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This grand and colorful pastel drawing
by the French painter, illustrator and printmaker Jean-Louis
Forain (1852-1931) recently traveled on loan from Georgetown
University to the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. It joins
the works of other key Impressionists there in a landmark
exhibition entitled The Dancer: Degas, Forain, and
Toulouse-Lautrec,
on display through May 11, 2008. Les Coulisses de l'Opéra
pendant la représentation d'Aida (Backstage
at the Opera) was last exhibited at the Bibliothèque Nationale
in Paris at the centenary anniversary of the artist’s
birth in 1952, and has never before been exhibited in the
United States. The work was donated to Georgetown University
in 1957 by Leon Fromer. |
The evocative 1898 drawing, the largest known pastel by
Forain at 45 by 31 inches, depicts a backstage encounter
during a production of Aida, and reveals the influence of
the artist’s friend, Edgar Degas. Often sketching from
the same model, Forain and Degas favored similar themes such
as ballet dancers, the racecourse, and studies of the nude.
Forain’s work in turn inspired Manet and Cézanne,
and he exhibited with the Impressionist painters on several
occasions during the 1880s.
The Dancer includes loans from the collections of many distinguished
institutions, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,
the Kimbell Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
the Musée d’Orsay, D.C.’s National Gallery
of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as from
private collections in the United States, France, Spain,
and the United Kingdom. The exhibition is accompanied by
a 250-page catalog illustrating all the works in the exhibition
in full color, and includes essays by exhibition curator
Annette Dixon; Degas expert Richard Kendall; the great-granddaughter
of Forain, Florence Valdès-Forain; Lautrec authority
Mary Weaver Chapin; and ballet historian Jill De Vonyar.
In preparation for its American début, Backstage
at the Opera underwent conservation treatment
to stabilize the work, restore its original gilded
frame, and protect
it for the future. It now features its own custom-built
housing made with Optium™ glazing, which blocks
harmful ultraviolet light and eliminates glare. The
costs of the conservation
work were jointly shared by the Georgetown University
Library and the Portland Art Museum.
You can visit the Portland Art Museum’s web page for
The Dancer exhibition at http://www.pam.org/asp/special_exhibitions/exhibitions.asp?exhibitionID=82.
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