The paintings were created in the mid-1700s by Jean-Baptiste Oudry, an artist regarded as the greatest animal painter— and one of the leading decorative painters— during the first half of Louis XV´s reign. The exhibition opens at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on October 7, 2007 and runs through January 6, 2008, before the paintings return to their home in Germany at the Staatliches Museum Schwerin. After the Getty Center in Los Angeles, which worked with the Staatliches Museum Schwerin in a major conservation effort to restore some of the exhibition´s key works, the MFAH is the only place in the United States to display the spectacular oil paintings. Oudry´s Painted Menagerie will be on view at the MFAH´s Audrey Jones Beck Building, 5601 Main Street.
The J. Paul Getty Museum was the exhibition´s major organizer, in association with the Staatliches Museum Schwerin and the MFAH. The exhibition was inspired in part by the Getty´s introduction to three seriously damaged Oudry paintings that the Staatliches Museum Schwerin had kept in storage. Oudry´s Rhinoceros had small tears in the canvas and was missing sizeable pieces on the right side, and Oudry´s Lion was in even worse shape. The canvas had been folded in half and rolled up, and a portion of it had been crushed, leaving unsightly creases across the painting. Finally, a painting of a tiger revealed water damage from a burst pipe. The artworks were too large for the Schwerin´s conservators to lay out in their studio for work, and were sent to the Getty´s conservation studios. A major effort by conservators, scientists, curators and art historians began in April 2002 to restore the masterpieces to their original context. Five years later, Oudry´s Rhinoceros and Lion have both been meticulously restored, and are being seen by the public for the first time in approximately 150 years.
In addition to the two successfully restored artworks, a range of other animal portraits are on view—each displaying incredible accuracy and attention to detail as well as individual character and dramatic compositional elements. The exotic painted animals include a wild, European mountain sheep known as a moufflon; male and female leopards; an Indian blackbuck antelope; and a variety of birds: a bustard, a guinea-fowl, a cassowary, a tufted crane, an African crowned crane that was referred to as a "demoiselle" in Oudry´s time period, and a tropical American toucan. An action painting of a hyena being attacked by two mastiff dogs and a study of a dead crane bird are being shown as well, along with a portrait of the son of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who was the proud owner of many of the animal portraits. Accompanying the paintings will be a video installation by Oscar-winning director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist), documenting the Getty´s restoration process of significant artworks included within the exhibition.
"The MFAH is excited to be the only stop for these artworks between the site of their conservation on the West coast and their home back in Germany," said MFAH director Peter C. Marzio. "It is easy to see why Jean-Baptiste Oudry´s work achieved such renown within the French court, and why the exhibition has been garnering so much attention today. These large animal portraits capture the imagination."
Oudry was born in Paris in 1686 and began seriously training as an artist at the age of 19, studying under a portraitist while simultaneously taking drawing classes at two different Parisian Académies. In 1719, he achieved a major artistic coup with acceptance into the prestigious French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, where he would eventually become a professor. About a year after his admission at the Academy, while still in his early thirties, Oudry narrowed his concentration to painting animals, hunt scenes, game-pieces, and landscapes. In these works, Oudry demonstrated great control of posture and lighting while managing to give his animals a sense of awareness and emotion. His amazing natural images caught the eye of King Louis XV, an avid fan of the hunt. With the king´s personal recognition, Oudry quickly became one of the most influential court painters. He showed at the Salon in 1725 and in a solo exhibition at Versailles in 1726, and received frequent commissions by a host of royal patrons, including France´s king, Czar Peter the Great of Russia, the Queen of Sweden, the King of Denmark, and the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
Most of the paintings exhibited at the MFAH originated from a commission by the king´s first surgeon, Francois Gigot de La Peyronie, who most likely intended the paintings as a gift for the king. Oudry painted the series of animal portraits for La Peyronie between 1739 and 1745, depicting the principal specimens from Versailles´ royal menagerie. The collection of exotic animals was established by King Louis XV´s great-grandfather, King Louis XIV, in 1662. Shipping the many unusual creatures was expensive and dangerous, but the king accumulated an extravagant assortment by either purchasing the animals outright, or by receiving them as diplomatic gifts. The king placed the creatures in one section within his gardens for easy viewing, and initially the menagerie´s primary function was royal decoration and entertainment. With the establishment of an Academy of Science in 1666, however, the 55 species of mammals, nearly 200 species of birds, and the collection of reptiles were available for artists and natural scientists to study, allowing the scholars to gather first-hand, empirical data. This arrangement also served to associate the royals with the Enlightenment, further elevating their imperial status as leaders in both artistic discernment and academic pursuits. Oudry himself always worked from life, and even painted the animals life-size. His depictions were so accurate that the paintings were accepted as having scientific worth, and helped to act in opposition of the zoological fantasy art that championed unicorns and other fanciful creatures.
The newly restored Rhinoceros, for example, served to educate the 18th century public. The painting is a life-sized portrait of a female Indian rhinoceros named Clara, who toured Europe for 17 years. Until her visit, beginning in 1744, a rhinoceros had not been seen in Europe for almost two centuries, so false ideas about the species were prevalent. Some people believed that a rhinoceros had scaly legs and a horn on its back, for instance, while others equated the rhinoceros with fairytale animals like unicorns. Fortunately, while Clara was on tour, many people were able to see her —from the regular public to private audiences she held with royalty, including King Louis XV in Versailles. Clara inspired multiple European fashion trends, and people were able to buy souvenirs. Oudry saw Clara in 1749 at the annual Saint-Germain fair in Paris, and was able to paint her from life. The resultant work, simply titled Rhinoceros, served as an accurate record of a real rhinoceros´ physiognomy, and is included in the exhibition at the MFAH.
In addition to their scientific value, Oudry´s paintings served to fuel an already-impassioned debate within Enlightenment intellectual circles. The concept of whether or not animals possessed souls and intellects was the cause of great disagreement and discourse, with Oudry firmly encamped on the side that attributed human sentiments to animals. He tended to romanticize the creatures he painted, and always portrayed them as expressing some sort of emotion or reaction to their world. Beyond imbuing the animals with feeling, Oudry´s works were distinguished from being entirely scientific documents or natural history illustrations in other ways as well. He mapped out his drawings in great and compelling detail, as an illustrator might, but his artistic instincts led him to use the rich color palette of the Venetian and Flemish masters, and to indulge in dramatic, chiaroscuro lighting effects. Oudry observed and drew the animals from life, as a scholar would be inclined to do; but he purposely left out the cages, choosing to place the animals amidst natural backgrounds, thereby heightening the drama and beauty of the scenes.
One such exceptional work on view is Oudry´s Male Leopard. The oil painting is part of a pair of leopard studies, one male, and one female. Approximately five by six feet, this large artwork portrays a male leopard fiercely snarling at some person or object just beyond the canvas´ edge. The leopard´s glowing eyes are open wide, intently staring at an unseen threat, and his tail appears frozen in the middle of a violent twitch. With his lips curled back, fangs bared, and muscles pulled taut, the animal appears poised for violent attack. Dramatic lighting illuminates segments of the beast´s fur and captures a glint in his eye, and he is positioned within a green environment. A sawed off tree limb is in the background behind him, and the leopard is trampling green plants underfoot. The striking setting and lighting, as well as the animal´s intense and expressive pose, epitomize Oudry´s style.
Unfortunately, La Peyronie´s death in 1747 left the magnificent series of animal portraits unpaid for, so Oudry next presented the series to one of his most important patrons, the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The duke had been Oudry´s client for 18 years and had already commissioned Oudry for paintings of his own, including a portrait of his son, Crown Prince Friedrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The duke eagerly purchased Oudry´s proffered suite in 1750, being unable to afford a real menagerie himself but being an admirer of both animals and French painting, and he would go on to buy Oudry´s artworks even after Oudry´s death. To this day, the paintings can be seen at the duke´s hunting lodge, Ludwigslust—which is owned by the Staatliches Museum Schwerin— where they will return after the exhibition at the MFAH.
"Oudry´s Painted Menagerie offers audiences a unique opportunity to see an eighteenth-century, European royal menagerie right here in Houston, recreated and preserved in oil paint by Oudry," stated the MFAH´s Audrey Jones Beck Curator of European Art, Edgar Peters Bowron. "The paintings are absolutely stunning, depicting life-sized, wild animals with distinct personalities. Ranging from wariness to ferocity, each creature expresses an individual emotion. Overall, Oudry´s portrayals are incredibly convincing." -- www.mfah.org
