The Taft Museum’s latest special exhibition “Old Masters to Impressionists: Three Centuries of French Painting from the Wadsworth Atheneum” covers an enormous amount of ground in terms of historical period, styles, and subject matter. It’s a series of snapshots (so to speak) that look at the life of ‘The Salon’ from around 1650 when Louis XIV first demanded parameters for French painting that would be sponsored by the king, the aristocracy and, in the nineteenth century, the merchant class or bourgeoisie. It’s an ambitious show, but one that an attentive viewer can cover in about an hour. It’s well worth a visit because many of these artists – especially those that are more obscure or considered second stringers – are rarely seen in Cincinnati.
It progresses along the walls in chronological order. The seventeenth century ones in the first gallery are pretty dreary – mainly religious subjects and a genre piece that both patronizes its parochial figures and technically isn’t well drawn. Don’t worry – it gets a lot better as the viewer steps into the Rococo where both the subjects and the viewer seem to be one step away from the boudoir. Some of the curator’s comments are an unintentional hoot because there is a disconnect between what is being described as important about the painting and its subject and what the viewer can pretty easily infer as actually occurring.
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An Elegant Interior of a Lady,
Her Maid, and a Gentleman by Trinquesse |
Nowhere is this more evident than in Louis Rolland Trinquesse’s
An Elegant Interior of a Lady, Her Maid, and a Gentleman. It looks like a scene out of de Laclos’
Les Liaisons Dangereuses, though it pre-dates that novel. The lady is literally holding onto her hair (a hilariously top heavy
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