Esther Bell – författare

A beautiful volume that brings to light the forgotten Le Nain brothers, a trio of 17th-century French master painters who specialized in portraiture, religious subjects, and scenes of everyday peasant lifeIn France in the 17th century, the brothers Antoine (c. 1598–1648), Louis (c. 1600/1605–1648), and Mathieu (1607–1677) Le Nain painted images of everyday life for which they became posthumously famous. They are celebrated for their depictions of middle-class leisure activities, and particularly for their representations of peasant families, who gaze out at the viewer. The uncompromising naturalism of these compositions, along with their oddly suspended action, imparts a sense of dignity to their subjects.  Featuring more than sixty paintings highlighting the artists’ full range of production, including altarpieces, private devotional paintings, portraits, and the poignant images of peasants for which the brothers are best known, this generously illustrated volume presents new research concerning the authorship, dating, and meaning of the works by well-known scholars in the field. Also groundbreaking are the results of a technical study of the paintings, which constitutes a major contribution to the scholarship on the Le Nain brothers.Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San FranciscoExhibition Schedule:Kimbell Art Museum(05/22/16–09/11/16)de Young Museum, San Francisco(10/08/16–01/29/17)Musée du Louvre-Lens (03/22/2017–06/26/2017)

An illustrated exploration of the largely unpublished collection of eighteenth-century French drawings, albums, and sketchbooks at the Bibliothèque nationale de FrancePromenades on Paper explores the largely unmined collection of eighteenth-century drawings held in the Department of Prints and Photography of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Among the 50 featured artists are some of France’s most celebrated eighteenth-century practitioners, including Madeleine Basseporte (1701–1780), François Boucher (1703–1770), Gabriel de Saint Aubin (1724–1780), and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806), alongside architects, designers, and printmakers. Scattered across the institution’s vast reserves, these drawings have until now served primarily documentary purposes. In this book, leading international scholars introduce more than 80 drawings, albums, and sketchbooks—many published here for the first time—and reveal how artists used drawing to record, critique, and try to improve the world around them.Distributed for the Clark Art InstituteExhibition Schedule:Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA(December 17, 2022–March 12, 2023)Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours(May 12–August 28, 2023)

A groundbreaking publication on the Caribbean-born French Neoclassical painter Guillaume Lethière and his extraordinary, yet largely unexamined career  Born in the French colony of Guadeloupe, Guillaume Lethière (1760–1832) was a key figure in the history of art during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The son of a formerly enslaved woman of color and a white government official and plantation owner, Lethière moved to France with his father at age fourteen. He trained as an artist and successfully navigated the tumult of the French Revolution and its aftermath in order to achieve the highest levels of recognition in his time. A favorite artist of Napoleon’s brother, Lucien Bonaparte, Lethière also held important positions at the Académie de France in Rome, Institut de France, and École des Beaux-Arts. A well-respected teacher, he operated a robust studio that rivaled those of his contemporaries Jacques-Louis David and Antoine-Jean Gros.  Despite his remarkable accomplishments and considerable corpus of paintings and drawings, Lethière is relatively unknown today. Lavishly illustrated and authoritative, this groundbreaking study serves to introduce Lethière to new and broader audiences and restore him to his rightful place as one of the most eminent artist of his generation. An international group of scholars offer the first comprehensive view of Lethière’s extraordinary career in its political, social, and art historical context, addressing issues of colonialism, slavery, and diaspora, as well as shedding new light on the presence and reception of Caribbean artists in France during this time.  Distributed for the Clark Art Institute  Exhibition Schedule:  Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA(June 15–October 14, 2024)  Louvre, Paris(November 14, 2024–February 17, 2025)