Guillon-Lethière, "born in Guadeloupe"

This show, co-organised by the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown (Massachusetts) and the Musée du Louvre, will be the first major monographic exhibition on an artist who has largely faded from view but was counted among the ‘great authorities of his day’ (Charles Blanc).

Guillaume Guillon-Lethière was born in Guadeloupe. His mother was a freed slave of African origin, his father a white French royal official. Guillaume studied first in Rouen and then in Paris during the ancien régime and went on to enjoy a brilliant career: director of the French Academy in Rome (1807–1816), elected member of the Institut de France in 1818 and professor at the École des Beaux-Arts from 1819 onwards. He was also a great collector and artistic advisor to Lucien Bonaparte. 

His artwork reflects his experience of the political upheaval of the period and the succession of political regimes in France from the Revolution to the July Monarchy.

Most of his paintings and drawings focus on ancient history. He began his career in a period dominated by the neoclassical style of Jacques-Louis David; his continuation in the classical vein led to his fall from favour in the late 1820s, as the upcoming generation of Romantic artists began taking over. The Louvre’s collection includes two huge paintings by Guillon-Lethière, both measuring almost eight metres in width and inspired by classical heroism: Brutus Condemning his Sons to Death, finished in Rome in 1811, and The Death of Virginia (1828).

The highlight of the exhibition is his best-known work, unparalleled in his oeuvre: The Oath of the Ancestors (National Pantheon Museum, Port-au-Prince, Haiti), a visual anti-slavery manifesto advocating freedom for all peoples. Most of the works on loan from public or private collections will be on display in Paris for the first time since the 19th century, while the research conducted for both the exhibition and the catalogue will showcase the artist in a brilliant new light. 

Exhibition curators

Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director, Clark Art Institute, Williamstown; Esther Bell, deputy director and Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Chief Curator, Clark Art Institute; Sophie Kerwin, curatorial assistant, Clark Art Institute;  Marie-Pierre Salé, Chief Curator, Department of Prints and Drawings, Musée du Louvre

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Acknowledgments

With the support of the Cercle international du Louvre - American Friends of the Louvre and the  Ford Foundation.