A loan exhibition of French art, entitled "French Art of the Eighteenth Century", will open at the Fogg Art Museum next Monday, February 16, continuing until Monday, March 2. It comprises all the decorative arts of the period, including painting, sculpture, and cabinet work. The pieces, which amount to over 30, have already arrived, and have been provisionally installed in Gallery 17 of the museum.
Most of the contributions have been lent by Felix Wildenstein of Paris, whose galleries in New York have also sent several works by Pablo Picasso to the exhibition of the famous French artist now being held at the galleries of the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art. Three, however, including the celebrated "Fete Champetre" of Watteau, have been loaned by Sir Joseph Duveen, while yet another has been sent from the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.
The exhibit is to cover the whole scope of French decorative art during the century, from Nicholas de Largilliere who retained most of the characteristics of the Louis XIV period, to David, who was the first of the neoclassic, painters. Among the groups which will be included are six excellent examples of Chardin, of which one is "Les Bulles de Savon", portraits by Grenze. Duplessis, Tuque, Proudhon, and Drouais, and two terra-cotta reliefs by Clodion. David's "Portrait of Mme, de Serdan" is one of the high lights of the exhibition, which also includes portrait-busts by Pajou and Houdon. Three of the four periods of Fragonard are represented, while Pater and Lancret, of the school of Watteau, are also displayed.
A temporary exhibition of architectural drawings lasting until Tuesday, February 17, which is now being held in Robinson Hall Annex, gives examples of the work now being done in the architectural schools of Columbia, Illinois, Michigan, M. I. T., Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale universities.
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