A Painting in the Palm of Your Hand: 18th-Century Painted Fans from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collec
Start date: Sunday, June 17, 2007
Event is ongoing: Until Sunday, October 14, 2007
A Painting in the Palm of Your Hand will feature a selection of twenty-five 18th-century fans from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection. These fans are the fragile relics of the social life of that century and represent, in microcosm, the artistic variety that characterized the period. This focus exhibition explores the role of these extraordinary objects in both the social rituals and the visual culture of 18th-century Europe. The collection includes fans decorated with interior genre scenes that offer an intimate glimpse of domestic life; royalist political fans with portraits of King Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette; and fans with biblical scenes, perhaps intended to be used while attending church. While most of the fans tend toward the bucolic rural imagery of the fête gallante and pastoral traditions, some fans depict the familiar urban landscapes of Paris and Rome. Two of the fans in the collection feature direct adaptations from famous compositions by François Boucher, one of the most prolific and esteemed painters of the century.
Information from the museum's site
