Court to Café, on view October 27, 2013–February 9, 2014, at the Denver Art Museum, features 50 masterpieces from the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Conn. The artworks visually unfold the richness of French painting, ranging from the 17th through the early 20th century and include religious and mythological subjects, portraits, landscapes, still lifes and genre scenes.
Nicolas Poussin, François Boucher, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Claude Monet are among the masters represented.
This exhibition tour is the first time that all of these works have been shown as a group. The exhibition is accompanied by
an exhibition catalogue titled Masters of French Painting, 1290-1920: At The Wadsworth Atheneum, by Eric M. Zafran.
Following the social history of French art, the exhibition will take viewers through six themed sections. Each area reveals the cultural shifts of the period and how they were reflected in art from the time of the absolute monarchy to the café society of Paris.
Claude Monet, The Beach at Trouville, 1870. Oil on canvas; 21 1/4 x 25 1/2 in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund.
Paul Cézanne, House in the Country, about 1877-79. Oil on canvas; 23-1/2 x 28-7/8 in. Wadsworth Atheneum; Anonymous gift.
Louis Anquetin, Avenue de Clichy (Street – Five O’clock in the Evening), 1887. Oil on paper, mounted on canvas; 27-1/4 x 21 in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund. Endowed in memory of Louis M. Beckstein by the Beckstein Family.
Edgar Degas, Double Portrait—The Cousins of the Painter, about 1868-70. Oil on canvas; 23-5/8 x 28-3/4 in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund.
Claude Monet, Nympheas (Water Lilies), 1907. Oil on canvas; 31-7/8 x 36-1/4 in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; Bequest of Anne Parrish Titzell.
Eugene Delacroix, Bathers, 1854. Oil on canvas; 36-3/4 x 31-1/4 in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil, 1873. Oil on canvas; 18-3/8 x 23-1/2 in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; Bequest of Anne Parrish Titzell.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril Leaving the Moulin Rouge, 1892. Essence on board; 33-3/4 x 27-1/2 in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; Bequest of George Gay.
Louis-Rolland Trinquesse, An Interior with a Lady, her Maid, and a Gentleman, 1776. Oil on canvas; 38-1/8 x 50-7/8 in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund.