Rococo to Revolution: European Prints of the Eighteenth Century

On February 11, the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond Museums, will open Rococo to Revolution: European Prints of the Eighteenth Century. On view through May 7, 2005, the exhibition features more than eighty prints by some of the great artists of the time, from Jean-Antoine Watteau, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and François Boucher, to William Hogarth, James Gillray, and Francisco Goya. All of the prints are from the permanent collection of the Harnett Print Study Center, University of Richmond Museums.

Opening with the serious pursuit of pleasure found in the art of the Rococo and closing with the spirit of revolution that emerged with the Enlightenment, the eighteenth century witnessed sweeping changes in European politics and society that are reflected in the art of the period. The term “rococo” was originally derived from rocaille – a type of shell-work used to decorate grottos. By the mid-1700s, rococo described an organic ornamental style, and by the nineteenth century, historians used the term to distinguish later artwork from that made in the previous Baroque manner.

Rococo to Revolution begins with a selection of prints that demonstrate the technical advances in printmaking from the era. Certain eighteenth-century printmaking innovations mimicked the appearance of painting, drawing, and pastel, such as the crayon-manner technique of etching, which approximates the texture of drawing on rough paper and is produced by a roulette with rasping action. The aquatint method, which imitates the appearance of ink washes, was also invented during this period and is essentially the same as the one used today. New color print technologies allowed prints to be easily and quickly reproduced, as exemplified in the prints of flowers by Arnauld Eloi Gautier D'Agoty from 1770.

Art by Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard epitomizes the theme of decadence. Boucher’s Recueil de Fontaines Inventées (1736) (Collection of Invented Fountains), for example, depict fantastical fountains adorned with cherubs, nymphs, Neptune, and other water gods and goddesses. The artist’s prolific output of prints which included erotic genre, and other works for aristocratic pleasure, helped spread both his reputation and his style, both of which, however, were derided by French critics (Denis Diderot in 1765) and by nineteenth-century Neoclassical artists, who thought his work frivolous.

The landscape was a fertile subject for many artists of this age, including Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, an Italian artist who was renowned throughout Europe and Russia. The exhibition includes a print from his series Varii Capricci, (1743-1749) which typically shows figures pensively observing a countryside that is ageless yet has suggestions of antiquity, such as ancient columns, statues, and urns. Classical references are also present in the print Colonnade before a Temple with a Man, Woman and Child (circa 1749) by Gabriel-Pierre-Marie Dumont, who was instrumental in the formation of the Neoclassical style.

The exhibition’s selection of prints based on satire presents the entire series of Hogarth’s A Harlot’s Progress, originating from a series of paintings (1732), which describes the arrival of an innocent country girl in London, who turns to prostitution to support herself. Hogarth sold more than 1,240 copies of the series of his visual warning of the big city’s corruption, thereby supporting himself as an artist without the demands of a royal patron. Also included are works by English caricaturist James Gillray and by Thomas Rowlandson, who mixed their keen observations with satirical and often humorous imagery of pet anathemas: dubious doctors, pompous lawyers, leading members of the government, and the French Revolution and Napoleon.

The final section of the exhibition demonstrates the radical changes occuring both in art and in society at the turn of the century. Goya’s Los Caprichos, or caprices (1797-98), depicted and criticized prostitution, child abuse, superstitious behaviors and witchcraft and satirized doctors, politicians, and clergy. His later series Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War, circa 1815) explicitly describes the barbaric acts upon humanity, suffered by the Spaniards during and after the Napoleonic invasion of Spain.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue featuring an essay by Charles Johnson, Professor of Art History, Emeritus, University of Richmond, and curator of the exhibition. Published by the University of Richmond Museums, the catalogue is available for sale at the Harnett Museum of Art.

Organized by the University of Richmond Museums in collaboration with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Rococo to Revolution will travel throughout Virginia through 2007 through the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Statewide Traveling Exhibitions Program.

Rococo to Revolution is presented in conjunction with the semester-long Rococo festival featuring lectures, performances, and a symposium. The symposium was made possible in part with the support of the University’s Cultural Affairs Committee and the 175th Anniversary Committee.