Arts
A new exhibition titled "Intimate Encounters: Love and Domesticity in Eighteenth-Century France" opened at The Hood Museum of Art this past Saturday.
Richard Rand, Curator of European Art, developed the first exhibition ever devoted to eighteenth-century French genre painting.
The show features 51 paintings and 29 prints on loan from world-renowned museums such as the Louvre in Paris, France, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The selection of important works by Watteau, Boucher, Chardin, Fragonard and Greuze examine issues of gender roles, courtship and family life topics that are as pertinent to contemporary views as to eighteenth-century audiences.
A standing-room only audience filled Loew Auditorium to celebrate the opening of "Intimate Encounters." Rand delivered a lecture titled "Images of Heart and Home: Genre Painting in Eighteenth-Century France."
Director of the Hood Timothy Rubb gave the opening remarks, and Nancy Rogers of the National Endowment of the Humanities spoke on the necessity of interpretative exhibitions like "Intimate Encounters."
Rand's lecture and slide presentation illustrated how genre painting emerged as an alternative to public paintings such as history or biblical pictures whose didactic, often moralistic themes aimed to instruct viewers.
Modern viewers interpret genre paintings to be scenes of everyday life, but in the eighteenth century genre painting included virtually everything outside of history painting, such as still-lifes and landscapes.
Rand explained that "genre painting had to co-opt the narrative element of history painting" in order to appeal to a wider audience.
As more artists began to paint interior and domestic scenes, genre painting turned away from grand public displays to focus on private affairs.
These depictions of domestic life are linked to the Enlightenment philosophies of Jean Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot.
Themes of family values predominate these genre paintings.
