the essential
In Castres, the Goya museum is starting a wonderful collaboration with the famous Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The result is an exceptional exhibition around the Spanish artist Mariano Fortuny, to be discovered from December 6 in the Tarn city.
After the Louvre Museum or the National Picasso Museum, the Goya Museum in Castres is implementing a new exceptional collaboration with a prestigious French establishment. From December 6, the museum will offer an exhibition dedicated to the Spanish artist Mariano Fortuny, one of the main artists of the Iberian Peninsula, welcoming for the occasion several works on loan from the Musée d’Orsay.
Why an exhibition around the work of Fortuny, a 19th century artist? The curator of the Goya Museum Joëlle Arches explains: “We are celebrating the 150th anniversary of his death. Anniversaries are always good excuses. You should know that the Goya Museum, thanks to an important bequest obtained in 1950, is the second French museum in what concerns the work of Mariano Fortuny, behind the Musée d’Orsay!”
An exceptional collaboration
It was then almost natural that a collaboration between the two museums was born, under the cover of an exhibition entitled “Visions of the Orient”. Joëlle Arches says: “We chose to highlight the artist’s early works, from the period 1860-1862. Mariano Fortuny was then in Morocco, where he had been sent to follow the war led by the Spanish He chronicled the war, the battles, but also drew the lives of the Moroccans, their architecture, the light… He was fascinated by what he discovered.”
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Numerous drawings and sketches remain from this period, which “show how this trip will mark him for the rest of his career.” An exhibition to discover, because the fifty or so pieces on display are almost new: only some were last displayed in 2008.
This new collaboration with a major Parisian museum shows how far the Goya Museum has come. “This is the first time that works from the Musée d’Orsay will be presented outside of Paris. For this exhibition, we also had the loan of works from the National Art Museum of Catalonia, and from the Musée de Reus, the artist’s hometown, is a recognition of the work done, and it displays the vitality of the museum.” Because these collaborations work in both directions: the Goya museum is itself a supplier of works, in France and in Spain.
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The curator concludes by inviting the people of Castres – and beyond – to discover the exhibition from December 6: “These are small pieces, very refined drawings, in pastel, blue, ocher shades, with a scenography on measure. It’s truly an exhibition to see!”
Mariano Fortuny, Visions d’Orient, from December 6, 2024 to March 9, 2025. Information and information at www.museegoya.fr
