VIDEOS
Opening Lecture for Promenades on Paper: Eighteenth-Century Drawings from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (53 minutes)
Clark-Getty Paper Project Curatorial Fellow Sarah Grandin presents an overview of Promenades on Paper: Eighteenth-Century Drawings from the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Grandin shares the rich history of the national library of France’s collections, and how that shaped the selection of works included in the Clark’s exhibition. The drawings on view reveal the medium’s new status as an autonomous and democratic instrument of creation and documentation in France in the eighteenth century.
A virtual conversation with Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director, Clark Art Institute, and Corinne Le Bitouzé, Curator and Assistant Director, Department of Prints and Photography, Bibliothèque nationale de France, in a conversation moderated by Anne Leonard, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, Clark Art Institute (58 minutes)
In partnership with the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), the Clark is organizing the first exhibition of the library's eighteenth-century French drawings. The selection of eighty-six enchanting studies, architectural plans, albums, sketchbooks, prints, and optical devices expands our understanding of drawing as a tool of documentation and creation in the age of Enlightenment, spanning the domains of natural history, current events, theater design, landscape, and portraiture. Displayed together, these objects immerse audiences in the world of eighteenth-century France-a world shaped by invention, erudition, and spectacle. Works by celebrated artists of the period such as François Boucher (1703-1770) and Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724-1780) are featured alongside exquisite drawings by lesser-known practitioners, including talented women, royal children, and visionary architects.
This event was organized in partnership with Master Drawings New York.
The Clark joins with the Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art to present a virtual discussion about the Institute’s current exhibition, Promenades on Paper: Eighteenth-Century French Drawings from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (72 minutes)
Focusing on select drawings from the exhibition, curators Esther Bell, Anne Leonard, and Sarah Grandin offer a varied and lively picture of artistic practices in the years leading up to and just after the French Revolution.
Acclaimed furniture designer Jomo Tariku discusses his design process and his relationship to the history of design, including the use of drawings like those by eighteenth-century designers, like those seen in Promenades on Paper: Eighteenth-Century French Drawings from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (64 minutes)