From December 2019 to March this year, the Chengdu Museum is holding the "Master's Imprint: Exhibition of Prints from the Collection of the Sackler Museum of Archaeology and Art, Peking University". Printmaking is a very old art form and has a special relationship with China - the earliest known print in the world is the Diamond Sutra of the Tang Dynasty in China in 868, which is now in the British Museum in the United Kingdom. The "Imprint of the Master" exhibition has a very strong lineup, bringing together 94 authentic prints of more than 40 Western masters such as Rubens, Rembrandt, Titian, Dumière, Foucet, Chagall, Picasso, Matisse and so on. Two days ago, I deliberately went to Chengbo to observe it, and here I recommend a few prints that I personally impress or prefer.
Master's Seal
Rembrandt harmenszoon van rijn (1606–1669), one of the greatest Dutch painters, representative of the artists of the Golden Age. Rembrandt was a prolific painter, leaving behind more than 600 paintings. In fact, Rembrandt was also good at printmaking, and more than 300 etchings survived. The exhibition also opens with Rembrandt's 1641 work The Man with the Chain of a Cross at the Table.
The Italian painter Tiziano Vecelli (1488-1576), also known as Titian, was a leading figure of the Venetian school of painting in the Renaissance era, known as the "sun among the stars". Titian is familiar with all kinds of subjects, and landscape painting, portrait painting, and history painting have reached a very high standard. Titian's work in this exhibition is a 1525 woodblock print , The Milking Woman. Titian's mastery of landscapes and figures is also reflected in this painting. Interestingly, because Titian's oil paintings are mostly based in red, his works often vaguely reveal a red color, and this print is also framed in "Titian red", which is very personal.
The official poster for this exhibition uses François Boucher 's Triumph of Venus," a little to my surprise. Boucher was the chief court painter of Louis XV and was greatly favored by the Marquise de Pombardo. As one of the representative figures of the Rococo style, Boucher's painting style is known for its glitz and elegance. Sometimes it even seems too extravagant and frivolous. His Venus is plump and rounded, cheerful and romantic, which is very different from Botticelli's famous painting "The Birth of Venus".
François Boucher
Victory for Venus
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) was an English Romantic painter I personally loved, best known for his landscape paintings (especially seascapes), watercolors and prints. Turner's treatment of light and shadow was unique, and it had a major impact on later Impressionists. His 1839 work, Reckless, the Battleship Dragged to Disintegration, was named "Britain's Greatest Painting" in 2005. (I personally admire his "The Tempest") This exhibition presents his 1807 print Basel (a historic city in Switzerland) and a copperplate engraving collection from Turner, The Book of Study.
snowstorm
Basel
Thomas Shotter Boys (1803–1874), English watercolor painter and lithographer. Boyes studied and worked in Paris, Brussard, London and other places in his early years, and he was particularly famous for his color prints on architectural themes, one of which was "Original Views of London" (1843). The exhibition includes "From Lourdesund Hill to St. Paul's Cathedral" and "Westminster Abbey Foreground", which are derived from "This is London".
View St. Paul's Cathedral from Lourdesund Hill
Westminster Abbey prospect
Honoré Daumier (26 February 1808 – 10 February 1879) was a French satirical cartoonist and printmaker. During his lifetime, he created about 4,000 lithographs, most of which reflected the daily life of the lower classes, or the shortcomings of the times, satirized the magnates, and participated in the Uprising of the Paris Commune, known as the "Michelangelo of the People". Dumière's creative career lasted half a century, and he made a great contribution to modern printmaking by embracing new techniques such as Impressionism. This exhibition exhibits many of his works, full of life.
Honoré Dumière
In fact, there are many famous masters in the modernist part of the "Mark of the Master", such as Matisse, Chagall, Picasso and so on. But the one that stopped me the longest was Georges Braque's 1962 colorful woodblock print "Blackbird on a Green Background" (May 13, 1882 – August 31, 1963). George Braque co-founded Cubism with Picasso, but the light was long obscured by Picasso. The inventor of collage, Braque was particularly adept at still lifes, using geometric figures and pastel colours to show his inner world, and he was the first ever painter to be able to hold an exhibition at the Louvre during his lifetime. Blackbird on a Green Background is one of Braque's masterpieces, in addition to illustrations created by the painter for the famous French surrealist and Cubist poet Guillaume Apollinaire (26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) novel Where I Die.
I have benefited greatly from the "Imprint of the Master" exhibition and recommend that all lovers of Western history and art come to visit it. Finally, to borrow a quote from the famous Italian Renaissance painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, I would like to conclude the whole story: "Printmaking is both a treasure and a very modern art." ”