Le Cardinal Fesch Et L'art De Son Temps Fragonard, Marguerite Gérard, Jacques Sablet, Louis-Léopold Boilly...

Exhibition at the Musée Fesch, Ajaccio, 15 June - 30 September 2007

Cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763-1839), Napoleon's uncle, built up a colossal collection of nearly 16,000 paintings, probably the largest of all time. Many of these paintings are among the masterpieces of the greatest museums. Known for his taste for Italian painting, from the Primitives to the 18th century, from the Dutch masters of the Golden Age to the French classics, the cardinal also showed an interest in the art of his contemporaries.

This book allows to discover the two painters whom the cardinal most appreciated, Jacques Sablet and Marguerite Gérard - a great first for this artist to whom no exhibition has ever been devoted. It is also an opportunity to appreciate an important selection of works, ranging from paintings by Fragonard at the end of the 18th century to the troubadour works of the Empire, thus following the evolution of genre painting in the Napoleonic era. Several works never before exhibited are presented: collaborative works between Fragonard and Marguerite Gérard, his sister-in-law, and above all La Tarentelle de Sablet, a masterpiece of the artist and of the cardinal's collection, recently reappeared.