Clearly, 2024 is truly the year of Lethière. After having been largely forgotten, while his works are in all the major museums of the world, here is this painter, fervent defender of neo-classicism, one after the other the subject of a documentary ” Lethière, the Oath of the Ancestors » signed by the Guadeloupean writer and philosopher Claude Ribbe who, through the prism of his most famous eponymous painting, evokes his career and his journey, and two important exhibitions: one having taken place from June 15 to October 14 at the Clark Art Institute in Massasassuchetts in the United States and the other soon presented at the famous Louvre Museum (from November 13, 2024 to February 17, 2025).
Of European appearance, Guillaume Guillon known as Lethière (1760 -1832) by his artistic name, is in fact a mixed race. Born in Sainte-Anne, Guadeloupe, to a mother Marie-Françoise Dupepaye, a woman of color born a slave, and a white French father, a royal notary in Saint-Pierre in Martinique, then king’s prosecutor in Guadeloupe. Being recognized by his father only at the age of 39, he adopted the name “ Lethière » meaning the third (he is the 3th child of his father). A signature which tells in half-words the complexity of its history and its journey.
A very brilliant pictorial career
Trained in the classical arts, Guillon Lethière had an extremely brilliant pictorial career where he enjoyed success and recognition. Most of his work is about ancient history. He was in turn director of the French Academy in Rome (1807 – 1816), member of the Academy of Fine Arts (elected in 1818), professor at the School of Fine Arts (appointed in 1819) making it possible to train and influence all those who matter in French painting in the first half of the 19th century. He will end his academic career as a member of the Institut de France.
Guillon Lethière, who lived through nearly 10 different political regimes, will however experience, during his career, some slumps, particularly during the Romantic period. Its long-buried origins will eventually be revealed. Origins that he assumed during the creation of his most famous painting entitled “ the Oath of the Ancestors » with the signature “ Lethière, born in Guadeloupe. This emblematic work in homage to republican emancipation, representing Akexandre Pétion and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, two Haitian revolutionaries considered to be the founding fathers of Haiti with Toussaint Louverture, will be offered to the new Republic of Haiti in 1823.
Of the works presented in Paris for the first time since the 19th century
Co-organized with the Clark Art Institute of Williamstown in Massachusetts in the United States, this exhibition at the Louvre Museum called “ Guillon Lethière, born in Guadeloupe » is the first major monograph dedicated to the painter Guillaume Guillon Lethière. Most of the works will be presented in Paris for the first time since the 19th century and the new research carried out both through the exhibition and the catalog, allowing a true rediscovery of this unjustly forgotten artist who was nevertheless ” one of the great authorities of his time”, according to Charles Blanc, a renowned 19th century French art critic.
Furthermore, as part of this exhibition, an educational file has been developed and in addition to a presentation and analysis of a selection of works, it offers an educational track on the “ Oath of the Ancestors », emblematic work of Guillon Lethière’s abolitionist concerns and an update on the Haitian revolution by the Foundation for the Memory of Slavery supplemented by biographical or thematic links to his site. Finally, an extension of the exhibition around slavery and the abolitionist ideal is proposed by the study of “ Raft of the Medusa » by Théodore Géricault in order to broaden the discussions around “Oath of the Ancestors ».
E.B.
« Guillon Lethière, born in Guadeloupe »
Exhibition at the Louvre
From November 13, 2024 to February 17, 2025
Louvre Museum
8, rue Sainte-Anne
75001 Paris
Information: www.louvre.fr/expositions-et-evenements/exposition/guillon-lethiere-ne-a-la-guadeloupe
Tel: +33(0)1 40 20 55 00.
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