The Cleveland Museum of Art invites you to an intimate French family gathering
In order to view entire gallery of photos click on the arrow on the right of the large shown print.
The year 2020 will forever be ingrained in our minds as a time the entire world was shut down as families hunkered down in their various bunkers to see what would be happening next. While we are not completely out of the woods per say we have seen the easing of restrictions especially during this past month. Live theater and musical performances have begun again and museums and public halls are once again opening their doors to patrons. While mask wearing and social distancing is still encouraged due to Covid variants and unvaccinated members of the population things are beginning to look up.
So what better way to celebrate our newly found freedoms than the reopening of the Cleveland Museum of Art and the opening of CMA’s newest international loan exhibition “Private Lives”. The exhibit will be housed in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall through September 19, 2021.
Private Lives is an intimate look at the family experience as seen through the eyes of four French painters that included Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), Maurice Denis (1870–1943), Félix Vallotton (1865–1925) and Édouard Vuillard (1868–1940). These four had formed a group in Paris known as “Nabis” (the Hebrew word for “prophets”) in order to promote their new style of painting which had drifted away from the Impressionist style whose focus was to portray fleeting effects of nature. Instead the group focused on the depiction of the subjective experiences especially in regards to intimate family gatherings.
The collection of 40 paintings and 110 works on paper come from loans from a variety of collections that include the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; the Petit Palais, Paris; the National Gallery of Ireland; and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, as well as private collections in the US and Europe.
The four artists had lives that were deeply connected to each other during their most formative years. Bonnard, Vuillard and Denis shared a studio and Vallotton (who was Swiss born) became a close associate. Although there is distinct difference in each artist’s style they each created an enormous catalog of works that returned to the theme of home, romance and family.
The titles of the varies pieces give clues as to what was really going on as suppressed secrets, hidden affairs and family tensions can be found just below the surface. Each piece of art could be interpreted as a snapshot of family life in each artist’s home complete with the claustrophobic confinement that we are all too well aware of after the past year. Through it all you get a feeling of nostalgia, joy and melancholy that are all part of the close knit family experience.
As you stroll through the many rooms in which the works are displayed you will find that the paintings and drawings are grouped in various themes. These include:
“The Intimate Interior/The Troubled Interior” which celebrate the creature comforts while touching on the unease of such a life.
“Family Life” focuses on the artist’s core families by exploring romantic love that is of course a predecessor of the family, motherly love and the unbounded joy of being a child. The scenes are not however bereft of grief and conflict.
“Music chez soi” At the time of these works music played a vital role in the lives of the artists and their families for at the time music and painting were closely attuned. From the intimate depiction of music in the home to large musical parties the importance of performed sound is reinforced in the gallery by the playing of Claude Terrasse’s Petites scénes familiéres throughout the exhibition.
“In the Garden” Prior to the turn of the twentieth century (around the 1890s) gardens were an important factor in the lives of not only the artists but Parisians in general. They acted as a retreat as well as outdoor gathering place where the family could congregate with friends and pets outside of the confines of the house to enjoy nature. Two of the artists (Bonnard and Denis) had extensive plantings and Vuillard would leave his urban setting in the city to paint in their flowery retreats.
“The Nabi City” Two of the artists (Bonnard and Vuillard) strove to connect the family to the city of Paris in an attempt to domesticize the “City of Lights” and to portray the city as part of their home life.
“Private Lives” is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog written by co-curators Heather Lemonedes Brown, the Virginia N. and Randall J. Barbato Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Mary Weaver Chapin, curator of prints and drawings at the Portland Art Museum.
It features essays and vignettes by leading historians and art historians that offer insight into the private worlds of the Nabis: Francesca Berry of the University of Birmingham interrogates the Nabis and gender roles; Kathleen Kete of Trinity College, CT, reveals the importance of pets to private life in 19th-century France; Saskia Ooms of the Musée Montmartre describes the role of the camera in the personal world of these artists; and Francesca Brittan of Case Western Reserve University illuminates the centrality of music in constructing the bourgeois family home.
“Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889–1900” is published by the CMA and Yale University Press. It’s available for purchase online or at the Cleveland Museum of Art store for $65 (hardcover).
Tickets for the exhibit are on sale now!
CMA members free (now would be a good time to become a member); adults $15; seniors and adult groups $10; students and children ages 6 to 17 $8; children under 5 free. Tickets can be reserved online at cma.org, at the box office or by calling 216-421-7350.
Complementary Programming
Fabric and Fashion: Pattern and Design in the Art of Edouard Vuillard Wednesday, July 21, 6 p.m. (EDT) Artist Edouard Vuillard painted alongside his mother and sister, both of whom were dressmakers. How did this exposure to fabric and fashion impact Vuillard’s art? Join fashion historian Catherine Amoroso Leslie of Kent State University (OH) and CMA chief curator Heather Lemonedes Brown as they discuss the styles of dress popular in late 19th-century Paris and how Vuillard’s bold use of pattern reflects the fashions of the time. This program is organized in tandem with the CMA exhibition Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889–1900
Painted Pets: Dogs and Cats in the Works of Pierre Bonnard Wednesday, August 18, 6 p.m. (EDT) Easily identified by colorful and richly patterned scenes of everyday life, the work of painter Pierre Bonnard often showcases domesticated animals as part of the family unit. Join historian Kathleen Kete of Trinity College (CT) and curator Mary Weaver Chapin of the Portland Art Museum as they discuss how animals arose as an important subject for Bonnard and other artists of his time and the popularity of pets in late 19th-century France. This program is organized in tandem with the CMA exhibition Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889–1900.
The exhibition is organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Portland Art Museum.
Major support is provided by Gertrude Kalnow Chisholm and Homer D. W. Chisholm and the Florence Gould Foundation. Additional support is provided by Anne H. Weil. Generous support is provided by an anonymous supporter and by Sandra and Richey Smith.
The exhibition catalogue for Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889–1900 was produced with the support of the FRench American Museum Exchange (FRAME).
All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Major annual support is provided by the Estate of Dolores B. Comey and Bill and Joyce Litzler, with generous annual funding from Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Chapman Jr., the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Ms. Arlene Monroe Holden, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. and Margaret F. Lipscomb, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is currently open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays. Beginning June 30, the museum has resumed extended hours Wednesdays and Fridays, remaining open until 9 p.m.
For more information go to https://www.clevelandart.org/ or call 216-421-7350.