WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Friday, June 14, from 7:30 to 9:00 pm, the Clark Art Institute celebrates the opening of Guillaume Lethière with a free community-wide celebration, offering guests an opportunity to preview its newest exhibition.

 

On Saturday, June 15, at 11 am, exhibition co-curators Esther Bell, deputy director and Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Chief Curator, and Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director, introduce Guillaume Lethière and provide an inside look at the development of this ambitious exhibition.

 

Through more than 100 paintings, drawings, and sculpture, the Clark tells the story of Guillaume Lethière's rise to the heights of the art world and of the role the gifted artist and teacher played in French history. 

 

Free. Advance registration required at clarkart.edu/events or call 413 458 0524.

 

During the reception there will be light refreshments, and be among the first to view the Clark's major summer exhibition, Guillaume Lethière.

 

During a lecture, exhibition co-curators Esther Bell, deputy director and Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Chief Curator, and Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director, introduce Guillaume Lethière, the first monographic exhibition ever presented on the artist. 

 

According to a press release:

 

Born in the French colony of Guadeloupe, Guillaume Lethière (1760–1832) was a key figure in French painting during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The son of a white plantation owner and an enslaved woman of mixed race, Lethière moved to France with his father at age fourteen. He trained as an artist and successfully navigated the tumult of the French Revolution to achieve the highest levels of recognition in his time. A favorite artist of Napoleon's brother Lucien Bonaparte, Lethière served as director of the Académie de France in Rome, as a member of the Institut de France, and as a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts. Despite his remarkable accomplishments, Lethière is not well known today. The exhibition, organized in partnership with the Musée du Louvre and featuring some 100 paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture, celebrates Lethière's extraordinary career and sheds new light on the presence and reception of Caribbean artists in France during his lifetime.

 

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524.

 

Guillaume Lethière is co-organized by the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, and the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and curated by Esther Bell, deputy director and Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Chief Curator; and Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director; with the assistance of Sophie Kerwin, curatorial assistant, from the Clark; and by Marie-Pierre Salé, chief curator in the Department of Drawings at the Louvre.

 

Guillaume Lethière is made possible by Denise Littlefield Sobel and the Mellon Foundation. Major funding is provided by Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy Demands Wisdom; with additional support from Charles Butt, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Robert Lehman Foundation, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

 

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition and its accompanying materials do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.