The exhibition, curated by Colleen Yarger, department head Interim and curator of the Mellon Collection catalogue, presents a valuable selection of works from the Mellon Collection of French Art from the Virginia Museum of Arts and covers a chronological arc from the mid-nineteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth century, between Romanticism and Cubism, passing through Impressionism.
Son of entrepreneur Andrew Mellon, one of the three richest men in America, banker and Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, also an important art collector, who was instrumental in the birth of the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1937 , Paul Mellon has donated over a thousand works from both his father's and his own collections to the National Gallery.
His studies at Yale and Cambridge led him to have a great interest in English art, but he only began to buy French art after his marriage to Bunny Lambert, a French art lover.
They donated works to the National Gallery in Washington but also to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art in Richmond. And it is precisely these French works of art that are on display at Palazzo Zabarella.
The exhibition opens with Mounted Jockey (Jockey on horseback) Of Theodore Gericault e Young Woman Watering a Shrub di Berthe Morisot.
On the one hand, Paul Mellon was a horse lover and the fact that Géricault had been to England to study the works of George Stubbs, one of his favorite animal genre painters, played a major role in his interest in French art . On the other hand, the passion of his wife Bunny is reflected in the work of the French artist who portrays her sister while she takes care of the plants in her family home.
In the exhibition we find examples of French art with an equestrian subject, including portraits of horses by Eugène Delacroix and Théodore Géricault and horse racing scenes from Edgar Degas, of which a series of four sculptures is also exhibited, and with paintings of still life, or of flowers, painted by masters such as Alfred Sisley, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Fantin-Latour, Odilon Redon, which testify to the passion that Rachel Lambert Mellon cultivated for gardening and horticulture.
Paris, throughout the nineteenth century was the city that most inspired artists. The works of van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Utrillo they reveal both famous and little-known sights, party spots and glimpses of the streets and alleyways of the French capital.
Also exhibited are works of portraits painted by masters such as Gustave Courbet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne.
In another section it stands out A Man Docking His Skiff(Man mooring his boat)of Gustave Caillebotte, in which the artist reveals his great ability to capture the spots of light and shadow, without forgetting the paintings of Eugène Boudin, Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot portraying life on the beaches at the beginning of the last century.
One of Bunny Mellon's passions was furniture. Known as an example of good taste, Bunny furnished her homes with rigor and exquisite refinement, welcoming guests such as Elizabeth II of England, the Prince of Wales or her friend Jacqueline Kennedy who wanted her as her adviser to furnish the many homes her. A taste that we find in the works of Felix Vallotton, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, Raoul Dufy offering interior views. Among these, it stands out The Chinese Chest of Drawers (The Chinese chest of drawers), cubist still life masterpiece by Pablo Picasso, which represents the will of the avant-garde to break down concepts and stylistic boundaries in search of new expressions.
Do not miss the French countryside with works such as Field of Poppies, Giverny (Field of poppies, Giverny) Of Claude Monet, characterized by a large band of red that divides the background from the foreground, or as small paintings of Georges Seurat, Kees van Dongen and Vincent van Gogh that transform the rural landscape into an orchestration of atmosphere, energy and pure light.
The exhibition ideally closes with a refined selection of impressionist works, with two landscapes by Many, a portrait of Renoir and one of the famous dancers of Degas.
Exhibition organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
VAN GOGH, MONET, DEGAS.
The Mellon Collection of French Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Padua, Palazzo Zabarella (via degli Zabarella, 14)
26 October 2019 – 1 March 2020
Cover image: Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). Daisies, Arles (Daisies, Arles), 1888. Oil on canvas, 33×42 cm. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.207. Image ©Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
