Dallas Museum of Art Presents
“Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!”: The Bruyas Collection
of the Musée Fabre, Montpellier
Exhibition includes rare works never before seen in the U.S.
DALLAS, July 9, 2004 – Seventy iconic works by the masters of French 19th-century art,
notably Gustave Courbet and Eugène Delacroix, will be on view at the Dallas Museum of
Art in “Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!”: The Bruyas Collection of the Musée Fabre,
Montpellier. The exhibition, on view from Oct. 17, 2004, through Jan. 2, 2005, features
paintings, drawings, and sculptures that epitomize the romantic and realist movements in
19th-century France. This exhibition gives American audiences the opportunity to view a
collection that has rarely been seen outside of the Musée Fabre and nev er before in the
United States.
All of the works are from the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, one of the finest regional
museums in France. The exhibition, a project of FRAME (French Regional and American
Museum Exchange), also features paintings by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Camille
Corot, and Jean-Léon Gérome, as well as paintings and sculptures by Antoine-Louis Barye.
The works were part of a collection assembled by Alfred Bruyas, who earned a place in the
history of art by gifting his formidable collection of 19th-century art to the Musée Fabre in
1868.
“The Dallas Museum of Art takes great pride and pleasure in presenting this exceptional
treasure trove of magnificent artworks,” said John R. Lane, The Eugene McDermott
Director of the Dallas Museum of Art.
“In many ways, the exhibition mirrors the collection at the Dallas Museum of Art. Our
19th-century European galleries are rich with works by artists included in the exhibition,
such as Courbet, Corot, Narcisse-Virgile Díaz de la Peña, and Théodore Rousseau.
“This exhibition celebrates the commitment of Bruyas to his native city of Montpellier in
the south of France. Instead of moving to Paris, which was at the time arguably the art
capital of the world, Bruyas brought the emerging artist of the capital to Montpellier,” Lane
said.
“Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!” was organized by the Musée Fabre, Montpellier; the
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art
Institute, Williamstown, Mass.; with the Dallas Museum of Art and the Fine Arts Museums
of San Francisco, under the auspices of FRAME.
FRAME is a consortium of 18 French and American museums for the benefit of the
cultural communities in both countries. “Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!” is the largest
FRAME project yet mounted in the United States. This exhibition is supported by an
indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
The Dallas venue is presented by Bank of America with support from Dr. Mark and
Barbara Thomas Lemmon, Charlene C. and Tom F. Marsh and Essilor of America, Inc.
The installation and related programming is generously underwritten by the Dallas Museum
of Art League. Air transportation provided by American Airlines. Promotional support
provided by The Dallas Morning News. Additional support provided by Marten F. Klop
and Mr. and Mrs. George A. Shutt.
“The centerpiece and the basis of the title of the exhibition is Courbet’s 1854 masterpiece
Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!, which depicts the collector Bruyas welcoming the artist
Courbet to the town of Montpellier,” said Dorothy Kosinski, Senior Curator of Painting and
Sculpture and The Barbara Thomas Lemmon Curator of European Art of the Dallas
Museum of Art. “Bruyas’s ambition to acquire and show the best of French painting drew
him into friendships with the prominent artists of the time and brought him to become one
of the foremost collectors of contemporary art in France.”
Bruyas was the great champion of Courbet, purchasing his “scandalous” Bathers in 1853.
In addition to Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!, the exhibition includes eight other paintings by
Courbet, including his monumental Bathers and Self-Portrait with a Striped Collar (1854).
Other highlights of the exhibition include Michelangelo in His Studio (c. 1850) and Women
of Algiers in Their Apartment (1849) by Delacroix, Portrait of Alfred Bruyas (1846) by
Alexandre Cabanel, and Study for Jesus Among the Doctors (1862) by Ingres.
Bruyas’s taste encompassed both romanticism and realism, and he collected traditional
works such as those favored by the French Academy. Alexandre Cabanel, a Prix de Rome
winner and another native of Montpellier, became one of the collector’s closest friends. A
key work in the exhibition is Cabanel’s portrait of Bruyas at the age of 25 set agains t the
backdrop of the Villa Borghese gardens in Rome. The portrait is one of 10 portraits of
Bruyas in the exhibition, and it represents one of the first works he ever commissioned.
Other portraits in the exhibition were painted by Thomas Couture, Octave Tassaert, and
Edouard-Antoine Marsal, as well as two by Courbet, Delacroix, and Auguste-Barthélémy
Glaize.
The exhibition also includes an exceptional selection of drawings by masters such as
Ingres, Delacroix, Paul Huet, Barye, and Rousseau. This important international exhibition
investigates Bruyas’s artistic preference, his friendship with many of the artists, and his
determination to create a collection that would showcase and explain the best paintings of
his time.
A 256-page catalogue with approximately 100 color plates and essays or contributions by
15 French and American scholars accompanies the exhibition. The catalogue is published
jointly by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Yale University Press, and the
Réunion des Musées Nationaux. The book will be available in the Museum Store for $60
hardcover and $35 softcover.
In conjunction with “Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!”: The Bruyas Collection of the Musée
Fabre, Montpellier, the Dallas Museum of Art will present Before Impressionism: French
19th-Century Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. This two-part installation will feature
works from the permanent collection by Barye, Théodore Chassériau, Corot, Courbet,
Delacroix, Diaz de la Peña, Charles-Emile Jacque, Jean-Francois Millet, and Rousseau.
Concurrent with “Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!” is an installation of 18th-century French
paintings, works on paper, and decorative arts from the estate of Dallas collector Michael
L. Rosenberg, who passed away in 2003. This distinguished private collection includes
works by Francois Boucher, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Anne Vallayer-Coster, and JeanBaptiste Oudry. Rosenberg, a patron and trustee of the DMA, provided significant support
throughout the past two decades for major painting and decorative art s acquisitions,
publications, and the exhibition Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of MarieAntoinette, which toured internationally to great success.