French Art Presented In New Exhibit at Fogg

Fogg Museum is featuring French art for the second time this season.

An exhibit of "Five Centuries of French Drawings," from the museum's own collection, is now on display there. Most of the drawings have seldom been hung before because of the special problem of preserving them.

This showing of French art follows the French government collection of drawings, which was seen at Fogg last month. This collection is currently touring the country.

John P. Coolidge '35, Director of the Museum, said, "The recent success of the visiting exhibition of French drawings has shown that there is a large audience eager to appreciate the special qualities of fine drawings. The French drawings in the Fogg collection, always available in the Drawing Department and constantly used by students, are not often on exhibition because long exposure to daylight is harmful."

"As a result the large audience which came to see the treasures from abroad may not know that the Fogg Museum has one of the most important collections of French drawing which exists," he continued.

Few Seventeenth Centure Works

"While the memory of the visiting drawings is still fresh," Coolidge added, "it seemed an appropriate moment to expose on the walls of the same galleries our French drawings from the same five centuries."

The exhibition stresses the work of Prud'hon, Ingres, Gericault, Chasseriau, Millet, Degas, and Toulouse-Lautrec. It also includes a portrait of Marie Stuart by Jean de Court and portraits by Francois Clouet which have been lent to the Museum.

The emphasis of the current exhibition is different from that of the French government exhibit. There are not many drawings of the 17th century, for example, although a Poussin drawing of "The Presentation in the Temple" and two landscapes by Claude are from that period.

There is a roomful of drawings and water colors by Ingres which has been called "incomparable." David is represented by a large diagrammatic study for "The Oath of the Tennis Court" and by preliminary sketches for the scene of the crowning of the Empress Josephine by Napoleon in December, 1804.

Several of the drawings in the exhibition were recently bought with money given by contributors to the Museum Fund. The exhibit will be shown until May 2. Fogg will be open to the public on Sunday, April 12 and on Sunday, April 26, from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m.