Artisans & Kings: Selected Treasures From the Louvre
Through January 6, 2008
Denver Art Museum
Denver, Colorado
(720) 865-5000

More than 125 exquisite works of art on loan from the Louvre, in Paris, are currently on display at the Denver Art Museum in an exhibition titled “Artisans and Kings: Treasures From the Louvre.” The first international exhibition to be held in the museum’s new Frederic C. Hamilton Building, this show centers on artwork created primarily in the 17th and 18th centuries, during the reigns of Louis XIV, XV, and XVI. The paintings, sculptures, drawings, tapestries, and other works were originally the possessions of French monarchs and were acquired into the Louvre’s permanent collection during the French Revolution in 1793.

Bust of Marie-Antoinette by Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, after Louis-Simon Boizot, 1782, porcelain, 15¾ high. All artwork this article collection the Louvre, Paris, France.	Jules Hardouin, Known as Hardouin-Mansart by Jean-Louis Lemoyne, 1703, marble, 43 x 34 x 15½.

Telling the story of not only the relationship between royal patrons and their loyal artisans during this tumultuous time period but also the role that art played in promoting the reputation of the king, this exhibition is organized into four major themes: Collections of Kings, which provides a look at the formation of the royal collection’s masterworks; Politics of Style, which reveals the king’s influential role in promoting and investing in the production of such luxury goods as porcelain, tapestry, and glass; Trappings of Power, which features some of the public works of art that were commissioned to elevate the perception of the king; and Crafting a Lifestyle, which shows a selection of the opulent objects produced to complement the king’s decadent lifestyle at Versailles.

Marquise de Pompadour by François Boucher, ca. 1750, oil, 23⅝ x 17¾.	Woman With Mirror by Titian, ca. 1515, oil, 39 x 29 15/16.

Works of art particularly noteworthy in this exhibition include a 16th-century painting by Venetian master Titian, titled Woman With Mirror; a sculpture bust of Jules Hardouin—who was an architect for the king, as well as the guardian of the academy of painting and sculpture—by early 18th-century sculptor Jean-Louis Lemoyne; François Boucher’s mid-18th-century portrait of Marquise de Pompadour, a widely known patron of the arts and literature; and a sculpture of one of the most memorable figures of the French Revolution, Louis XVI’s wife, Marie Antoinette.