A Swede in Paris in the 18th Century

A Swede in Paris
in the 18th Century
Press release
Exhibition
October 20, 2016 –
January 16, 2017
The Tessin Collection
Rotonde Sully
A man of taste and culture, Carl Gustaf Tessin performed the
duties of Swedish ambassador to Paris between 1739 and 1742.
During these three years, he was passionately devoted to
building a very rich collection of paintings and drawings
(Boucher, Dürer, Rembrandt, etc.), now preciously conserved at
the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.
The Louvre’s tribute to this Swede in Paris in the 18th century
boasts a spectacular selection of around a hundred artworks,
some of which, such as The Triumph of Venus by François
Boucher, are returning to Paris for the first time since Tessin
purchased them. The exhibition also provides a glimpse into the
art market and Parisian tastes in the mid-18th century.
Jean-Baptiste Oudry, The Dachshound Pehr
with Dead Game and Rifle. Nationalmuseum,
Stockholm
© Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum
This exhibition was organized by the
Musée du Louvre, in partnership
with the Nationalmuseum in
Stockholm
Musée du Louvre
Practical information
Opening hours
Every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., except
Tuesday. Night opening until 10 p.m. on
Wednesdays and Fridays.
Admission
€15 (permanent collections + exhibitions)
Free for visitors under the age of 18, 18–25
year-old residents of the European Union,
teachers with a “Pass Education” card,
unemployed individuals, holders of the Youth,
Professional, Family, and Ami du Louvre
cards.
Politician and man of the court, diplomat, artist, writer, and
historian, Count Carl Gustaf Tessin was well received in both court
and city life, and had many friends such as the art collector Pierre
Jean Mariette and the painter François Boucher. Tessin made the
rounds of the shops, auctions, and Parisian artist studios to acquire
an exceptional collection that revealed both the tastes of one man
and the artistic emulation that reigned in Paris from 1730 to 1740.
Upon return to Sweden, riddled with debts, Carl Gustaf Tessin was
forced in 1749 to part with his collection, most of which became the
property of the Swedish Crown.
Of outstanding quality, the artworks selected for this exhibition are
arranged chronologically and by theme to show how Tessin
collected such a large number of drawings and paintings by the most
renowned artists from France (Boucher, Natoire, and Oudry) and
abroad (Dürer, Rembrandt, Carracci, etc.), as well as fashionable
furnishings and decorative objects. He was one of the principal
buyers at the great Crozat sale of 1741, thereby establishing the heart
of his collection: Italian primitive artists in the Vasari collection,
Flemish and German primitive artists, studies by Primaticcio for
Fontainebleau, the Venetian, Bolognese, and French schools, and
above all Flemish and Dutch drawings.
Organized by: Magnus Olausson, Director of Collections and
Research, and Carina Fryklund, Curator, Department of Prints and
Drawings, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
Xavier Salmon, Director, Department of Prints and Drawings,
Guillaume Faroult, Executive Curator, Department of Paintings, and
Juliette Trey, Curator, Department of Prints and Drawings, Musée
du Louvre.
Online ticket sales: www.ticketlouvre.fr
Further information: www.louvre.fr
Musée du Louvre
External Relations Department
Anne-Laure Béatrix, Director
Adel Ziane, Head of Communications Subdepartment
Sophie Grange, Head of Press Division
Press contact
Christine Cuny
[email protected]
Tél. + 33 (0)1 40 20 51 42
1
Around the Exhibition
At the Louvre Auditorium
Lectures
Thursday, October 27 at 12:30 p.m.
Presentation of the exhibition (in French)
By Guillaume Faroult, Xavier Salmon, and Juliette Trey, Musée du
Louvre.
Monday, October 24 at 6:30 p.m.
Carl Gustaf Tessin: Artistic Relations between France and
Sweden in the 18th Century
By Magnus Olausson, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
Louis Tocqué, Portrait of Carl Gustaf Tessin.
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
© Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum
Monday, October 31 at 6:30 p.m.
Carl Gustaf Tessin, Collector of Drawings (in French)
By Xavier Salmon, Musée du Louvre.
Monday, November 7 at 6:30 p.m.
Carl Gustaf Tessin: A Parisian Taste for Painting (in French)
By Guillaume Faroult, Musée du Louvre
(Reservations: +33 (0)1 40 20 55 00)
Guided tours (in French)
Wednesday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 11:30 a.m. (starting Oct. 26).
Thematic gallery talks: 18th-Century Artistic
Taste (in French)
François Boucher, The Triumph of Venus.
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
© Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum
The Institut Tessin collection at the
Institut Suédois
Since its opening in 1971, the Institut
Suédois in Paris has also been home to the
Institut Tessin, an art collection created in
1933 by Gunnar W. Lundberg and named
after Carl Gustaf Tessin. The collection’s
masterpieces are on public display in the
permanent exhibition gallery at the Institut
Suédois. Artistic exchanges between
Sweden and France serve as the guiding
theme of the collection, which also
features a number of artworks in
connection with Count Tessin himself.
There are portraits of the count painted by
artists such as Martin van Meytens and
Lorens Pasch, as well as works by Gustaf
Lundberg and Alexander Roslin, two
artists who received his support.
In addition to the lecture series at the
Louvre, the Institut Suédois has organized
a program of events in connection with the
exhibition. More information on the
events will be available in September:
Institut Suédois
11, rue Payenne 75003 Paris
www.institutsuedois.fr
Tuesday–Sunday / noon–6 p.m.
In 3 sessions (including the exhibition tour)
Nov. 12, 19, and 26 at 11:30 a.m.
(Reservations: +33 (0)1 40 20 51 77)
The Cabinet des Dessins of the Musée du Louvre
A division of the Department of Prints and Drawings, the Cabinet
des Dessins originated as a group of works collected by the kings
of France. It began in 1671 with Louis XIV’s purchase of 5,542
drawings belonging to the most famous amateur collector of the
time, Everhard Jabach. At the end of the century these were
supplemented by works from the studio collections of the “First
Painters” Charles Le Brun and Pierre Mignard. Some other major
works were acquired at the Mariette sale in 1775; but the collection
as a whole more than doubled in size as a result of the wholesale
confiscations and conquests during the Revolution—the property of
the Comte d’Orsay, Saint-Morys, and the dukes of Modena, among
others. The policy of expansion adopted during the Directory has
continued to the present day. In order to avoid destroying the unity
of the whole collection, and to facilitate access to it, the drawings
originally in the collection and those subsequently acquired by the
Musée d’Orsay—except for pastels, architectural drawings, and the
decorative arts—have all remained in the Louvre. The Cabinet des
Dessins today contains 150,000 works (if reverse-side drawings are
included). In 1935 the Edmond de Rothschild collection was added
to the Cabinet des Dessins: this includes almost 90,000 prints, and
the terms of the donation require it to be conserved separately.
Email: [email protected]. Tel.: +33 (0)1 40 20 52 51
2