Pierre Rosenberg – författare

Pierre Rosenberg, the distinguished art historian and director of the Musee du Louvre, has long admired and studied both paintings and drawings. This dual interest may seem commonplace but is in fact highly unusual: specialists in the field of drawing rarely write about painting, and vice versa. From Drawing to Painting offers a unique perspective by interweaving biographical information about five renowned French artists--Nicolas Poussin, Antoine Watteau, Jean-Honore Fragonard, Jacques-Louis David, and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres--with a fascinating look at dozens of their drawings and the links that they have to their paintings. Presenting over 260 illustrations, this book explores drawing as a site of reflection, the space between the idea of a painted image and its realization on canvas. How, why, and for whom did these artists draw? What value did they place on their drawings? How did their drawings get handed down to us? In what way do they enable us better to understand the artists' intentions, their creative processes, and to penetrate their worlds?Rosenberg determines that each artist approached drawing in a distinctive way, reflecting his individual training, work habits, and personal ambitions. For example, Poussin viewed his drawings simply as working documents, Watteau preferred his drawings to his paintings, and Fragonard made a lucrative business selling his graphic work. For David and Ingres, drawing had a considerable pedagogical function, whether in copying the great works of their predecessors or in sharpening their own techniques. Originally delivered as a series of Mellon Lectures at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., From Drawing to Painting gives the reader an unprecedented view of the artistic process. This richly illustrated book will make an important and beautiful addition to any art library.

Confirmation (c.1637–1640) by Nicolas Poussin is part of the artist’s renowned Seven Sacraments series. This painting holds a central place in the history of Western art, created by an artist regarded as a pivotal figure in the history of art in general. Touching on both spiritual and social themes, the work’s inclusion in Abu Dhabi’s Masterpieces Collection aims to attract a new global audience and to inspire future generations.This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the work, aimed at non-specialist readers with an interest in art and art history. Pierre Rosenberg’s essay comprises an in-depth study of the Confirmation and the Seven Sacraments series within Poussin’s œuvre, while Sheila McTighe analyses the notion of painting as ‘mute poetry’, aligning his work with the art of Raphael, Carracci and Domenichino. Together, these two renowned scholars’ texts provide a lucid and accessible account of this great, challenging work, accompanied by extensive illustration of the Confirmation itself, other works by Poussin, and both his precursors and contemporaries.

This book accompanies an exhibition at Waddesdon that will unite Chardin’s four paintings of a boy with a house of cards for the first time (loans come from the Musée du Louvre, Paris; National Gallery, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC), allowing us to examine Chardin’s treatment of the subject in the context of his fascination with themes of play, childhood and adolescence.