MMFA 2025: Berthe Weill, Parisian Avant-Garde Art Dealer

BERTHE WEILL

ART DEALER OF THE PARISIAN AVANT-GARDE

A large-scale exhibition dedicated to the gallerist who shaped the destiny of modern art 

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

May 10 – September 7, 2025

Berthe Weill was the first woman art dealer to have sold works by Pablo Picasso and exhibited Henri Matisse, Berthe Weill (1865-1951) championed some of the greatest artists we have come to know today. This Canadian exclusive is the first exhibition dedicated to the career and artistic vision of this trailblazing woman who had an extraordinary impact on the history of Modern art.

This landmark exhibition is the first devoted to the fascinating career of gallerist Berthe Weill (1865-1951), an important, but nearly forgotten figure of modern art history. Weill was the first woman to focus primarily on championing young painters just as they were beginning their careers. In her gallery, she exhibited some of the greatest artists we have come to know today: Pablo Picasso, Raoul Dufy, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Diego Rivera, Henri Matisse and Suzanne Valadon, among many others.

Among the nearly 100 works presented in the exhibition, some have become milestones in the history of art, while others will enable you to discover the work of still unsung figures, including women artists.

Featuring exceptional loans from major museums in Europe and North America, the exhibition brings together paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, jewellery pieces, and archival documents that testify to the quality of Weill’s gallery and deepen our understanding of its historical context.

In an exclusive showing in Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA)
is bringing to light the story of Berthe Weill: a nearly forgotten figure of Modern art who played a seminal role in the development of Avant-garde movements in France in the first half of the 20th century. A trailblazing female art dealer, Berthe Weill (1865-1951) was the first to sell Pablo Picasso’s work and to exhibit Henri Matisse. She was also the only dealer to organize a solo show for Amedeo Modigliani during his lifetime. Passionate, outspoken and visionary, Weill unwaveringly supported fledgling artists, many of whom went on to become icons
of Modernism.

Comprising over 100 works and archival documents, Berthe Weill, Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-garde features exceptional paintings and sculptures by major figures of Modern art ranging from Pablo Picasso to Suzanne Valadon. It is the first large-scale exhibition dedicated to the career and artistic vision of Berthe Weill.

Weill opened her Paris gallery in 1901 in the bustling neighbourhood of Montmartre. She was the first woman to show the work of young artists and the only one to specialize in emerging talent. Her efforts led to the discovery of some of the biggest names we know today. She exhibited works by Pablo Picasso, Aristide Maillol, Henri Matisse, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Maurice de Vlaminck, Robert Delaunay, Diego Rivera, Amedeo Modigliani, and Marc Chagall, among others, before they had made a name for themselves. She also strove to foster the recognition of women artists, like Émilie Charmy, Hermine David, Alice Halicka, Jacqueline Marval, and Suzanne Valadon. With unflagging enthusiasm and biting humour, the one whom artists affectionately called la petite mère Weill persevered in supporting young artists throughout the nearly four decades of the Galerie B. Weill’s existence (1901-1941).

The exhibition examines Weill’s overlooked contribution to the history of Modernism, highlighting the remarkable achievements of this indomitable businesswoman who overcame sexism and anti-Semitism to preserve her freedom and autonomy.

Exceptional loans and works from the collection

Organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Grey Art Museum, New York University, and the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, the exhibition boasts exceptional loans from major European and North American museums, some of which will be shown exclusively at the Montreal presentation. It brings together over 100 works by 55 artists, consisting mainly of paintings, but also of sculptures, drawing and prints.

Stéphane Aquin, the Director of the Montreal Museum of Fine arts:

“Over the course of her career, Berthe Weill championed artists who are now considered pillars of Modernism, among them Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, and Suzanne Valadon. Yet her contributions to the history of Modern art have remained largely overlooked, unlike her male counterparts Ambroise Vollard and Paul Durand-Ruel, who have been the subjects of major exhibitions and extensive scholarship. This exhibition aims to rectify this oversight and to help restore the place of this extraordinary art dealer in the cultural firmament.“

Mary‐Dailey Desmarais, Chief Curator of the MMFA:

“We are thrilled to introduce Quebec and Canadian audiences to the first art dealer to devote her gallery exclusively to the promotion of emerging artists, and to celebrate her profound influence on the history of art. Conceived in collaboration with the Grey Art Museum in New York City and the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, this exhibition offers a rare chance to delve into the life and legacy of this bold, and visionary woman who discovered some of the greatest artists of her time – including many women. Works by leading figures of the 20th century avant-garde, several of which are on exclusive view in Montreal, shed new light on the lasting impact of this extraordinary trailblazer.”

Anne Grace, Curator of Modern Art at the MMFA and co-curator of the exhibition:

“Of modest beginnings, Berthe Weill showed a selfless commitment to supporting emerging artists. She introduced the world to some of the greatest names in art in the 20th century, and championed many others whose works merit being better known today. At a time when we are working to bring women out of the margins of history, this exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see the extraordinary art that passed through Weill’s Parisian gallery while bringing to light her fascinating story.” 

Marianne Le Morvan, guest curator and founder of the Berthe Weill Archives:

“This exhibition marks the culmination of 15 years of research. At long last, Berthe Weill is receiving her due – a vindication made possible through a striking selection of works that once passed through her hands. These pieces restore her rightful place among the world’s great art dealers after half a century of her languishing in obscurity. Beyond acknowledging her pivotal role during the heights of the Modernist era, it is also an act of justice to recognize that her discerning eye and unwavering dedication helped shift the artistic sensibilities of her time. Her life stands as a powerful example of resilience and independence – an enduring source of inspiration.”

 

On tour

Following its run in Montreal, the exhibition will be presented at the Musée de l’Orangerie, in Paris, from October 8, 2025, to January 26, 2026.

All photos @Nadia Slejskova

Click on images to enlarge them.

Visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website to check on the opening hours and to purchase your tickets online.

Two portraits of Bertha Weill at the exhibition:

MMFA 2025: Joyce Wieland

JOYCE WIELAND: HEART ON

A tribute to the radical art-making of one of the most influential

Canadian artists of her time

February 8 - May 4, 2025

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) presents the world premiere of Joyce Wieland: Heart On. The exhibition brings together some 100 works that reveal Wieland’s (1930-1998) breadth and uncommon originality of her multifaceted practice that spanned five decades. Organized in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario, it highlights the predominant themes of the artist’s work – feminism, social justice, politics, the environment – as they emerged in her paintings, assemblages, textile works, films, prints and drawings. Heart On is the most ambitious retrospective of Wieland to date that brings to the forefront this major 20th-century international figure of art and cinema.

EXHIBITION NARRATIVE

This retrospective is presented as a themed chronology in eight parts. It begins with her earliest paintings and drawings, when Wieland was associated with a generation of Torontonian artists whose work, like hers, was formed by a background in graphic design, film and animation. It was in this dynamic artistic milieu that she met her future husband, Michael Snow. Her works from this period, which spanned the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, trace her early engagement with international abstract art movements, when she experimented with the materiality of paint, including the incorporation of collage elements.

The exhibition then also examines Wieland’s forceful paintings from the early 1960s, demonstrating how she challenged dominant ideologies of the avant-garde visual art scene by using feminist strategies of subversion, often inserting female motifs into her works.

The 1960s were a significant decade in Wieland’s career, during which she established her reputation as an experimental filmmaker in the avant-garde milieu while also producing paintings, assemblages and textiles that she exhibited regularly in Toronto. This section of the exhibition juxtaposes her experimental films with what she called her “filmic paintings,” highlighting the parallels between her visual arts and cinematic practices. Her work in this period was permeated by overt political content reflecting the artist’s preoccupation with the issues facing her time.

Wieland produced between 1966 and 1967. These works consist of sequences of stitched-together pieces of pliable, translucent plastic pouches stuffed with traditional quilting batting. Within these bright forms, she inserted an array of images showcasing current affairs and events as well as personal references. Moreover, the choice of plastic allowed Wieland to evoke her interest in film’s formal properties, both in terms of its texture and translucency (which is akin to celluloid) and its sequential format.

Wieland’s political engagement during her time in New York sharpened her awareness of Canadian identity politics, particularly regarding the overwhelming influence of the United States, as well as in the relationship between Quebec and Canadian identities. While making works for a major solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada, she invited different craftspeople to work with her as a way to appropriate and feminize the country’s official symbols, including flags, anthems and political slogans. This exhibition features a significant selection of her textile works – quilted, embroidered, knitted – that underscore Wieland’s leadership in incorporating these techniques into the visual arts, which has contributed to their resurgence in contemporary art today.

One section of the retrospective is dedicated to the artist’s interest in the Arctic and her concern about the preservation of its ecology. While, in the Southern imagination, the region has often been perceived as barren and inhospitable, Wieland’s work about the Arctic is always fully alive and plentiful. This is certainly the case in her quilts Defend the Earth (1972) and Barren Ground Caribou (1978) – the largest quilts she ever produced – which are monumental and very public declarations of the ecological urgency to protect the planet.

The theme of love is woven throughout Wieland’s career, from the mid-1950s through to the early 1990s. It takes on an exquisite form in “The Bloom of Matter,” an extensive series of delicate, coloured pencil drawings that the artist began producing in late 1979.

The exhibition concludes with a presentation of Wieland’s late paintings, made after over a decade devoted to filmmaking and textile works. They poignantly recall Wieland’s early stained and colourful canvases, and have the same pulsating inner charge that first established her as a critical painter in Canada.

ABOUT JOYCE WIELAND

Born and raised in Toronto, Joyce Wieland was one of Canada’s most prominent and prolific 20th-century artists. By 1960, Wieland was represented by the celebrated The Isaacs Gallery (Toronto), with whom she continued to exhibit until the late 1980s. Beginning in 1962, she spent a decade in New York City where she became an active member of the burgeoning experimental film scene. Her time in the American metropolis heightened her ecological, political and feminist consciousness.

Wieland’s practice expanded to textile works, film and plastic assemblages in 1966 and 1967, challenging the notion that art functions apart from politics and daily life. She began making her signature quilts, collaborating with craftswomen from across Canada in a celebration of their artistic heritage.

She was the first living woman artist to have a retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada (1971) and the AGO (1987). In the 1980s, her films were shown in the United States, Japan and throughout Europe. She died in Toronto in 1998 from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. Her work has been collected by MoMA, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the National Gallery of Canada, among other major institutions.

Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Chief Curator at the MMFA. Stated:

“The MMFA is proud to be presenting the most comprehensive retrospective ever dedicated to Joyce Wieland and to pay tribute to this major Canadian artist, whose commitment to the environment, social justice, and gender equality is truly inspiring. We hope this exhibition will bring this pioneering artist the renewed attention she so rightly deserves.”

CREDITS AND CURATORIAL TEAM

An exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Gallery of Ontario. It is curated by Anne Grace, Curator of Modern Art at the MMFA, and Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Joyce Wieland: Heart On is the culmination of a close collaboration with Cinémathèque québécoise, on Wieland’s films, as well as with the National Gallery of Canada, which has generously loaned a significant number of the artist’s major works. The AGO and MMFA extend their deep appreciation to the conservation specialists at the Canadian Conservation Institute for their curiosity, insights and assistance in the care of Wieland plastic works.

Art Gallery of Ontario

Joyce Wieland: Heart On opens at the Art Gallery of Ontario from June 21, 2025 to January 4, 2026.

All photos @Nadia Slejskova

This article's dedicated internet address or also click on the title above the very first photo in this article.

Visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website to check on the opening hours and to purchase your tickets online.

MMFA2024: TWO BY TWO, TOGETHER

TWO BY TWO, TOGETHER

Bringing together over 80 recent additions to the MMFA's collection

September 11, 2024 – October 5, 2025

With this exhibition, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is opening a window into its collecting practices. Two by Two, Together, which brings together a rich selection of works from all over the world that have been acquired over the past five years. Most of them are being shown to the public for the first time and are grouped together in such a way as to create a dialogue between them, while showcasing the Museum's many collecting areas of interest.

Two by Two, Together unveils some 80 diverse works that shine a spotlight on works made in a wide range of artistic disciplines by artists from Quebec, Canada, and around the world. Visitors can admire important paintings by Peter Doig, Pierre Dorion, Wanda Koop, Stéphane La Rue, Robert Clow Todd, Claude Tousignant, Robin F. Williams and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun; sculptures by Louise Bourgeois, Stanley Février, Giuseppe Penone and Kishio Suga; graphic works by Tony Lewis, Nicolas Party and Rembrandt; photographs by Herbert List and Robert Mapplethorpe; and an early Chinese cosmic board (Liuren Shipan) from the Sui Dynasty.

The MMFA's permanent collection is one of the oldest in Canada and consists of close to 47,000 art works and objects from five continents, dating from the Neolithic era to the present day. This collection grows each year through donations, purchases and bequests.

Stéphane Aquin, Director of the MMFA, stated:

"In continuously developing the collection, the MMFA is committed to presenting works by artists who have long been marginalized and underrepresented. We aim to offer our audiences an increasingly inclusive experience, through the diversity and richness of acquisitions from every corner of the globe and spanning thousands of years of history."

Iris Amizlev, Curator of Special Projects at the MMFA and curator of the exhibition added:

"Most of the works in Two by Two, Together are grouped together, such as to create a dialogue between them based on their subject, medium, form, function or period. Through these juxtapositions, we hope to provoke new and enlightening interpretations of the Museum's collection." 

Aside from the creations shown in the exhibition, other recently acquired artworks can be found in the Museum's permanent collection galleries, identified by special labels. In addition, a new rotation of works in the galleries adjacent to Two by Two, Together highlight new contemporary acquisitions by such artists as Esmaa Mohamoud, Christina Quarles and Kareem-Anthony Ferreira.

The acquisition process

Every potential acquisition is subject to the same rigorous process in order to evaluate whether it is a pertinent addition to the MMFA's collection.

The curatorial team conducts extensive research to determine if the object will enhance the MMFA's collections, either by adding depth to or diversifying it, or by introducing new perspectives.

Works are also evaluated by the Conservation department to assess their condition. Factors such as instability, damage or inadequate restoration attempts might influence acquisition decisions.

If the results of these investigations support an artwork's inclusion in the Museum's collection, curators present their acquisition recommendation to internal and external acquisition committees. Each of the four acquisition committees includes at least one member of the MMFA's Board of Trustees as well as external advisors. If committee members agree with the recommendation, and this recommendation is approved by the Board of Trustees, the acquisition can proceed. The work is then catalogued, photographed and restored, as necessary.

Credits and curatorial team

An exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
It is curated by Iris Amizlev, Curator of Special Projects, MMFA

Visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website to check on the opening hours and to purchase your tickets online.

MNBAQ 2024: Helen McNicoll

HELEN McNICOLL: AN IMPRESSIONIST JOURNEY

A CELEBRATION OF LIGHT!

Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec

June 20, 2024 - January 5, 2025

Helen McNicoll (1879-1915) and her work is featured this summer in an exhibition at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ). The MNBAQ is proud to present the first Québec retrospective in a century of the Canadian impressionist painter’s work. Visitors will discover an artist whose destiny was both quite incredible and fleeting. She is a little-known but a fascinating artist noteworthy for her outstanding mastery of light and atmospheric effects. The visitors will experience the irresistible charm of her work and her outstanding mastery of light and atmospheric effects. “Painter of the sun,” “A painter who spreads sunlight on her canvases,” and “A painter who addresses the senses” are some of the characteristics that qualify this artist.

The Helen McNicoll. An Impressionist Journey exhibition has been conceived through the prism of travel and the effervescence of a period and by examining the themes of independence, friendship, and women’s freedom. The retrospective exhibition assembles more than 65 paintings, of which 25 come from the remarkable collection of philanthropist and art lover Pierre Lassonde, and the remainder from 15 institutional and private collections and also includes sketches, a watercolour, and photographs presented in a refined setting. It invites visitors on a voyage and, above all, to experience an adventure bathed in vibrant, shimmering colours.

The exhibition also highlights the work of a free painter who pushed the boundaries as an independent professional woman at a time when women were often confined to the domestic sphere, thereby contributing to the recognition on the world stage of Québec and Canadian art. The splendidly luminous exhibition reveals a major timeless, indeed essential, body of work

A remarkable destiny

Born in Toronto in the late 19th century, Helen McNicoll grew up in Montréal in a well-to-do environment. Her parents were recent British immigrants to Canada who encouraged artistic practice. Scarlet fever rendered her deaf at the age of 2 and her parents encouraged her from childhood to develop her artistic and musical creativity despite her handicap.

The McNicoll family’s wealth meant that she could paint freely without having to worry about selling her works or teaching to support herself. Moreover, family relationships afforded her contact with Montréal’s leading art collectors at the time.

At the Art Association of Montréal McNicoll studied with William Brymner (1855-1925), who encouraged his students to travel in Europe to further their training. She made London, then a prosperous art centre, her base, where she undoubtedly discovered more progressive work than what was being done in Canada.

Helen McNicoll, who was noteworthy for her love of travel and the discovery of new spaces, undoubtedly perceived her relationship to the world and her artistic output linked to fledgling tourism at the turn of the 20th century.

Her European travels put McNicoll in direct contact with the innovative styles teeming in these artistic communities and gave her a special understanding of the development of impressionism and post-impressionism. Stimulated by all these influences, McNicoll painted landscapes focusing on rural life and genre scenes. She developed a fresh, brilliant style that became her own distinct language.

The artist also played a significant role in bridging North American and European art. She was celebrated in her lifetime for the high quality of her light-bathed rural or seaside landscapes and intimate scenes in which feminine subjects predominate.

Helen McNicoll’s brief but prolific career was shaped by the presentation of scores of works at exhibitions in Canada and England for which she received awards for her mastery of light and her unique pictorial representation. In addition to the other awards, she was elected in 1913 to the Royal Society of British Artists and, in 1914, was one of the rare women elected as associate members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Travel as a way of life

Helen McNicoll settled in London. She travelled in England and Europe and frequently to Canada. She led a cosmopolitan life but at that time many artists withdrew from urban centres, especially during the summer, to paint outdoors in the countryside or in villages in order to explore landscapes.

McNicoll’s research focused on the effects of light and atmosphere, sustained by her numerous trips south of Paris, to Normandy and Brittany, Belgium, the Mediterranean, and Italy, including Venice, and to artists’ colonies, where she spontaneously refined her palette.

Praise for light and women’s work

The artist was often on the move and captured her ever-changing environment remarkably. In Brittany, she painted village market scenes in honey tones. In Venice, her attention focused on the scintillating water of the canals. The hot sand and blue sky of European beaches afforded a backdrop suited to women and girls wearing dazzling white dresses.

This ode to travel and the mastery of light also enabled her to examine the themes of female independence, risk-taking, sisterhood, and freedom for women in the stimulating context of the English suffragettes’ fight for the right to vote.

Her favourite subjects were scenes of everyday life, although her interpretation differed from that of the impressionists by focusing more closely on women’s labour and the intimate lives of women at the turn of the 20th century.

Exhibition highlights

The exhibition comprises six separate areas embellished, in the middle, with central structures, one of which recalls the shape of a compass and its cardinal points to evoke travel. It presents all the key elements of McNicoll’s artistic career: Light and Shadow, The Children’s Playground, Sketchbook, Women at Work, The Water’s Edge, Life en plein air, Lighting the Studio, and On the Boulevard.

The retrospective assembles the artist’s finest paintings, including such major works as Sunny September (1913), In the Shade of a Tree (1915), Picking Berries (1913), Stubble Fields (circa 1912), The Chintz Sofa (1913), Evening Street Scene (circa 1910) and Montreal in Winter (1911).

Sunny September (1913) is a magnificent fall scene that quickly established McNicoll’s renown with art critics and key art market stakeholders. This luminous fall day envelopes the viewer.

In the Shade of a Tree (1915), from the MNBAQ’s collection, reveals scenes of women and children that McNicoll cherished and forges links with the outstanding work of impressionist artists Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot.

Picking Berries (1913) examines the importance that McNicoll attached to outdoor painting and composition but also the context of feminine collaboration essential to the development of her career since this work is reflected in a painting by Dorothea Sharp with whom her friendly and professional relationship was fundamental.

McNicoll produced several works devoted to fields or haystacks following the example of works by Claude Monet. Stubble Fields (circa 1912) is an eloquent example. The artist put into practice in this painting several new theories of colour circulating in impressionist and post-impressionist circles since the late 19th century.

With The Chintz Sofa (1913), McNicoll briefly abandoned her sunny landscapes for interior scenes. In the painting, it is possibly Dorothea Sharp sitting on the elegant chintz sofa in the living room of the workshop that she shared with McNicoll in London. In light of the suffragettes’ struggles in the early 20th century, art historians have proposed a feminist interpretation of this scene that supports Sharp’s involvement in the Society of Women Artists.

Evening Street Scene (circa 1910) proposes an evening scene that is unique in McNicoll’s output. The electric light replaces the sun, thereby conferring on the painting a very modern note that emphasizes the artist’s interest in scenes of everyday life, as do her numerous market scenes, and for all manner of effects of light and atmosphere.

Montreal in Winter (1911) also reveals the importance of McNicoll’s travels between Canada and Europe and her interest in the snowy landscapes of her homeland. The painting reflects works by Canadian impressionists Maurice Cullen, James Wilson Morrice, Clarence Gagnon, and Marc- Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, among others.

The catalogue is the perfect complement to the exhibition

To celebrate the luminous work of Helen McNicoll, her remarkable destiny, and her contribution to the history of Québec, Canadian, and international art, a catalogue has been published to accompany the retrospective organized by the MNBAQ.

The work, which hinges principally on the notion of travel, focuses on most of McNicoll’s works exhibited, including those from Pierre Lassonde’s impressive collection. Edited by the MNBAQ and 5 Continents Editions, the 160-page bilingual (English and French) catalogue is accompanied by four essays, each of which sheds light on a facet of the artist’s work.

The introductory text by Anne-Marie Bouchard examines McNicoll’s work in the context of the mobility of women artists in the early 20th century. It broaches transatlantic travel, American and European destinations, artistic networks, and the social implications of travel. Samantha Burton provides a biographical overview of the artist that retraces the development of the artist’s career with particular emphasis on the importance of her transnational travel. Julie Nash also focuses on the notion of mobility by closely examining McNicoll’s outdoor paintings undertaken throughout her travels, including the practice centred on painting small plein-air oil sketches. Lastly, Caroline Shields and Valerie Moscato also examine the artist’s work methods through a thorough examination of her pictorial technique to attempt to grasp how she began and completed her large canvases, a still unknown aspect of her art.

MMFA 2024: 300 Hundred Years of Flemish Art

SAINTS, SINNERS, LOVERS AND FOOLS

THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF FLEMISH MASTERWORKS

June 8 – October 20, 2024

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is presenting a major exhibition that showcases The Phoebus Foundation’s world-class collection of Flemish art. Couched in timeless themes, the show transports audiences to the Southern Netherlands during a dynamic period of social, scientific, economic and artistic development (1400-1700). Saints, Sinners, Lovers and Fools is organized by the Denver Art Museum and The Phoebus Foundation of Antwerp, Belgium. It presents masterworks by celebrated artists of the day whose works were created during that 300 years long period, including Hans Memling, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens and Michaelina Wautier, among many others. The Montreal presentation is also complemented by selections from the MMFA’s renowned collection of Flemish art.

The exhibition is laid out in six sections and features some 150 works, including monumental paintings, sculptures, books, silverwork and maps.

GOD IS IN THE DETAILS

This section presents religious art of the 15th and early 16^th century. In looking closely at these works packed with symbolism and delightful details, such as Hans Memling’s The Nativity, or Triptych with the Adoration of the Magi by Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder, the public will appreciate how Flemish citizens used images to interact with higher powers, build community and secure their legacyAfter the Black Death (1347–1351) and the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453), life in Europe seemed fleeting and uncertain. Many people found solace in the Catholic Church, with its promise of eternal salvation.. 

PORTRAIT MODE

The next section is dedicated to portraits that celebrate the wealth and status of individuals and, by the same token, mark the dawn of the art patron. Among the works displayed are notably Portrait of Archduke Albert of Austria by Peter Paul Rubens, the Double Portrait of Husband and Wife Playing Tables by Jan Sanders van Hemessen, and a work by his daughter, Catharina van Hemessen, titled Portrait of a Lady. Following this section is a group of paintings depicting fools and foolish behaviour that showcases how artists used humour to both moralize and entertain.

FAITH AND FOLLY

Unlike portraits of the wealthy, which exude confidence, pride and self-satisfaction, the paintings in this section critique human flaws and weaknesses, often at the expense of others. In Flanders during the 1500s, people may have seemed to be having a bit too much fun: indulging in food and drink, dancing and generally living in excess. Such behaviours could lead to greed, lust and other follies. In the face of their sins, all humans could do was admit their shortcomings and laugh at themselves... or at the ones portrayed. The scenes in these paintings are meant to hold up a mirror. They are often full of jokes, pranks and witty double meanings, but the punchline is always deadly serious: Do not be like the fools and sinners in these artworks, otherwise you will never get to heaven.

MYTHOLOGY AND NATURE

In the wake of the Italian Renaissance, stories from Greek mythology joined the ranks of fashionable subjects in art. Its epic tales of

love, tragedy and deceit provided artists with endless source material, some of it quite fleshy and provocative. In addition, the study of ancient Greco-Roman art and culture brought new ways of investigating the natural world and humankind’s place within it. This period saw significant advancements in medicine, botany and geography, which in turn shaped the way artists represented nature and the body. Europeans also looked to their ancient past to make sense of the remote, non-Christian civilizations they were encountering through global trade and colonial exploits. Then as now, art, science, technology and politics were closely intertwined.

A WORLD IN TURMOIL

War ravaged Europe in the late 1500s. The conflict between the Netherlands and Spain began in 1568, and went on for eighty years of bloodshed, looting and destruction. Determined to keep the wealthy northern territories under his authority, King Philip II of Spain sent his favourite daughter, the Infanta Isabella, and her husband, Archduke Albert, to govern the rebellious region. The two used Catholicism in an attempt to glue their fragmented provinces back together, and art played a key role in this agenda. International celebrity painters, such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, created dramatic paintings that drew upon the strong Catholic imagery of Italian art. Their styles, which emanated across genres, appealed to the heightened sensibilities of a society plagued by war and political instability. Ultimately, the Spanish failed to unite the Netherlands under Catholicism, and in 1648 it formally split in two. The northern region was recognized as an independent Protestantdominated republic, and the southern part remained under Spanish Catholic rule.

VANITAS

By the seventeenth century, the art market was booming in the Southern Netherlands. Middle- and upper-class townspeople began collecting across genres and creating lavish picture galleries in their homes. This gallery of the exhibition is inspired by such spaces, which are documented in paintings of the time. Because amassing worldly goods could be seen as an act of vanity that privileges man over God, many of the works in these collections include reminders of mortality, including skulls and skeletons. Even portraits and still lifes were meant to provoke reflection on the fleetingness of life on earth. After all, it is only in the world of a painting that the young stay young, food does not rot and flowers never die. As you conclude your visit, we invite you to contemplate the range of desires—to connect, to possess, to marvel, to learn—that underlie the collection and display of art both then and now.

Katharina Van Cauteren, Chief of Staff of The Phoebus Foundation Chancellery stated:

“We are excited for the next chapter of our Flemish masterpieces at the MMFA. This captivating exhibition is a rollercoaster ride through a rebellious 300 years of Flemish history, guaranteed to captivate a new wave of art enthusiasts!”

Chloé M. Pelletier, Curator of European Art (before 1800) at the MMFA elaborated:

“Presented first in Denver and then in Dallas, this show offers deeper insight into the different areas of Flemish art and deals with universal timeless themes. Flanders, this small but mighty society, was seeking to establish itself in a fast-changing, increasingly globalized world. Art played a crucial role in this, and it’s fascinating to see that the legacy of this period persists today,”

Publication

The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated art book of over 400 pages, edited by Katharina Van Cauteren, Chief of Staff of The Phoebus Foundation Chancellery. Titled From Memling to Rubens: The Golden Age of Flanders, it has been adapted in French by the international publisher Hannibal Books. 

The MMFA’s collection of Flemish art

The Museum boasts one of the largest collections of Flemish art in North America, with over 200 works. The Montreal presentation of the exhibition will include paintings by Adriaen Isenbrandt, Jan Fyt and Jan Bruegel the Elder, among other works from its collection.

Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos @Nadia Slejskova

This article's dedicated internet address or also click on the title above the very first photo in this article.

Visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website to check on the opening hours and to purchase your tickets online.