The French Horse from Géricault to Picasso: Works from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

May 6, 2016 - Jul 31, 2016

"Omnipresent in 19th-century France, the horse was portrayed in every manner and style by all types of artists,” note organizers of The French Horse From Géricault to Picasso: Works from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition was organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) from its collections including the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. More than 40 major paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by artists as varied as Pablo Picasso, Antoine- Louis Barye, Edgar Degas, and Théodore Géricault represent every major movement in French art from Romanticism to Fauvism.

The equine-themed exhibition featuring several horse-racing subjects will hold strong appeal for NSLM members and visitors. Included among the works traveling to Middleburg are Pablo Picasso’s Jester on Horseback, a 1905 large oil on composition board from the artist’s French-influenced Rose Period (for which NSLM will be the only venue); two paintings by Alfred de Dreux; two sculptures and two pencil studies by Edgar Degas; Raoul Dufy’s vibrant watercolor on paper, Champ de Courses a Deauville, ca. 1937; and two significant bronzes by les animaliers Isidore-Jules Bonheur and Pierre-Jules Mêne.