Valentin de Boulogne. Beyond Caravaggio

Past

22 February – 22 May 2017

Valentin de Boulogne. Beyond Caravaggio

22 February – 22 May 2017

New!

Enjoy 10 night visits from May 10 to 22 to visit the exhibition!
Night visits until 9.45 p.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays until May 22, 2017. Exceptional sessions until 9.45 p.m. on Thursday 11 and 18 and Monday 15 and 22 May.

Important information

Due to high attendance, all visitors – including those entitled to free admission – must book a time slot. Go to the online ticketing service, choose a time slot and select the ‘free admission’ option.

Presentation

Considered the most brilliant of the painters coming in the wake of Caravaggio, and one of the greatest French artists—indeed, the equal of Poussin—Valentin de Boulogne (1591–1632) spent the greater part of his career in Rome executing prestigious papal commissions. His work was also collected by people in power, most notably Cardinal Mazarin and Louis XIV, and throughout the 19th century served as a model for masters as different as David and Courbet.

With all the freedom of Caravaggio—who also died in his prime—Valentin borrowed his predecessor’s dramatic realism, chiaroscuro, and subject matter (taverns, concerts, martyrs, saints, etc.), but transformed them, allying a neo-Venetian chromatic sensibility with a totally new sense of the grandiose and the melancholic.

Owner of the world’s largest collection of his works, the Louvre, in partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is presenting the first monographic exhibition of the most significant representative of the Caravaggesque movement in Europe.

Organized by

Sébastien Allard, Director of the Department of Paintings, Musée du Louvre.

Co-curators

Keith Christiansen, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman, Department of European Paintings (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and Annick Lemoine, Scientific Director of the Festival of Art History and lecturer in art history (University of Rennes 2).
 

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments
Exhibition in partnership with

the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Exhibition sponsored by

Lusis

Video of the exhibition

Exhibition Catalogue