Although the avant-garde usually stars in its exhibition calendar, the Mapfre Foundation exceptionally dedicates one of the two exhibitions with which it opens the season to the presence of french art in Spain throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. And he does it with a major scientific project. A team led by Amaya Alzaga has carried out exhaustive research work in which both Spanish and French specialists have participated: the pieces have been located (some believed to be lost and around 90% had not been shown to the public), documented and studied (they had been misattributed) and all the essays have been published in a monumental catalogue.
curator of the exhibition, that «French art has disappeared from the curricula. Is an untold episode, there was an outstanding debt. We have shaken the rugs of many institutions. French painting was not born with impressionism. Long before Monet, Renoir and company, generations of Gallic artists invaded our country thanks to diplomatic gifts and marriage alliances between the Courts of France and Spain.
The exhibition brings together in the Sala Recoletos of the Mapfre Foundation, until May 8, 110 works (45 paintings, 16 drawings, 8 sculptures, around thirty pieces of sumptuary and decorative arts…), all of them from the spanish heritage: there are loans from numerous museums, foundations, academies, parishes and outstanding private collections, in addition to a deposit from the Spanish consulate in Paris. The thematic and chronological itinerary immerses us through eleven rooms on a three-century journey back in time to the distinguished palace halls –each one identified by a color on the walls (blue, red and green)–, decorated with treasures ‘made in France’, which stand out for exquisite, refined and ‘chic’.
The story begins in the seventeenth century, with Luis XIII (portrayed by Philippe de Champaigne on loan from the Prado) and his adviser, the Cardinal Richelieuwho carried out a great artistic patronage, continued, following the death of the monarch, by his widow, Anne of Austriasister of Felipe IV. “When France began its unstoppable cultural conquest of Europe, she found in Spain one of its most privileged scenarios,” warns Alzaga. Masterpieces stand out such as an ‘Equestrian Portrait of the Dauphin of France at 3 years old’, by Jean Nocret, along with canvases by Simon Vouet, Charles Le Brun or Claude Lorraine.
In the eighteenth, with Felipe V The Bourbons come to the Spanish throne. The monarch transfers his Frenchified tastes from Paris and Versailles to Madrid: furniture, suits, jewellery… come from France, but also the best painters of the time, such as Houasse, Van Loo, Ranc –outstanding royal portraits hang from the three in the exhibition–, Boucher, Chardin, Fragonard or Lemonnier, of whom a splendid portrait of the Duchess of Beaufort-Spontin with her first two children, from the collection of the Duke of Infantado, is exhibited. But there is not only painting in the rooms. Also beautiful drawings (a good selection from the collection Juan Abello) and exquisite decorative pieces, such as the ‘Clock of Strength and Prudence’, from the Royal Palace of Madrid. TO Carlos IVwho had profoundly French taste, was called ‘the watchmaker king’ because of his passion for watches.
The war of the independence (1808-1814) causes a shift in taste: the gaze is turned towards Spain, a romantic Spain. Figures such as Eugenie de Montijowho would marry Emperor Napoleon III, but who poses on horseback dressed in Spanish for a portrait painted by Odier, on loan from the house of dawn which has left the Palacio de Dueñas in Seville. Also, a dark and intriguing figure, the Duke of Montpensier. Married to a sister of Elizabeth II, he dueled with his cousin Enrique de Borbón, Duke of Seville, who died. The Duke’s dueling pistol case is on display. The painter Alfred Dehodencq portrayed him with his family in the gardens of the Palace of San Telmo in Seville (Isabel II called it ‘the small Court’), dressed in the Spanish style. Much reproduced work, loaned for the first time. The Dukes of Montpensier were great promoters of bullfights and Holy Week in Seville.
In this last section of the exhibition, along with the paintings, glass objects, porcelain, silverware, exquisite wallpaper from French gardens (it was invented in Paris), stained glass windows from the Mauméjean house, a harp, a dress and a French-made suit… Also, curious objects, such as a vanity case for personal hygiene, an erotic watch pocket-size, Napoleon’s death mask (from the Army Museum) or a photosculpture in biscuit («the first 3D», warns Amaya Alzaga), a technique that disappeared because it was very expensive. Work of François Willème, represents Matilde de Aguilera y Gamboa.
Is a picturesque spain discovered by Victor Hugo, Delacroix, Doré or Manet. He traveled to Madrid. He was staying at the Hotel de Paris, in Puerta del Sol. And he went to the Prado, where he was fascinated (and who wasn’t) by Velázquez.
