'From Cranach to Monet' at Meadows Museum-SMU

Monday, 18 September 2006 13:33

DALLAS, TX (SMU) – From Cranach to Monet: Highlights of the Pérez Simón Collection will be exhibited from September 29 through December 31, 2006 at the Meadows Museum in Dallas, its only U.S. venue.  Comprising more than 1000 works of art – paintings, sculptures, drawings, decorative pieces and rare books – the Pérez Simón Collection is one of the most important private collections in Latin America, but has never been given a public showing beyond loans of individual art works.

From Cranach to Monet features a selection of 57 master paintings from the collection that provide a broad overview of the development of European painting through five centuries, from the Renaissance era to Impressionism.  Works by 46 different artists will be displayed, including Cranach, Van Dyck, Rubens, Canaletto, Goya, Corot, Rossetti, Cézanne, Gauguin, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Van Gogh.  The featured works, covering a wide range of subjects and themes, include fine examples of the Italian, German, Dutch, English, Flemish, Spanish and French schools.  The show comes to the Meadows Museum directly from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, its only other venue.

“This exhibition offers an opportunity to see a range of exceptional European old master and 19^th-century paintings,” said Dr. Mark Roglan, director of the Meadows Museum.  “It also provides a rare opportunity to see our own Meadows Museum’s Spanish collection in a broader context, as part of the development of art in Europe from the early Renaissance to Impressionism, and to connect peer artists represented in both collections, such as Velázquez with Rubens, and Picasso with Cézanne.”

The collection was assembled over the past two decades by Josefina and Juan Antonio Pérez Simón, a Spanish-born couple who have lived in Mexico for most of their lives.  In a recent interview, Juan Pérez Simón said, “The works that I acquire reflect my personality and I want them to be an extension of myself, as well as to have artistic quality.  I have constructed a personal universe that echoes what defines me and excites me.  To all of us that do not have the wonderful gift of creating beauty through art, we have the consolation of enjoying it and the privilege of being seduced by it.”  While this exhibition features only a selection of the many works the Pérez Simóns have collected, the paintings offer the public an idea of the scope and magnitude of this important private collection.

The course of the exhibition is chronological, according to the following plan:

Italian and German Schools of the 14^th-16^th Centuries – This section includes the oldest pieces in the exhibition: two 14th-century Madonnas by Spinello Aretino and Benvenuto di Giovanni.  Also included are two works by Lucas Cranach, considered the master of the German Renaissance, and a Mannerist portrait by Florentine artist Agnolo di Cosimo, called El Bronzino, whose position as court painter to the powerful Duke Cosimo I de Medici influenced the course of European court portraiture.

Flemish and Dutch Schools of the 17^th Century – Works by two of the greatest masters of this era are featured, including Peter Paul Rubens’ tender image of the Virgin with Blessing Child (1610) and an elegant portrait of a nobleman by Anton Van Dyck.  Additional artists in this section are Ferdinand Bol, who was one of Rembrandt’s most talented disciples, Jan Steen, Pieter Claesz, and Jan and Pieter Brueghel.

Italian, Flemish, French and Spanish Schools of the 18^th Century – Probably the most stunning work in this section representing the Age of Enlightenment is Francisco de Goya’s Portrait of Doña María Teresa de Vallabriga (1783).  Among the pieces by Italian artists of the 18th century, the exhibition features an architectural scene by the great Venetian views painter, Canaletto, and two large archaeological scenes of major historic monuments in Rome by Gian Paolo Pannini, as well as a small, vibrant piece by the great Venetian painter Tiepolo.  Also from this period is a work by one of France’s most notable portraiture specialists during the time of Louis XV, Jean Marc Nattier, and a pair of vibrant flower paintings by Dutch artist Jan Van Os.

19^th-Century Academicism and Realism – The later half of the 19th-century French school is represented in the exhibition with significant works by William Adolphe Bouguereau and his rival Alexander Cabel, whose dramatic and theatrical interpretation of Cleopatra Trying Out the Poison on Prisoners Sentenced to Death is a highlight.  Also included are works by Jean-Léon Gérôme and French and British high-society painter James Jacques Tissot.  Representatives of the realist school, who were chiefly interested in direct observation and representation, include Gustave Courbet, considered its most important figure, as well as Jules Breton, Léon Agustin Lhermitte and Julien Dupré.

Impressionism and Post-Impressionism – This section begins with a “prelude” of three paintings by artists closely related to these revolutionary movements, including Henri Fantin-Latour; Eugene Boudin, one of the first French landscape artists to paint directly from nature; and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, considered a forerunner of Impressionism due to his spontaneous technique and interest in painting en plein air.  The main section includes three works by Camille Pissarro, including The Forager (1884), depicting a peasant woman standing next to a stack of wheat, and a foggy urban view of Rouen in which the artist concentrated on studying the effects of smoke and vapor.  Two works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir are shown, including a delicate portrait of a child, Girl with a White Apron (1884), along with two canvases by Claude Monet, depicting views of the Seine and of Antibes in the Cote d’Azur, perfectly reflecting the artist’s virtuosity in the study of light.  Other highlights include a vivid painting by Paul Gauguin of the church of Pont-Aven; a colorful watercolor by Vincent Van Gogh, Pink Laurels (1889), which exemplifies his frenetic technique and cross-hatching; and an early painting by Paul Cézanne, Mythical Scene (1878), in which the artist synthesizes the human form and embraces a bold use of color.

Victorian School – Nineteenth-century art has been a major focus of the Pérez Simón Collection, and their British Victorian paintings, many of which focus on female beauty, are among the finest in private hands.  Included in the exhibition are works by Pre-Raphaelite artists who painted interpretations of medieval life and literature, such as Arthur Hughes, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Melhuish Strudwick, Henry Arthur Payne and John Everett Millais, whose painting The Crown of Love (1875) demonstrates the essence of this artistic movement.  Also included are masterpieces by Frederick Leighton, Albert Joseph Moore and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, whose work The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888), showing the sadistic Roman emperor smothering his guest with rose petals, is one of the most lavish classical compositions of the period.

From Cranach to Monet was organized by Juan Antonio Pérez Simón’s foundation, JAPS (Juntos Actuando por la Superación), and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid; it was curated by Dr. Roxana Velásquez, director of the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) in Mexico City.  A bilingual (Spanish/English) catalogue accompanies the exhibition, as well as a comprehensive English catalogue of the entire collection that was published in Mexico City in 2003.

About the Meadows Museum
The Meadows Museum, a division of SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, houses one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain, with works dating from the 10th to the 20th century.  It includes masterpieces by some of the world’s greatest painters: El Greco, Velázquez, Ribera, Murillo, Goya, Miró and Picasso.  The museum is located at 5900 Bishop Blvd. on the campus of SMU.

Visit the museum’s web site at www.meadowsmuseumdallas.org.