Jean-Baptiste Mallet : La Route Du Bonheur

Exhibition at the Musée Fragonard, Grasse, 4 June - 2 October 2022

Jean-Baptiste Mallet (1759-1835) has long been poorly known, poorly understood and, above all, poorly judged on the basis of his body of work from the 1780s alone. The Goncourts saw in him only "the last representative of gouache, of that art of the 18th century which did not survive the monarchy".

This exhibition catalogue reveals, on the contrary, a committed actor who tackled with aplomb a host of sensitive subjects, from the Revolution to the July Monarchy, giving a voice to those absent from the public sphere: prostitutes, supporters of secret cults, émigrés whom he imagined taking refuge in the ruins of ancient palaces, barely disguised metaphors for France, and above all, the free woman, of whom he was a champion for more than three decades.

A true reference work on Jean-Baptiste Mallet, this abundantly illustrated book rehabilitates a painter neglected by the critics.