Époque has endured to this day not only because of the contrast with the horrors of the First World War, which followed so soon after it, but because there was a genuine cultural blossoming. Its unprecedented force is demonstrated in this exhibition. The Petit Palais is the most beautiful architectural gem remaining from the year 1900 in Paris. Now at last this wonderful building is devoting an important exhibition to that seminal period. There is a programme of events and an extra trail through the permanent galleries, showing paintings from the collection that have never been seen before. A tribute to the period such as Paris has never yet seen. Henri Gervex Une soirée au Pré-Catelan, There is a mobile app for the exhibition. It will be available at the end of March. It deals with the theme of Paris at the beginning of the 20th century and also the exhibition and objects relating to those years in the collections of the Petit Palais. Organised with the kind co-operation of With support from CURATORS Christophe Leribault, Director of the Petit Palais Gaëlle Rio, Curator at the Petit Palais Alexandra Bosc, Curator at the Palais Galliera Dominique Lobstein, Art historian MEDIA RELATIONS Mathile Beaujard mathilde.beaujard@paris.fr Tél : COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER Anne Le Floch anne.lefloch@paris.fr ADMISSION Full price: 11 Reductions: 8 Half price: 5,50 CATALOGUE Title : Paris 1900, la ville spectacle Publisher : : Paris Musées Price : 49,90 Pages : 448 p

3 Paris 1900, The City of Entertainment Petit Palais, 2 April - 17 August 2014 Press images High resolution images are available for press on request to promote the exhibition. The reproduction of these images is subject to conditions. For Roger-Viollet images : three images (max) for written press and 10 images in low resolution for Internet. For RMN images : images may be reproduced free of charge provided that they are no larger than one quarter page I. Paris, showcase of the world 1. Camille Piton L esplanade des Invalides vue depuis le Pont Alexandre III, vers Watercolor, 27,6 x 40 cm Paris, Musée Carnavalet / Roger-Viollet 2. Poster of the Universal Exhibition Palais de l optique, Binet Projet pour la Porte monumentale de l Exposition universelle de 1900, Cl. Musées de Sens E. Berry

4 II. Paris Art nouveau 4. Mucha La Nature, Golden and silvered Bronze, 70,7 x 30 x 32 cm Karlsruhe, Badisches Landsmuseum 5. Emile Gallé Vase cattleya fait pour Charles Lebeau, Collection du musée de Boulogne-sur-mer /photo Philippe Beurtheret 6. René-Jules Lalique Peigne «Capucines», Horn, silver, enamel, 13,9 x 9,2 cm

5 III. Paris, the capitale of art 7. Paul Cézanne Ambroise Vollard, Oil on canvas, 100 x 81 cm 8. Auguste Rodin Amour et Psyché, vers Marble, 25 x 65 x 41,5 cm 9. Pierre-Auguste Renoir Yvonne et Christine Lerolle au piano, Oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm RMN-Grand Palais (musée de l Orangerie) / Franck Raux 10. Claude Monet Nymphéas, Oil on canvas, 100 x 73 cm Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet Bridgeman Giraudon

6 IV. The myth of the «Parisienne» 11. Joseph-Marius Avy Bal blanc, Oil on canvas, 139 x 219 cm 12. Jean Béraud Parisienne, place de la Concorde, vers Oil on wood, 35 x 26,5 cm Paris, Musée Carnavalet / Roger-Viollet 13. Edgar Degas Chez la modiste, entre 1905 et Pastel on paper, 91 x 75 cm Paris, Musée d Orsay 14. Charles Frédéric Worth Cape, vers Evening cape of la comtesse Greffulhe, born Élisabeth de Caraman-Chimay ( ), cut in Boukhara caftan offered by the Tsar. Patrick Pierrain / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

7 15. Anonyme Tea-gown( robe habillée pour réunions intimes), de Réjane Veil in white cotton, white cotton mechanic lace, white flower embroidery design (roses). Eric Emo / Galliera / Roger-Viollet V. Paris, by night 16. Chahine La Midinette, Soft varnish, etching and drypoint print on Japan paper, 46,7 x 25,7 cm 17. Anonyme d après Adolphe Léon Willette Enseigne du cabaret le Chat Noir, Cut and painted sheet, 130 x 96 cm 18. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Marcelle Lender dansant le boléro dans Chilpéric, Oil on canvas, 145 x 149 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington (U.S.A.), Don Betsey Cushing Whitney, Bridgeman Giraudon

8 VI. Paris on stage 19. Alfons Mucha Affiche de la pièce de théatre en V actes «Lorenzaccio». Epilogue d Alfred de Musset et adaptation de M. Armand d Artois, Théâtre de la Renaissance. Lithographie. Bibliothèque Forney / Roger-Viollet 20. Henri Gervex Une soirée au Pré-Catelan, Oil on canvas, 217 x 318 cm 21. Henri Gervex Un soir de grand prix au pavillon d Armenonville, Oil on canvas, 66 x 98 cm 22. René François Xavier Prinet Le Balcon, Oil on canvas, 161,2 x 191,7 cm Caen, Musée des Beaux-Arts