Portraits of exotic animals in eighteenth-century Europe are presented at Houston Museum. the exhibition will run from October 7, 2007 to January 6, 2008.
After initial training as a portrait painter, Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755) concentrated on still-lifes; by the 1720s he had also begun to establish himself as a specialist in hunting scenes, game-pieces and portraits of animals. Some of his best work was done as a tapestry designer, and he was the head of the royal tapestry works of Beauvais and the Gobelins from 1734 and 1736, respectively. He continued to produce his brilliantly painted hunts, still-lifes, and studies of animals and birds to the end of his career.
Between 1739 and 1745 Oudry painted for the King a series of "portraits" of some of the principal animals in the royal menagerie at Versailles. these remarkable works, peint d´apres Nature à la Ménagerie du Roy, were intended for display at the Royal Botanical Garden but were eventually acquired in 1750 by Friedrich, Crown Prince (later Duke) of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1717—85). Today, these animal paintings are among the jewels of the collection of the Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Federal Republic of Germany, which contains the largest and most representative collection of Oudry´s pictures.
the brilliance of Oudry´s striking representations of wild animals makes it easy to understand why he was one of the most outstanding proponents of the genre in the 18th century. His command of lighting and posture resulted in vivid and unforgettable images, yet as a proponent of attributing some sort of sensibility to animals, he managed to convey their qualities of wariness, ferocity, and other traits of feral animals. the Schwerin pictures foretell the new natural science of the later 18th century, and in the publication accompanying the exhibition, the emphasis is on placing these works in the context of the scientific concerns of the Enlightenment regarding natural science, animals, and menageries.
the exhibition contains about 20-25 paintings, oil sketches, and drawings drawn principally from the Staatliches Museum Schwerin. Organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, which has recently restored two of the works, Lion and Rhinoceros, the exhibition will also be shown at the Cleveland Museum of Art. the accompanying catalogue produced by the Getty Museum focuses on the individual paintings by Oudry, as well as the themes of 18th-century zoology and menageries.
the picture shows Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Antelope — Indian Blackbuck, 1739, Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin, Germany. -- www.mfah.org
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