Events / Exhibitions

25.03.2015 - 25.05.2015

“FÊTE GALANTE”. FRENCH ENGRAVING OF THE 18TH CENTURY


Exhibition dedicated to the 18th- century French engraving will be open at the National Gallery of Armenia on March 25. The exhibits are chosen from the museum collection. They include forty-five artworks from about 800 of those painted by French artists preserved at the NGA.

 

Among them are copper engravings, etchings, crayon engravings acquired from the Leningrad State Museum Fund, the State Hermitage, and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in 1926, 1930 and 1940 as well as donations and works purchased from individuals. The viewers will be introduced to the art of rococo epoch called “Fête galante”. They will have an opportunity to plunge into the holiday atmosphere, into light-heartedness and pleasure of small talks and refined flirting, into concerts, evening balls and theatre of the time, into the private world of estimating not only the gallant manners but also the keenness of observation and wit and the ability of not believing the authorities. Courteous ideals have been realized in the beautiful works of Jean-Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, Jean-Auguste Fragonard, Carles-André van Loo. They have willingly been reproduced by the engravers. The exhibition also includes reproductions of other famous artists of the epoch such as Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Jean-Baptiste Chardin inclined to the poetic interpretation of everyday life. It also represents favourite rococo artists, pastoral scenes, papers on mythological themes, engravings, works of significant portraitists of the time, in particular Hyacinthe Rigaud and Nicolas de Largillière as well as book illustrations highly estimated by the contemporaries. All these works have been interpreted by the 18th –century prominent engravers including G. Edelinck, P. Drevet, J.-J. Balechou, N. A. Tardieu, B.F. Lépicié, J. F. Le Bas, J. Desmarteau, P. F. Chauffard and others.
Beside the engravings, works of decorative-applied art and paintings will also be represented at the exhibition.



Permanent
exhibition

Alkhazian (Jean) Hovhannes

Les Baux de Provence

canvas, oil
120x130 cm