Art Eyewitness Review: David Hockney Book Shelf

David Hockney Book Shelf

A Selection of Books about David Hockney

 from Thames and Hudson

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Original photos by Anne Lloyd

For art lovers, the autumn months have much to offer. Major new museum exhibitions and gallery shows have already been announced. New moments of inspiration, new memories to cherish are about to be made. 

Anticipation, in the lyrics of the 1971 Carly Simon song, may be “keeping me waiting.” But, like the melancholy figure in David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), I am not ready yet to let go – emotionally – of the summer of 2025. 

There certainly have been some wonderful spring/summer exhibitions this year. Anne and I have more than a twinge of regret at the closing of Sargent and Paris at The Met. And then there are the exhibits that eluded our reach and our grasp. 

David Hockney (born 1937) figures prominently at the top of the list of exhibitions we were unable to visit "in person." The Fondation Louis Vutton in Paris has mounted the greatest-ever Hockney retrospective, utilizing every gallery in its building to encompass the vast range of Hockney's incredible oeuvre. 

  

 David Hockney, Portrait of My Father, painted in 1955, 

and After Munch - Less is Known than People Think, 2023

          

The Over 400 paintings by Hockney, ranging from the young artist's somber 1955 portrait of his father to very recent work, including "conversations" with William Blake and Edvard Munch, are on view. The exhibition at the trendsetting Paris museum will continue until August 31, 2025.

gallery views of David Hockney 25, generously provided by the Fondation Louis Vutton, testify to the "blockbuster" status of this exhibition. Every aspect of Hockney's creative embrace of life and art is carefully presented, with cogent essays in the exhibition catalog brilliantly complementing the paintings on display.

David Hockney, Self Portrait with Red Braces, 2003

More to the point, the awesome assemblage of Hockney's works across the span of his career confirm that he is worthy of the compliment paid by John Constable to his reputed rival, J.M.W. Turner. 

David Hockney has "a wonderful range of mind." 

Installation view of David Hockney 25 at the Fondation Louis Vutton showing Hockney's Bigger Trees near Warter or ou Peinture

 sur le Motif pour le Nouvel Age Post-Photographique, 2007

David Hockney 25 differs from the previous major Hockney retrospective, which was presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017. Although significant highlights of Hockney's early work are on view, the major emphasis is on his experiments in art during recent years. Hockney's digital art, created by using iPhone, iPad and photographic drawing is a new, unprecedented genre and certainly worthy of the amount of attention it receives in the exhibition.

Installation view of David Hockney 25 at the Fondation Louis Vutton, showing Hockney's 27 March 2020, No. 1, and other landscapes

Many of the art lovers who are fortunate in being able to travel Paris to see David Hockney 25 are likely to be familiar with Hockney's iPad drawings from illustrations in books or magazines. They will be able to see these digital works at first hand. Lucky them ... but there is no reason for "sour grapes" from the rest of us.

To view Hockney's digital art between the covers of a book is no second-class substitute. Indeed, the moving account by  Hockney, detailing his use of iPad drawing during the Covid-19 crisis, is positively crucial to understanding this tremendous artistic undertaking. 

This "essential reading" was co-authored by Martin Gayford. Spring Cannot be Cancelled, details how Hockney, living at his country home in Normandy, France, responded to the tragic effects of pandemic and quarantine, which blighted countless lives. Hockney, working at great speed, used his iPad to record the arrival of spring with a plethora of closely-focused images.

The sights of spring, once taken for granted, were denied to many in 2020. David Hockney restored the balance, harmony and beauty of nature.

David Hockney, 27 March 2020, No. 1, 2020

Spring Cannot be Cancelled was published by Thames & Hudson in 2021. For several years, this inspirational book was the "essential reading" selection of Art Eyewitness. Martin Gayford's How Painting Happens is currently in this slot, but Spring Cannot be Cancelled has lost none of its insight and power.

Over the years, T&H has functioned as the source of a stream of books about and written by Hockney. Three recent T&H titles are keeping the David Hockney "bookshelf" well-stocked. 

The three volumes are the catalog of David Hockney 25 (328 pages/$60), The World According to David Hockney, a collection of Hockney quotes and aphorisms (176 pages/$19.95), and the revised edition of the classic Hockney's Pictures (496 pages/$50).

Let's have a look!

The first volume on our bookshelf is the catalog of the exhibition at Fondation Louis Vutton. As expected, the curators of the museum and the staff at T&H have pulled-out all the stops to produce a book which is truly a work of art in its own right.

Two aspects of this magnificent book are worthy of some reflection - beyond noting the awesome quality of its many, many illustrations.

As stated earlier, the Fondation Louis Vutton exhibition and its catalog concentrate of Hockney's recent work, especially his numerous series of landscapes and portraits, executed in oils, acrylic paint or digital media. Hockney's enthusiastic use of the full artist's tool kit of the twenty-first century does not imply the displacement of traditional techniques by cutting-edge technology.

David Hockney, In the Studio, 2019

Hockney, as he has done throughout his long career, uses whatever artistic medium suits his purpose, whatever best serves to help him realize his vision. There are recent charcoal and pen and ink drawings in the Fondation Louis Vutton catalog which are worthy of Ingres or Sargent, as well as inkjet printed computer drawings and iPad drawings. 

Realizing "his vision" is paramount to Hockney - and key to understanding his genius. Hockney, with quiet deliberation has navigated his way through all the "isms" and agendas which have otherwise defined the art scene of the last sixty years. Winter Timber (2009) reproduced in a stunning, double-page spread in the David Hockney 25 catalog, is a good example of how Hockney has made his own individualistic mark.

Winter Timber depicts the landscape of eastern Yorkshire, painted in a non-naturalistic color scheme worthy of the Fauves. Rather than executing this work on a single, over-sized support, Hockney painted fifteen separate canvases, each measuring 36 x 48 inches. The component parts of the picture were then combined to form a unified image - 108 x 240 inches (274.3 x 609.6 cm).

An intriguing work of art, Winter Timber invites a wide range of interpretations. An impassioned plea for respecting the environment? A timely reminder to follow "the road less-traveled", in this case the path which veers off to right, past the purple tree stump?

David Hockney, Winter Timber, 2009

Hockney's response to such questions is to emphasize the importance of Winter -and thereby underscoring the resilience of nature. That's an unexpected comment from a man who reminded the world that "Spring cannot be cancelled."

"People have it all wrong imagining it to be a time when the world goes dead," Hockney has stated. "Trees are never more alive than in winter, you can virtually see the life force, thinned but straining, pulsing, the branches stretching palpably, achingly toward the light."

Earlier in this review, I compared Hockney (favorably) to Turner, but when it comes to articulate comments and lucid writing, there is no comparison. Hockney wins the day on both counts, as can easily be appreciated in our second book selection, The World According to David Hockney.

Here is a sample of what Hockney has to say on life, art, nature, technology and inspiration:

Looking is a positive act. You have to do it deliberately.

The world is beautiful and if we don't think it is, we are doomed as a species.

Art should be a deep pleasure. There is a contradiction in an art of total despair, because at least you are trying to communicate, and that takes away a little of the despair. Art has this contradiction built into it.

God, if you want to paint, just paint.

Essentially, Hockney's "words of wisdom" are subdivided into two groups: profound, incisive comments on art and spontaneous, heartfelt remarks, filled with the enthusiasm and joie de vivre which comes from making creative expression a part of one's daily experience.

One of the latter relates to a painting I much admired at the 2017 Met retrospective of Hockney's works: Contre-jour in the French Style - Against the Day dan le Style Francais, 1974.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017)

David Hockney's Contre-jour in the French Style

 - Against the Day dan le Style Francais, 1974

Forget for a moment any explanation of this striking, inimitable painting except what Hockney has to say about it:

I saw this window with the blind pulled down and the formal garden beyond. I thought, oh, it's marvelous, marvelous! This is a picture in itself.

My favorite quote combines Hockney's deep love of classic art and his unquenchable sense of humor. This quote is paired with his renowned 1967 painting, Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy. See how it strikes you!

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017)

David Hockney's Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy, 1971

 

Somebody once commented that my double portraits are like Annunciations. There's always somebody who looks permanent and someone who's kind of a visitor. 

The third volume on our bookshelf is Hockney's Pictures. Originally published in 2004, this updated and expanded new edition is a large-format paperback. The 522 illustrations, spanning Hockney's entire career, rival those in the Fondation Louis Vutton catalog for size, clarity and fidelity of color. 

Page spread from David Hockney’s Pictures, published by     

Thames & Hudson, showing Hockney's 

Mulholland Drive: the Road to the Studio, 1980 

The text emphasizes insights from Hockney rather than commentary by art scholars. Thus, Hockney's Pictures combines the virtues of the David Hockney 25 catalog and The World According to David Hockney.

Hockney's Pictures is arranged in thematic chapters which enable us to study in detail all of the many aspects of his oeuvre. I found the treatment of Hockney's use of photos, to create cubist-style collages, to be especially enlightening.

David Hockney, Mother I, Yorkshire Moors, August 1985, 1985

Age has not dimmed David Hockney's vision or curbed his creative output. Hockney is on record as stating that he feels 30-years of age when he picks-up a brush or sets to work on his iPad. There's not a hint of a "last chapter" in any of these three books.  

For a summing-up, let's turn again to the Fondation Louis Vutton catalog of David Hockney 25. In an essay in this splendid book, the historian Simon Schama reflects on Hockney's capacity to convey pleasure as a defining characteristic of his art.

Comparing Hockney to the Gothic cathedral stained glass artisans, Schama writes: 

Just as there was no division in that sacred work between makers and worshippers, Hockney's pursuit of visual joy, I think, has always presupposed his unaffected inseparability from those who are going to consume it.

At first, "consume" seemed an odd word to use in reference to Hockney's work, as if it were a commodity to be used-up. But, if we regard art - as Hockney creates it - as something essential to human well-being like food, then "consume" is the correct word.

 David Hockney, Mt. Fuji and Flowers, 1972 

Food for thought. Food for the soul. Brought to you by David Hockney and Thames & Hudson.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved.

Original photos: Copyright of Anne Lloyd, all rights reserved.

Introductory Image:                                                           

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972. Acrylic on canvas: 84 inches. x 120 inches (214 cm. x 275 cm.) The Lewis Collection. Photo was taken at the 2017 Hockney retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

David Hockney (British, born 1937) Portrait of My Father, 1955 (Oil on canvas: 50.8 x 40.6 cm., 20 x 16 in.) and After Munch - Less is Known than People Think, 2023. Acrylic on canvas: 121.9 x 182.9 cm (48 x 72 in.) © David Hockney

David Hockney (British, born 1937) Self Portrait with Red Braces, 2003. Watercolor on paper; 24 x 18 1/8". Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California. © David Hockney. Photo Credit: Richard Schmidt.

Installation view of David Hockney 25 at the Fondation Louis Vutton, Paris, showing David Hockney’s Bigger Trees near Warter or ou Peinture sur le Motif pour le Nouvel Age Post-Photographique, 2007. Photo courtesy of the Fondation Louis Vutton.

Installation view of David Hockney 25 at the Fondation Louis Vutton, Paris showing David Hockney’s 27th March 2020, No. 1 and other landscapes. Photo courtesy of the Fondation Louis Vutton.

David Hockney (British, born 1937) 27th March 2020, No. 1, 2020. iPad painting printed on paper, mounted on five aluminium panels, 364.1 x 521.4 cm (143 ¼ x 205 ¼ in.) overall.

Cover Art of David Hockney 25. Published by the Foundation Louis Vutton and Thames & Hudson 2025.  Image © Thames & Hudson.

David Hockney (British, born 1937) In the Studio, 2019. Ink on paper: 57.47 x 76.84 cm (22.625 x 30.25 Inches) Private Collection. © David Hockney Photo Credit: Richard Schmidt

David Hockney (British, born 1937) Winter Timber, 2009. Oil on canvas, in 15 parts:. Overall: 108 x 240 in. (274.3 x 609.6 cm.) Private collection. © David Hockney  Photo courtesy of Fondation Louis Vutton.

Cover Art of The World According to David Hockney. Published by Thames & Hudson.  Image © Thames & Hudson.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) David Hockney’s Contre-Jour in the French style – Against the Day dans le Style-Francais. Oil on canvas: 182.9 x 182.9 cm (72 x 72 inches) Collection of the Ludwig Museum, Budapest. Photo was taken at the 2017 2017 Hockney retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) David Hockney’s Mr.and Mrs.Clarke and Percy, 1971. Acrylic on canvas: 213.4 x 304.8 cm. (84 x 120 inches) Tate Britain Museum. Photo was taken at the 2017 David Hockney retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Page spread from David Hockney’s Pictures showing Mulholland Drive - the Road to the Studio, 1980. Image © Thames & Hudson

David Hockney (British, born 1937) Mother I, Yorkshire Moors, August 1985, 1985. Photographic collage: 46.99 x 33.02 cm (18.5 x 13 Inches).© David Hockney  Photo Credit: Richard Schmidt

David Hockney (British, born 1937) Mt. Fuji and Flowers, 1972. Acrylic on canvas: 60 x 48 in. (152.4 × 121.9 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art. #1972.128 © David Hockney   

Art Eyewitness Close-up: Mahamayuri on Peacock, from The Met's "Recasting the Past" Exhibition

 

Mahamayuri on Peacock 

Recasting the Past: the Art of Chinese Bronzes Exhibition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Text by Ed Voves

Original photography by Anne Lloyd and Ed Voves

In an Art Eyewitness post earlier this year, I promised a return visit to Recasting the Past: the Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100-1900, on view at The Met until September 28, 2025.

The Met's remarkable exhibition convincingly demonstrates that the casting of bronze works of art in China was much more than a long postscript to the glorious Shang bronzes created in China's distant antiquity. Amazingly, this belief was held by a number of reputable scholars.

Having more than proved its point that the long tradition of Chinese mastery in casting bronze and metal alloy works of art extended to modern times, Recasting the Past concludes on a surprising, almost unsettling note. 

   Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)  Mahamayuri on Peacock,1426-35

The last work on display looks distinctly uncharacteristic of China's artistic conventions. It is a masterpiece so spectacular, so uniquely expressive that it seems more of a stand-alone display than the grand finale of an exhibition detailing the Chinese devotion to fugu, the "return to the past."

                      Ed Voves, Photo (2025)                                 

                    Gallery view of the Recasting the Past exhibition at The Met

This singular masterpiece is entitled Mahamayuri on Peacock. It dates to 1426-35, a cultural high point of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). One of the highlights of Berlin's Ethnologisches Museum, Mahamayuri is making a rare visit to the U.S. and its presence in The Met exhibit is deeply significant, as well as a wonder to behold.

 

The spiritual ideals which which led Chinese artisans of the Ming-era to create Mahamayuri on Peacock can be traced to three of Asia's great "awakenings." In this single work of art can be traced the birth of Buddhism in ancient India, its migration to the kingdoms of the Himalayan region and, finally, the integration of Buddhism within the traditions of Chinese culture.

Mahamayuri is a bodhisattva, a being striving toward enlightenment or Buddhahood.  An important aspect of this process of "becoming" is the bodhisattva's compassion for humanity and indeed all fellow creatures.

Mahamayuri is a Sanskrit name meaning "Great Peahen", in token of the reputation of these extraordinary birds for devouring snakes. One of the principal tasks of Mahamayuri is to safeguard people from poisonous snakes and to help cure those who fall victim to these dangerous reptiles.

Mahamayuri, it should be noted, is viewed as a protector against spiritual poisons, as well as snake venom. At some point in the journey of Buddhism from India to China and further into East Asia, Mahamayuri changed from peahen to peacock. But Mahamayuri remained a female wisdom figure.

Like the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, who was renamed Guanyin upon reaching China, so Mahamayuri gained a new name in China, Kongque Mingwang (Peacock Wisdom King). And just as the beloved Guanyin was revered for her mercy and benevolence, so the Peacock Wisdom King was extolled as a protector against dangers and calamities, poisonous snakebites as noted above, but also natural disasters, floods and droughts.

According to the accompanying text provided by The Met curators:

 This esoteric Buddhist icon reflects an imaginative fusion of Chinese and Tibetan iconographies in the imperial Ming workshop. In the Chinese Buddhist tradition, the icon has only one face and four arms, while the icon in Tibetan Buddhism does not usually ride a peacock. This new representation of Mahamayuri continued into later centuries.

The Ming-era Mahamayuri/Kongque Mingwang on view in The Met exhibition is thus a synthesis of spiritual traditions from across Asia. 

The three faces, with their benevolent expressions, beam with the wisdom and compassion of a bodhisattva, so cherished by devout Buddhists and other spiritually-motivated people throughout the world.

In the six hands of the Peacock Wisdom King we see some of the symbolical instruments of her protective power - a sword, a scepter, a casket for holding jewels.

In the other hands, a lotus flower, a small piece of fruit, peacock feathers would also have been displayed. All speak of compassion for suffering humanity. All are symbols - and potent ones - for those who seek spiritual enlightenment.

This soul-nurturing work of art made a powerful impression on me on each of my two visits to Recasting the Past. It is the latest in a line of truly inspiring Asian exhibitions at The Met, beginning with the 2014 exhibition, Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia.

Part of the reason that Mahamayuri on Peacock registered so powerfully on me is its appeal on a first-time viewer. But I was no less enthralled the second time I beheld this wondrous work of art. If I'm fortunate to make a third visit, I think my reaction will be the same.

I could continue with personal reflections, but I will refrain. The most telling comment on the appeal and attraction of such an astonishing work of art comes from Andre Malroux's The Voices of Silence. And to this great French sage, we will now turn:

The supreme power of art, and of love, is that they urge us to exhaust in them the inexhaustible! The eagerness to enjoy art to the full is no new thing; what is new is that it is leading to the rediscoveries of works whose message fascinates us alike, whether their values seem friendly to us or hostile.

Hostility is not a word I would apply to Mahamayuri on Peacock. Exotic. Uncanny Extraordinary. Difficult to understand. Yes, all of these attributes are a factor, as I grapple with comprehending it.

Yet, when I stood before Mahamayuri on Peacock at The Met and, now, when i look-over the photos which Anne and I took, it is the "inexhaustible" power, warmth and empathy of this astonishing work of art which I feel. 

I want to go back to The Met and try to exhaust the Peacock Wisdom King's inexhaustible store of spiritual treasures ... which, of course, I will never succeed in doing. 

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                 

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd and Ed Voves

 Introductory Image (and all subsequent photos by Anne Lloyd and Ed Voves):

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)  Mahamayuri on Peacock, Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Xuande mark and period (1426–35). Gilt copper alloy: H. 57 1/16 in. (145 cm); W. 47 1/4 in. (120 cm); D. 25 9/16 in. (65 cm); Wt. 196.4 lb (89.1 kg) Collection of Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

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Art Eyewitness Review: From Paris to Provence at the Barnes Foundation

                            From Paris to Provence:                     

French Painting at the Barnes Foundation

June 29 - August 31, 2025 

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Original Photography by Anne Lloyd

Art museums are oases of cultural and creative expression. On hot summer days, when throngs of vacationing art lovers make the trek in search of masterpieces, an art museum often is a literal oasis.The air conditioned galleries and cold drinks in the cafeteria are a welcome - and very needed - relief.

So it was, on a scorching late June morning, when we attended the press preview of the summer exhibition at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. It was fairly early in the morning, but an intensive heatwave was setting-in. It was "mad-dogs and Englishmen" weather, with hours to go until the "noon-day sun."

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 The press preview of Paris to Provence: French Painting at the Barnes 

The subject of the summer exhibition is From Paris to Provence: French Painting at the Barnes. As the assembled journalists and photographers gathered to hear Dr. Cindy Kang provide a brilliant lecture on these signature Barnes art works, everyone looked positively revived. But when we reached the third gallery of the exhibition, dedicated to Van Gogh's paintings during his sojourn in Arles, I felt an irresistible urge to put my sunglasses back-on.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Gallery view of Paris to Provence at the Barnes Foundation,

 showing four paintings by Vincent van Gogh, 1888-1890.

There, set against the glaring backdrop of a Mediterranean summer hue, were four Van Gogh icons - and I don't use that word lightly.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 The four Van Gogh paintings shown above: Still Life (1888),

 The Smoker (1888), The Postman (1889), Houses and Figure (1890).

Dr. Albert Barnes, with the advice and assistance of his friend, the artist William Glackens, purchased this select group of Van Gogh paintings. Because of the unique criteria of the Barnes Method, these Van Gogh paintings are rarely shown together. Indeed, this is likely the only time that they have ever been publicly displayed in this manner.

It was positively electrifying to see the four Van Gogh works at the press preview. Predictably, when my wife Anne and I returned for a follow-up visit, the number of art lovers lingering in front of these remarkable paintings never seemed to diminish.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 "Crowd pleasers" of the Paris to Provence exhibition, 

Vincent van Gogh's The Smoker (1888) & The Postman (1889).

As unique as is the opportunity to view these Van Gogh paintings in their present setting, the motivation for this splendid exhibition is rather prosaic. The Barnes opened its doors on May 12, 2012. The wear-and-tear of ceaseless foot traffic necessitated a major rehab of the gallery floors.

Last summer's Matisse and Renoir exhibition presented an insightful look at the relationship of these two artists. All of the works on display came from the walls of second-floor galleries at the Barnes, while the floors were refurbished. This summer, it is the turn of the first floor galleries.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

 View of a first floor gallery at the Barnes Foundation, the display of art works reflecting the principles of the Barnes Method.

The Barnes Method of display emphasizes the relationship of works of art based on "light, line, color and space." The arrangement of the "ensembles" of paintings, sculptures, ceramics, metalwork and hand-crafted furniture certainly encourages visitors to the Barnes to view these works from unconventional perspectives.

 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2022)

An ensemble at the Barnes Foundation, showing

 Van Gogh's The Postman displayed Renoir's Nude with Castenets (1918), Renoir still-lifes and a Windsor chair from the 1700's. 

Originality of thought is, obviously, a good attitude to cultivate. Moreover, Dr. Barnes aimed to promote a democratic approach to culture. To Barnes, a carved Windsor chair from the 1700's was as worthy of study and appreciation as a Van Gogh portrait. 

However, when one of the latter, in this case The Postman (Joseph-Etienne Roulin), is wedged in a corner to achieve the desire Barnes Method configuration, that can pose problems.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Vincent van Gogh’s The Postman (detail), 1889

Van Gogh painted six portraits of Roulin during the years, 1888-89, and the Barnes version is arguably the finest. The skill with which Van Gogh depicted Roulin's eyes is on such a transcendent level that clearly it was based on much more than technical skill. But if you wish to subject The Postman to prolonged appraisal in its usual setting, you risk a "crick" in the back or eye strain.

Paris to Provence provides a precious opportunity to encounter The Postman "face-to-face." At the same time, you can attempt to fathom the intangible bond between Van Gogh and Roulin which is reflected in this astonishing - yes, "iconic" - portrait.

This holds true for the other nearby Van Gogh paintings, including (or perhaps, especially) Houses and Figure which seems to be shrinking in the intense summer heat.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Gallery views of Van Gogh’s Houses and Figure, 1890

From Paris to Provence is much more than a golden opportunity to display signature works from the Barnes collection in a popular summer offering. It is a brilliantly curated exhibition charting the rise and progress of modern art in Belle Époque France. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Pierre-August Renoir's Girl with a Jump Rope (detail), 1876

The exhibition begins with a series of Renoir portraits from the 1870's and several works by Manet, an artist seldom associated with the Barnes collection. These highly accomplished works symbolize the rapid recovery of the self-confidence and prosperity of France following the disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Claude Monet's The Studio Boat (detail), 1876

Impressionism, the "new painting", spread from Paris to the surrounding countryside. The Barnes exhibit takes note of this trend with a painting of Claude Monet working in his Studio Boat near Argenteuil on the River Seine. From there, the Impressionists and post-Impressionists sought new subjects in Normandy and Brittany. The next, bold move was southward to Provence, where the tragic Van Gogh/Gauguin episode took place.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Gallery view of Paul Cézanne's Bathers at Rest, 1876-77

At this point in Paris to Provence, the reclusive Cézanne takes center stage. Choosing wisely from the incomparable holdings of Cézanne's oeuvre in the Barnes collection (61 oil paintings and 8 of his works on paper), Dr. Kang was able to illustrate the extraordinary scope of Cézanne's genius.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Two Cézanne paintings on view in Paris to Provence: 

Terracotta Pots and Flowers, 1891-92, & Bibemus Quarry, c. 1895

This brief synopsis of the exhibition is hardly "breaking" news for art enthusiasts. What is worthy of remark is the way that this time-honored narrative of early Modernism is illustrated with works from the Barnes. The result is a striking visual reinterpretation which presents a familiar story in a new light.

The selection of works of art for presentation in a special exhibition is always a complex process. In one sense, the task of the Barnes curatorial staff is both simplified and complicated by the fact that only paintings from the first floor galleries could be used. It says a lot about the strength of the Barnes collection that - under these restrictions - fifty outstanding works could be selected to illustrate the Paris to Provence theme.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 View of the Paris to Provence exhibition: (from left) Henri Matisse's

 Blue Still Life (1907) & Renoir's Nude in a Landscape, c. 1917

Yet there was a further challenge in the selection process. One of the leading figures in the southward shift was Henri Matisse. Along with Renoir, Matisse was the protagonist of last summer's exhibit, as noted earlier. Although there are several Renoir paintings in From Paris to Provence, the decision was made to limit Matisse's contribution to just one.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Henri Matisse's Blue Still Life, 1907

The choice was a wise one: Matisse's Blue Still Life. Painted in 1907, it is a sensational "balancing act", contrasting the bright Mediterranean light with deep shadow. Additionally, Blue Still Life has several of the defining hallmarks of Matisse's oeuvre, notably his love of fabrics and astute interior design sense.

One of the reasons for restricting the number of Matisse paintings and thereby conserving available wall space becomes apparent in the last gallery. Here paintings by emigre artists like Amadeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, Georgio de Chirico and Joan Miro are displayed.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 The final gallery of Paris to Provence, showing (from left) Modigliani's  Girl with a Polka-Dot Blouse (1919), Soutine's Woman in Blue (1919)

and Modigliani's Portrait of the Red-Headed Woman (1918)

Dr. Cindy Kang explained one of the important results of widening the focus of French art beyond the orbit of Paris. This was to create works of art which appealed to and influenced a new generation of artists at the dawn of the twentieth century. Many of these artists reversed the "southward shift" and made Paris their base of operation.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Dr. Cindy Kang at the press preview of Paris to Provence

Much of the work of this new "School of Paris" would prove unintelligible and infuriating to the French artistic establishment and public-at-large. De Chirico's cryptic Sophocles and Euripides perhaps explains why.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Giorgio de Chirico's Sophocles and Euripides, 1925

As alien and unsettling as some of the paintings in the final gallery of Paris to Provence may appear, their presence should not be unexpected. The late 19th century in France is known as the Belle Époque, but much of the beauty and joie de vivre of the era was dearly bought. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Vincent van Gogh's The Factory, 1887

Along with the four sun-drenched Provencal paintings, there is another Van Gogh which shows a grim industrial site in the suburbs of Paris. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Detail of Cézanne's Young Man and Skull, 1896-98

Nor can the sobering sight of human skulls in two of the Cézanne paintings be ignored. This was a reference to the omnipresence of death even in paradise-like surroundings - Et in Arcadia ego. For Cézanne, who aimed to paint works of art worthy of display in the Louvre, this was likely an homage to the famous paintings by Nicholas Poussin (1637-38) on this grim theme.

It would, however, be quite inappropriate to end this review of Paris to Provence on a melancholy note.

 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Visitors to the Paris to Provence exhibition,

 admiring Édouard Manet's Laundry, 1876

The French painters, whose works are so beautifully displayed in this wonderful exhibition, traveled the road from Paris to Provence in search of light. The foreign artists who responded - Modigliani, Soutine, Miro, De Chirico and others (like Chagall) not represented in the exhibit - chose to paint in Paris because it was the City of Light.  

And where there is light, there is art and life.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved.                                                 

  Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd, all rights reserved. 

Introductory Image:

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Pierre-August Renoir's Luncheon, 1875. Oil on canvas: 19 3/8 x 23 5/8 in. (49.2 x 60 cm) BF45

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) The press preview of From Paris to Provence: French Painting at the Barnes.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Gallery view of Paris to Provence at the Barnes Foundation, showing four paintings by Vincent van Gogh, 1888-90.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Four paintings by Vincent van Gogh: Still Life (1888), The Smoker (1888), The Postman (1889) and Houses and Figure (1890).

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)  "Crowd pleasers" of the Paris to Provence exhibition, Vincent van Gogh's The Smoker (1888) & The Postman (1889)

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) View of a first floor gallery at the Barnes Foundation, the display of art works reflecting the principles of the Barnes Method.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) An ensemble at the Barnes Foundation, showing

 Van Gogh's The Postman displayed Renoir's Nude with Castenets (1918), Renoir still-lifes and a Windsor chair from the 1700's.    

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Detail of Van Gogh's The Postman (Joseph-Etienne Roulin), 1889. Oil on canvas: 25 7/8 x 21 3/4 in. (65.7 x 55.2 cm). BF37

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Gallery views of Van Gogh’s Houses and Figure, 1890. Oil on canvas: 20 1/2 x 15 15/16 in. (52 x 40.5 cm). BF136

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Girl with a Jump Rope: Portrait of Delphine Legrand (detail), 1876. Oil on canvas: 42 1/4 x 27 15/16 in. (107.3 x 71 cm) BF137

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Detail of Claude Monet's The Studio Boat. Oil on canvas: 28 5/8 x 23 5/8 in. (72.7 x 60 cm) BF730

 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Gallery view of Paul Cézanne's Bathers at Rest, 1876-77. Oil on canvas: 32 3/8 × 39 13/16 in. (82.2 × 101.2 cm) BF906

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Two Cézanne paintings on view in Paris to Provence: Terracotta Pots and Flowers, 1891-92 (Oil on canvas: 36 3/8 × 28 7/8 in. (92.4 × 73.3 cm) BF235 ), & Bibemus Quarry, c. 1895 (Oil on canvas: 36 1/4 × 28 3/4 in. (92 × 73 cm) BF 34)

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) View of the Paris to Provence exhibition: (from left) Henri Matisse's Blue Still Life (1907) & Renoir's Nude in a Landscape, c. 1917.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Henri Matisse's Blue Still Life (1907). Oil on canvas: 35 5/16 × 45 15/16 in. (89.7 × 116.7 cm) BF185

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) The final gallery of Paris to Provence, showing (from left) Modigliani's  Girl with a Polka-Dot Blouse (1919), Soutine's Woman in Blue (1919) and Modigliani's Portrait of the Red-Headed Woman (1918).

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Dr. Cindy Kang at the press preview of Paris to Provence.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Giorgio de Chirico's Sophocles and Euripides, 1925. Oil on canvas: 28 7/8 × 23 5/8 in. (73.3 × 60 cm) BF575

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Vincent van Gogh's The Factory, 1887. Oil on canvas: 18 1/8 x 21 7/8 in. (46 x 55.6 cm) BF303

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Detail of Cézanne's Young Man and Skull, 1896-98. Oil on canvas: overall: 51 3/16 x 38 3/8 in. (130 x 97.5 cm) BF929

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Visitors to the Paris to Provence exhibition, admiring Édouard Manet's Laundry, 1876. Oil on canvas: 57 1/4 x 45 1/4 in. (145.4 x 114.9 cm) BF957

 Cézanne