Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak
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clockwise from far left: Paul Cézanne's A Painter at Work.; An Elegent Interior with Two Ladies and a Gentleman, by Louis-Rolland Trinquesse; Spring at Eragny, by Camille Pissarro; Jean-Guillaume Moitte's Telemachus Embracing Love Held in the Arms of Eucharis. Oui, Paris! TAKE A CULTURAL TRIP TO FRANCE WITH THE DENVER ART MUSEUM. by katy b. olson F photography Denver Art museum/william j. o'connor (Pissarro); courtesy denver art museum (Trinquesse); Denver Art Museum/Jeff Wells (Moitte); Courtesy Wadsworth Antheneum Museum of Art/The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Collection Fund (Monet) rom the ethereal haze rising from Claude Monet's Water Lilies and the pastoral perspective of Paul Cézanne's House in the Country, to François Boucher's simple yet profound chalk sketch work, each element of the Denver Art Museum's "Passport to Paris" exhibit summons la bonne vie. The three-part installation debuted on October 27, offering art enthusiasts and Francophiles alike a sophisticated glimpse of French life and history, as expressed through the palettes of the country's most celebrated artists. The sweeping trio of exhibitions, each focused on masterpiece paintings, Impressionist landscapes, and raw sketches, presents an immersive reflection on the kinship between art and society in France from the late 1600s to the early 1900s. Christoph Heinrich, the Frederick and Jan Mayer director of the Denver Art Museum, calls the exhibit, which runs through February 9, 2014, "an opportunity to time travel through 300 years of French art, fashion, music, and lifestyle." Comprised of three parts—including "Court to Café: Three Centuries of French Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum"; "Nature as Muse: Impressionist Landscapes from the Frederic C. Hamilton Collection and the Denver Art Museum"; and "Drawing Room: An Intimate Look at French Drawings from the Esmond Bradley Martin Collection"— the resulting show is a cohesive, layered look at how France came to life, and came to terms, with transitions from Louis XIV's supreme monarchy to the heady café society of the early 1900s, through art. Museumgoers are encouraged to step back in time; in fact, it's challenging not to, especially in the first exhibit, "Court to Café," where visitors are regaled with period-specific décor and furniture hailing from the museum's own reserve as well as costume art borrowed from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Highlighted are 50 masterpieces from the 17th through the early 20th centuries, their focus ranging from still lifes, religious figures, and landscapes to portraits and scenes as inspired as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's evocative rendering of a famous can-can dancer in Jane Avril continued on page 102 The three-part exhibit offers art enthusiasts a glimpse of French life and history. aspenpeak-magazine.com 101 100-102_AP_SC_HottestTicket_WIN13_SPR_14.indd 101 10/29/13 1:48 PM