WRITTEN BY ASSOCIATE CURATOR NELDA DAMIANO
Jean-Léon Gérôme, ‘The Marble Work’ (‘Le Travail du Marbre’), 1890, Oil on canvas, 19 7/8 x 15 9/16 inches, © Dahesh Museum of Art, 1995.104.
With thousands of works on view at the official Salon exhibition in Paris, how could an artist stand out and gain renown? Within the confines of Academic training, how could a painter not just distinguish himself but achieve international acclaim? Highlighting the work of Alexandre Cabanel and Jean-Léon Gérôme — two painters featured in Academic Splendor: Nineteenth-Century Masterworks from the Dahesh Museum of Art — Dr. Katie Hanson will explore how artists did just that. She will also share some (perhaps unexpected!) points of contact between these Academic artists and key figures of the avant-garde.
Dr. Katie Hanson is Assistant Curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she is responsible for the European paintings post-1800 and recently curated the special exhibition Pairing Picasso. She is currently organizing the touring exhibition La Parisienne: Portraying Women in the Capital of Culture, 1715-1965. She holds an MA from Williams College and Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her publications include contributions to exhibition catalogues and scholarly journals addressing artists from Jean-Honoré Fragonard to Henri Matisse.
Dr. Hanson will speak at the Cummer Museum on Thursday, February 16 from 6:30 to 8:30. Cost for Members is $30, Non-Members $40, and registration is required.
