Made possible in part through a grant from the Annenberg Foundation via GRoW, Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections opens at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC on February 24, 2012.
Royalists to Romantics features 77 paintings, prints and sculptures created by 35 women artists between 1750 and 1850. These artworks were carefully selected from the collections of dozens of French museums and libraries including the Musée du Louvre, the Château de Versailles and the Château de Fontainebleau. Many of these works have never been seen outside of France.
The hundred-year period covered by the exhibit was a time of incredible political and social upheaval in France – King Louis XVI and his queen Marie-Antoinette came to power, the French Revolution overthrew and abolished the monarchy, the Napoleonic Empire rose and fell, and the Bourbon monarchy was restored. Royalists to Romantics explores how the continually shifting environment influenced women artists’ lives and work.
Artists featured in the exhibit include Marguerite Gérard, Antoine Cécile Haudebourt-Lescot, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Sophie Rude, Anne Vallayer-Coster and Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun.
Royals to Romantics runs through July 29, 2012. Education programs for children and families will be offered in conjunction with the exhibit.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts is the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to recognizing the contributions of women.
GRoW is the philanthropic initiative of Annenberg Foundation Vice President and Director Gregory Annenberg Weingarten.
