living with inner elegance

In today's world, appearance often takes precedence over substance. However, true elegance encompasses more than just external beauty. It is about graceful behavior and authentic solutions that align mind, body, and spirit. My mission is to create a sanctuary where we can support each other in making the world a more elegant place in every sense of the word.

The Clark Art Institute presents its first exhibition on the pioneering work of Guillaume Lethière. He was a key figure in French painting during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, navigating the French Revolution's turmoil to achieve acclaim. A favorite artist of Napoleon's brother, Lethière held prestigious positions and advocated for women artists. Don't miss this extraordinary exhibition celebrating Lethière's life and work!

GUILLAUME LETHIÈRE - (1760–1832)

June 13th 2024

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Meeting of Artists in Isabey’s Studio (detail), 1798, oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre, Paris, RF 1290bis. Photo: RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

EXHIBITION

june 15 - october 14, 2024 - clark museum

From the Clark Museum Website

Born in Sainte-Anne, 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 and would soon thereafter begin studying drawing and painting. While establishing himself as a formidable history painter, Lethière successfully navigated the tumult of the French Revolution and its aftermath to achieve the highest levels of recognition in his time. A favorite artist of Napoleon Bonaparte’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. A well-respected teacher, he operated a robust studio that rivaled those of his most successful contemporaries and trained a number of artists, including young women and artists with connections to the Caribbean. Despite his remarkable accomplishments and considerable body of work, Lethière is not well known today and has never been the subject of a major exhibition. An examination of Lethière’s extraordinary career reveals an ambitious artist who worked in multiple genres and at the grandest scale and sheds new light on the presence and reception of Caribbean artists and cultural figures in France during his lifetime.

Guillaume Lethière is co-organized by the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 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, at 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, 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.

GUILLAUME LETHIÈRE
JUNE 15-OCTOBER 14, 2024

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Meeting of Artists in Isabey’s Studio

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Meeting of Artists in Isabey’s Studio, 1798, oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre, Paris, RF 1290bis. Photo: RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

Caroline Phipps - Founder of Living With Inner Elegance
Guillaume Lethière, Académie, 1782, black chalk with stumping

Guillaume Lethière, Académie, 1782, black chalk with stumping, heightened with white. Beaux-Arts de Paris, EBA 3022. Photo: Beaux-Arts de Paris, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY
Guillaume Lethière, Torso or Half-Length Figure

Guillaume Lethière, Torso or Half-Length Figure, 1785, oil on canvas. Beaux-Arts de Paris, MU 4527. Photo: Beaux-Arts de Paris, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY
Louis-Léopold Boilly, Guillaume Lethière and Carle Vernet

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Guillaume Lethière and Carle Vernet, c. 1798, oil on paper, mounted on canvas. Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, France, P 387. Photo: RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY
Joséphine, Empress of the French

Guillaume Lethière, Joséphine, Empress of the French, 1807, oil on canvas. Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, France, MV 4700. Photo: RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY
Joséphine, Empress of the French

Guillaume Lethière, Joséphine, Empress of the French, 1807, oil on canvas. Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, France, MV 4700. Photo: RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

Caroline Phipps - Founder of Living With Inner Elegance
Guillaume Lethière, Elisa Bonaparte-Bacciocchi, Princess of Lucca and Piombino

Guillaume Lethière, Elisa Bonaparte-Bacciocchi, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, 1806, oil on canvas. Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, France MV 4710. Photo: RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

Caroline Phipps - Founder of Living With Inner Elegance
Guillaume Lethière, Judgment of Paris

Guillaume Lethière, Judgment of Paris, 1812, oil on canvas. Private collection.
Manufacture des Gobelins, after Guillaume Lethière, Preliminaries of Peace Signed at Leoben

Manufacture des Gobelins, after Guillaume Lethière, Preliminaries of Peace Signed at Leoben, April 17, 1797, 1810–14, wool and silk. Mobilier national, Paris GMTT-251-000. Photo: Isabelle Bideau, Mobilier national.
Augustine Cochet de Saint-Omer, François Fournier de Pescay

Augustine Cochet de Saint-Omer, François Fournier de Pescay, 1831, oil on canvas. Musée du Service de santé des armées, Paris, 2006; 1814 (formerly M. H. 104)

Esther Bell, Deputy Director - Curator
Guillaume Lethière, Brutus Condemning His Sons to Death

Guillaume Lethière, Brutus Condemning His Sons to Death, 1788, pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, heightened with white. Musée d’art et d’histoire Pissarro-Pontoise, France, D 1975.1.9

Sophie Kerwin, Curatorial Assistant
Guillaume Lethière, Joséphine, Empress of the French

Guillaume Lethière, Joséphine, Empress of the French, 1807, oil on canvas. Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, France, MV 4700. Photo: RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director
Guillaume Lethière, Homer Singing His Iliad at the Gates of Athens

Guillaume Lethière, Homer Singing His Iliad at the Gates of Athens, c. 1814, oil on canvas. Nottingham City Museums and Galleries, England, NCM 1884-1. Photo: Nottingham City Museums and Galleries

Esther Bell, Deputy Director
Caroline Phipps, Founder of Living With Inner Elegance
Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director
Guillaume Lethière, Woman Leaning on a Portfolio

Guillaume Lethière, Woman Leaning on a Portfolio, c. 1799, oil on canvas. Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, museum purchase,1954.21. Photo: Worcester Art Museum / Bridgeman Images
Guillaume Lethière, Oath of the Ancestors

Guillaume Lethière, Oath of the Ancestors, 1822, oil on canvas. Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien, Port-au-Prince. Photo: RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY
Guillaume Lethière, Lafayette Introducing Louis-Philippe to the People of Paris

Guillaume Lethière, Lafayette Introducing Louis-Philippe to the People of Paris, 1830-31, oil on canvas. Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, 1132-AB053. Photo: Tokyo Fuji Art Museum / Bridgeman Images