LANCRET WORKSHOP, J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM, MAY 5, 2006

A Workshop on Nicolas Lancret and Dance before a Fountain
May 5, 2006
Gallery S202 and GRI lecture hall

In 2001, the Getty acquired a major painting by Nicolas Lancret, the
ca.1723 Dance before a Fountain, an outstanding example of the fête
galante and one of the most significant paintings by the artist. This
work intersects the themes of landscape, dance, music, conversation, the
body, and social class, and in this richness, has become an anchor of the
eighteenth-century collections of the Getty. Getty Publications has just
published a study by Mary Tavener Holmes of this complex picture, Nicolas
Lancret: Dance before a Fountain
(http://www.getty.edu/bookstore/titles/lancret.html).
This book situates the painting in Lancret's oeuvre and in the broader
context of eighteenth-century European art and culture, uncovering new
aspects of the dance and park setting, and presenting new information
about the painting's collection history. Mark Leonard has also written a
chapter regarding the painting's conservation, providing a new
understanding of the artist's technique.

To celebrate the launch of the book, and to examine the continued
scholarship on the artist, the J. Paul Getty Museum will hold a day-long
workshop centered on the Getty painting, and all the talks and discussions
will radiate specifically from this one object.

In tandem with this event, the museum will mount an installation of
small-scale paintings by Lancret, including Nicaise and Two Friends, on
long-term loan from the Clark Art Institute, and A Woman Seated on a Sofa,
on loan from the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Collection.

Admission is free but reservations are required.
Please call 310-440-7300 for reservations.

Program:

Part One: Lancret Making Art (9am-10am, J. Paul Getty Museum, Gallery S201)

Introduction:
Jon Seydl, Assistant Curator of Paintings, J. Paul Getty Museum,
and Scott Schaefer, Curator of Paintings, J. Paul Getty Museum

Christine Giviskos, Assistant Curator of Drawings, J. Paul Getty Museum,
will discuss Lancret's draughtsmanship, centered on works in the
collection by Lancret, Watteau, and Pater.

Mark Leonard, Conservator of Paintings, J. Paul Getty Museum, will discuss
his conservation of Dance before a Fountain and his observations on
Lancret's working methods.

Coffee Break: GRI Lecture Hall (10am-10:30am)

Session Two: Interpreting Lancret (10:30am-1pm, Getty Research Institute
Lecture Hall)

Janice Mercurio, Samuel H. Kress Fellow, CASVA, and Ph.D. candidate,
University of Pennsylvania
"Lancret's Musette: Muse or Mischief?"

Mary Tavener Holmes, independent scholar, New York
"Ile de Cythere meets the Ile-de-France: Lancret's Capriccios"

Christoph Martin Vogtherr, Curator of Paintings, Stiftung Preußische
Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, "Lancret in Paris, Potsdam, and
Berlin"

Response: Thomas Crow, Director, Getty Research Institute, and Professor
of Art History, University of Southern California

Related Events:

Lecture, Thursday afternoon, May 4, 2006:
Christoph Martin Vogtherr, Curator of Paintings, Stiftung Preußische
Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg,
"Watteau's Shopsign. The Long Creation of a Masterwork"

Screening, Thursday evening, May 4, 2006:
"Russian Ark," with commentary by Edward Goldberg, KCRW

Lecture, Sunday afternoon May 7, 2006:
Emmanuel Ducamp, Independent Scholar, Paris
"The Formation of Russian Imperial Collections and Their Use in Imperial
Palaces"

--
Jon L. Seydl
Assistant Curator, Paintings
J. Paul Getty Museum

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