Lethière
The Reawakening of
THE EXTRAORDINARY WORK OF CARIBBEAN-BORN FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL PAINTER GUILLAUME LETHIÈRE OPENS AT THE CLARK
B y A n a s t a s i a S t a n m e y e r
“ Guillaume Lethière , a mixed-race , Caribbean-born man who became a star of the French Salon but then fell into relative oblivion , has never before been the subject of a monographic exhibition — a fact that perplexes as much as it excites . A transatlantic enterprise , like the painter ’ s own life , Guillaume Lethière recounts the ambitious career of a fascinating artist and personality . The son of a white plantation owner and a formerly enslaved woman of mixed race , Lethière moved to France with his father at age fourteen . Establishing himself there as a painter and pedagogue , he would come to open his own studio near the heart of Paris , befriend Lucien Bonaparte , and be named the director of the Académie de France in Rome . He would eventually be named a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts and inducted into the Institut de France . In a time of multiple political upheavals , he nurtured fellow Creole artists in his studio , traveled in Caribbean circles , and , in a dramatic gesture of abolitionist sentiment , covertly sent his son across the ocean to deliver his Guillaume Lethière as a gift celebrating Haiti ’ s independence . Despite such an extraordinary life story and his accomplished body of work , Lethière remains something of an enigma today , though he was one of the most public artistic figures of his time .” — Olivier Meslay , Hardymon Director of the Clark Art Institute ; and Laurence des Cars , Director of Musée du Louvre , from the forthcoming Guillaume Lethière , a 432-page authoritative catalogue on the artist to be released in June , in conjunction with the first-ever major museum exhibition on Lethière ’ s remarkable life .
76 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE Holiday Spring May / June 2024 2023 2024