The opening lecture for Guillaume Lethière begins at 11 a . m . on June 15 at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown . The historic exhibition is organized in partnership with the Musée du Louvre and features some 100 paintings , prints , drawings , sculptures and a tapestry that will shed new light on the presence and reception of Caribbean artists in France during Lethière ’ s lifetime . Held through October 14 at the Clark , the exhibition then travels to the Musée du Louvre , where it will be on view from November 14 , 2024 to February 17 , 2025 .
Meslay worked on this exhibition for six years with Chief Curator Esther Bell , and the most complicated part was that that the works were scattered all over Europe and the U . S ., says Meslay . One lingering question is whether Oath of the Ancestors , one of Lethière ’ s greatest paintings , will be a part of this exhibition .
Lethière , born in 1760 in the French colony of Guadeloupe , witnessed the new republic of Haiti go through an upheaval and emerge as a new nation , released from the shackles of colonial France . The painting depicts the summit meeting between the leader of Haiti , Alexandre Pétion , and General Jean-Jacques Dessalines ( later Jacques I Emperor of Haiti ), lieutenant of Toussaint Louverture . It was at that confluence when the two revolutionary leaders made a pact to defeat the French colonial forces and achieve independence . The painting , located at the Musée du Pantéon National Haïtien in Port-au-Prince , was to travel to the U . S . for the opening at the Clark . That was stalled at the time of publication because of the extreme instability in Haiti . The curators still plan to highlight the painting and were still developing how that would be done .
Six years ago , the Clark acquired its first work by Lethière . Completed in 1788 when Lethière was at the French Academy in Rome and subsequently displayed at the Salons of 1795 and 1801 , Brutus Condemning His Sons to Death depicts the decapitation of one of the sons of Lucius Junius Brutus . Brutus led the 509 BC revolt to overthrow the last king of Rome and established the Roman Republic , swearing a sacred oath before its citizens that Rome would never again be subject to the rule of a king . When his two sons were discovered to be conspiring to restore
the monarchy , Brutus demonstrated his commitment to the Republic by ordering and then witnessing the execution of his own children . Painted before the onslaught of the French Revolution , Lethière ’ s composition is eerily prescient in its moralizing message and its brutal iconography , according to the Clark . The tale inspired Voltaire and other leaders of the French Enlightenment to establish Brutus as a foundational hero of the French Republic . Brutus Condemning His Sons to Death is the first of two paintings on the subject executed by Lethière . The second version is in the collection of the Musée du Louvre .
“ We started to think about an exhibition of Lethière just after buying the painting ,” says Meslay . “ We understood that he was a painter who was very influential by many aspects .” It was also at a time when there was a renewed focus on Caribbean art .
Years earlier , Meslay published a long entry for a painting by Lethière while working for an art dealer . That artwork was , in fact , the very painting that the Clark bought 30 years later . Not much was written about Lethière , except for a PhD thesis written in the 1990s that was never published . “ Lethière was an artist that we have overlooked for many , many years ,” says Meslay . “ He was one of the most successful teachers of his time . Just after the end of the Napoleonic period , between 1816 and his death in 1832 , his students were winning the biggest prize in France ,
Opposite page , Guillaume Lethière , Brutus Condemning His Sons to Death , c . 1788 , oil on canvas . The Clark ; above , Guillaume Lethière , Homer Singing His Iliad at the Gates of Athens , c . 1814 , oil on canvas , Nottingham City Museums and Galleries , England , photo / Nottingham City ; right , Guillaume Lethière , Joséphine , Empress of the French , c . 1807 , oil on canvas . Musée des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon , France , MV 4700 . Photo / RMN-Grand Palais / Art .
the Prix de Rome , almost every other year . There were very few people of African descent in France at this time , probably 15,000 or 20,000 , but there were some who were extremely successful and completely immersed in the French society .” One such example is the writer Alexandre Dumas , author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers , who was a good friend of Lethière . “ Then we discovered that one of the leading doctors during the Napoleonic period was also the same sort of background of Lethière ,” says Meslay . “ All of them were connected . This is something that we have just been discovering .”
Similar to Meslay , Bell ’ s interest in Lethière began years before she joined the Clark , when she was a curatorial fellow at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York . She organized an exhibition on Ingres in 2011 at the Morgan , which has one of the great collections of Ingres portrait drawings in the country . One was an incredible portrait of Lethière . “ When Ingres likes his sitter , there ' s something kind of magical and vibrational that happens on the paper ,” says Bell . She became immediately fascinated with Lethière as an artist and as a teacher . “ Who was this person ? I never really heard of him before . As I started to read and look around , I realized he was very important in his time . Why is there not a book ? Why is there not a resource readily available ? Where can I learn more ?”
May Holiday / June 2024 2023 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // // 77