Mastery & Elegance

The Mastery & Elegance exhibit at the Sackler Museum consists of 115 drawings by 70 different French artists from the collection of private investor Jeffrey E. Horvitz. The "Guide to the Exhibition" booklet tells the story of the 17th and 18th centuries of French drafts-manship. It outlines the development of the techniques, approaches and influences of these French artists in cultured and enlightened words, but it may be inconsequential to anyone who isn't an art history concentrator.

The "Guide" tells how picky patrons with unique sensibilities and refined tastes naturally influenced these artists. One might think the draftsmen were obsessed with French high culture, until one remembers that not all artists are happy if they are starving. Details of the teaching, evolution and politics of art and artists alike are recounted in succinct, if not breathtaking, prose. Stylistic languages, frivolous fads and "debates at the Academy on the merits of color versus line" populate the world of French draftsmanship.

The exhibition is divided into four somewhat arbitrary categories which are still the subject of scholarly debate. The Seventeenth Century, Transition, the Eighteenth Century, and Neoclassicism are further divided into periods with names like Lyricism, French Classicism and Rococo.

The wonderful thing about a drawing is that, it is not a painting. Subtle grays and browns and blacks can say as much as all the loud and crazy color combinations in the world. Obvious shades of garish greens or purples can make a painting more fantastic than real life, but sometimes it is better to be delicate and agile when examining reality or even fantasy. With drawings, it is possible to be simpler and more subdued but at the same time to make a powerful connection with each person who looks at the drawing--everyone will see something different.

These are not sloppy pictures off the sketch pad--the artists obviously agonized over every little detail. Some of the details are so sharp and refined, it would be absolutely impossible to do the same with a paintbrush, as in Burial of a Satyr, by Claude Gillot. Gillot was an etcher with an extremely precise hand, and every line in this satyr funeral has something to say. This is not the only example of lots of patience and a very sharp pencil. Chandeliers, leaves and dress costumes all receive careful attention in various works throughout the exhibit.

But not every line strikes with ferocious intensity. The drawings can also have a fuzzy and faint quality; crisp lines are smeared into misty shadows and dreamlike figures. A black and white chalk drawing entitled Lady Attended by a Handmaiden, has a hazy atmosphere to it, from no distinct quality but the softness of the graceful lines and gentle curves made by the chalk. Many of the scenes set outside are lazy and unfocused, yet the sun is obviously shining, even though the drawing has been done in black and white chalk.

What relatively little color there is can be a delight, as the general tone of the exhibition is one of restraint. A popular technique of the period was trois cmyons, the use of black, red and white chalks. Black chalk and pastels were used in Head of Potiphar's Wife to create a drawing that anyone could mistake for a painting. Red and black chalk work their magic in Young Woman Holding a Cornucopia; the folds of her robe are so well defined, yet shadowed at the same time, that one must wonder whether the work is a drawing or a three-dimensional relief--it is real enough to touch.

Then there is the subject matter that these artists selected: there seems to be an overriding emphasis on the biblical and the classical. Brutus's wife, Portia, is here, swallowing her coals. Charming nymphs and satyrs, Psyche and Cupid, and Juno and Bacchus are portrayed next to angels, the Virgin, and Adam and Eve. But there are also some peasants, shepherds, portraits of anonymous females and beautiful studies of hands and nudes. With a little chalk and ink, the artists examined everything from the silly to the sacred.

Even after visiting the museum and reading all the way through the accompanying pamphlet, it would be impossible to have a true understanding of all the main features and little nuances of this period of French drawings. It is more likely that the red folds of a lady's dress or the happy dance of a satyr will leave a more lasting impression than the names of the four categories or the techniques used to create the art.