MMFA 2025: Bad Giirls Only

BAD GIRLS ONLY

Women and the Seven Deadly Sins

Rarely seen works from the MMFA's collection of prints and drawings

March 26 – August 10, 2025

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) presents to the public close to 30 works from its collection by some of the biggest names in art history. The prints and drawings on display date from the Early Modern period (late 15th through the 17th century). They depict female allegories of the Seven Deadly Sins: pride, sloth, wrath, envy, greed, gluttony, and lust. Bad Girls Only exhibition tells the story of how women became associated with sin, the role art played to propagate that idea, and how this might still show up in our lives today.

Since the Middle Ages, the Seven Deadly Sins have been traditionally represented as female allegories, each with their own identifying physical characteristics and attributes. This Christian morality code formally established in the 6th century had a particularly strong impact on the lives of women, who were viewed as naturally inclined towards sin and generally lacking in physical and moral stature. By turning our gaze on the role these images played in society, this exhibition examines the underlying reasons why the female body – often eroticized – was used to illustrate sin. Did the male artists of that era used female subjects to project their own sinful desires outside of themselves onto women to justify their own sins? 

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

"Visitors will leave Bad Girls Only with a vivid snapshot of a fascinating and ever-relevant period in history. The exhibition reveals the exceptional quality of the Museum's collection of works on paper, and helps us to better understand the codes and conventions that shape the way we navigate the world around us."

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

"These historical depictions of the Seven Deadly Sins merit appreciation, not only for what they can tell us about women's lived experiences in the past, but also for their originality and the remarkable skill it took to create them. The diversity, expressiveness and rich detail of the exhibited works will captivate audiences."

The exhibition features two prints by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) as well as an impressive series of preparatory drawings by Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617). These highlights of the MMFA's drawings collection will be shown for the first time since 1980 alongside Jacob Matham's (1571-1631) prints made after them. Additional works by Matham and a series by Hieronymous Wierix (1553-1619) enrich the exhibition.

 
Engaging didactic materials – including a vitrine of materials and a process video featuring a local artist – help audiences understand the technically and artistically sophisticated process of translating drawing into print.

 
Bad Girls Only concludes with an interactive wall featuring question cards that invite visitors to reflect on the ways that rhetoric around the Seven Deadly Sins shows up in our daily lives. The goal of these questions, ranging from profound to playful, is to identify and then reframe the sense of shame that is naturalized in so many of us around these seven traits deemed sinful by society over a millennium ago.
 

CREDITS

An exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
It is curated by Chloé M. Pelletier, Curator of European Art (before 1800), MMFA.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Public Partners: Conseil des arts de Montréal and the Government of Quebec
Official Sponsor: Air Canada, Air Canada Cargo and Denalt Paints
Media Partner: La Presse

All photos @Nadia Slejskova

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

MMFA 2024: Andō Hiroshige

東海道 Tōkaidō

Dreamscapes by Andō Hiroshige

A captivating journey from Edo to Kyōto, illustrated by Japanese master printmaker Andō Hiroshige

April 27 – September 8, 2024

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is presenting an iconic series of prints by Andō Hiroshige (1797-1858) from its collection. For the first time in over two decades, it is pulling from storage these remarkable woodblock prints that illustrate scenes of everyday life unfolding at each relay station along the Tōkaidō, the famous Eastern Sea Road that connected Edo (now Tokyo), to the former imperial capital, Kyoto.

Dreamscapes by Andō Hiroshige  presents all 55 prints of the very first edition of "Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō," a series that has been in the MMFA's collection since 1973 and that was published in 1833-1834 by Hoeidō and Senkakudō publishing houses. The exhibition looks at the talent of Hiroshige and his publishing team in creating an idyllic world everybody wanted to inhabit. It also examines the factors that led to the astronomical commercial success of these prints, which popularized the landscape print and fueled the emergence of Japonisme in Europe.

An Invitation to travel to 19th-century Japan

An unconventional artist from the samurai class, Hiroshige was not the first to be interested in the Tōkaidō. However, the success of his first series on the subject far eclipsed that of all those that came before it. In fact, some of his illustrations were reprinted more than 15,000 times. These beautifully depicted scenes fostered the perception that the Tōkaidō was more than a mere road along the country's eastern sea coast – it was a destination in and of itself.

At the time it was created, this series sparked a desire in the masses to take the nearly 500-kilometre journey on foot from the Nihonbashi Bridge in Edo to the Sanjōhashi Bridge, in Kyoto. The 53 relay stations depicted promised travellers everything from lodging to specialty foods, sexual services and products of all sorts, including straw sandals.

Being an imaginary work, the "Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō" transcended the straightforward observational representation of places and offered instead a fantasy vision of Japan. Hiroshige's Tōkaidō treated the landscape and its atmospheric effects – wind, snow, rain – as subjects in their own right, an approach that was completely novel at the time.

The artist also cited highly popular travel books and incorporated elements that came from Europe (Western perspective, horizontal picture format, shading and synthetic blue pigment) to create exotic dreamscapes with wide appeal. Seeing a commercial opportunity in the fast-growing the consumer and travel culture, he worked closely with his publishing team to turn the print into a powerful publicity tool that would ensure widespread visibility for cosmetic products, eating establishments and teahouses, as well as promote regional culinary specialties.

Laura Vigo, Curator of Asian Art at the MMFA stated:

"The seductive charm with which Hiroshige imbued his compositions earned him the reputation as a master of Japanese landscape prints. In his captivating illustrations, he cleverly blended the real and the imaginary, to almost cinematic effect, becoming the maker of a world everybody yearned to inhabit and travel within – a world that still charms us to this day."

Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Chief Curator of the MMFA added:

"Montreal is lucky to be home to one of the country's most important collections of graphic art, built through the generosity of its community. We are excited to be shedding new light on this celebrated series of prints by Hiroshige, which helped shape the collective imagination of Japan. It is a joy to share with Montreal audiences these remarkable prints gifted to us in 1973."

Credits and curatorial team

An exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Curator: Laura Vigo, Curator of Asian Art, MMFA

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.

MMFA 2016: Toulouse‐Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse‐Lautrec
ILLUSTRATES THE BELLE ÉPOQUE

June 18 - October 30, 2016

Organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) and The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., the exhibition brings together almost all of the most famous prints and posters by Toulouse‐Lautrec (1864‐1901), the remarkable French nineteenth‐century artist who revolutionized the art of printmaking. The exhibition gives the public the opportunity to admire close to 100 prints and posters from nearly the entire period of Toulouse‐Lautrec’s lithographic career, from 1891 to 1900, both iconic images and rarely exhibited unique proofs carefully chosen for their quality and colour.

The works at the exhibition are on loan from a private collector who assembled them in recent years. Almost all the exhibited prints are in superb condition, their ink and colour still brilliant. Thanks to the collector’s connoisseurship and his devoted care of the works in his expanding collection, which represents nearly all the lithographs executed by Toulouse‐Lautrec, the exhibition enables the public and the art professionals to explore and appreciate the artistic ambitions of Toulouse-Lautrec, and his masterful use of the lithographic medium.

In his lithographs, inspired by the Parisian burgeoning entertainment district, Toulouse‐Lautrec captured the scenes of the Belle Époque and its nightlife of popular cabarets and dance halls. The artist established a studio in the bohemian Montmartre and became a frequent visitor to lively hot spots like the Chat Noir, the Mirliton and the Moulin Rouge. His depiction of the cabarets' environment and entertainement created a portrait of that epoch's Parisian nightlife.

The exhibition includes rare and exceptional trial proofs, including some that have never before been catalogued or published. Among the never before exhibited works are unique impressions, such as the trial proof for Moulin Rouge – La Goulue, as well as very rare prints, such as the trial proofs and final proofs for Reine de Joie [Queen of Joy], May Milton, May Belfort, and the famous poster of Jane Avril.

Click on images to enlarge them.

Hover your mouse over images for description and credits.

The exhibition also features four works by two close associates of Toulouse Lautrec: Louis Anquetin and Théophile Alexandre Steinlen. 

You can read more about Louis Anquetin’s painting L’Intérieur de chez Bruant: Le Mirliton (Inside Bruant’s Mirliton), 1886‐1887, which is being exhibited for the first time ever, and about and his pastel poster Au cirque (At the Circus), 1887, in my previous post here.

You can also read about the Théophile Steinlen’s a large‐format poster of the famous Tournée du Chat Noir, 1896, and his drawing in my post here.

For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions, visit the museum's website.

MMFA 2016: Louis Anquetin

Louis Anquetin
June 18 - October 30, 2016

A unique painting Inside Bruant’s Le Mirliton (L’Intérieur de chez Bruant: Le Mirliton) was unveiled Thursday, Jyne 9, 2016, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). It is the work of a French painter and printmaker Louis Anquetin, who was one of the fathers of the technique cloisonnisme popular at the end of the nineteenth century. The canvas is included in the present MMFA exhibition devoted to Toulouse Lautrec. 

Forgotten for decades, the painting reappeared at Sotheby's auction that took place in New York in November, 2014. It was acquired by a private individual who landed it to MMFA for its first public exposure as part of the MMFA exhibition devoted to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

L’Intérieur de chez Bruant: Le Mirliton (Inside Bruant’s Mirliton) is a major rediscovery in terms of the art history of fin‐de‐siècle Paris. With vibrant brushstrokes and brilliant colours, Anquetin has conjured the dynamic culture of Montmartre in its heyday. He depicts several iconic figures, including La Goulue and Aristide Bruant, contemporaries of Toulouse‐Lautrec, as well as Toulouse‐Lautrec himself.

“Unknown to experts and specialists until very recently, this monumental work could only be imagined through its preparatory drawings, which have since been dispersed. It bears witness not only to Anquetin’s aesthetic modernity, but also to a deep change in the era’s artistic practices. From Toulouse‐Lautrec to Picasso, painters’ studios were no longer in the academies but in the streets, café‐concerts and cabarets,” stated Gilles Genty, art historian and guest curator of the exhibition Toulouse‐Lautrec Illustrates the Belle Époque.

Conceived as a record of an era, this painting was created in the style of bohemian artists. Anquetin drew the general outline of his composition in pastel, at the same time making a myriad of preparatory studies for each figure, sometimes even on wrapping paper. Those drawings were exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in March 1888.

Anquetin began the painting in a garret and continued working on it on site at the cabaret itself. The final painting on display represents several artists from the Belle Époque at the Mirliton, Aristide Bruant’s raucous café that was a frequent haunt of Anquetin and Toulouse‐Lautrec. The famous dancer Louise Weber, known as La Goulue, is depicted in the centre, leaning over the table, inviting us to enter. Charismatic and sensual, La Goulue caused a sensation in the cabarets with the chahut, her wild variation on the Can‐Can.

Facing the viewer are Émile Bernard and Marie Valette, Anquetin’s favourite model from 1886 to 1892 and who, in a very daring move for a woman at that time, is lighting up a cigarette in public. On their left is the tall, lean figure in a top hat, which was the trademarks of François Gauzi. Seated at the table to the right, with his back turned towards the viewers, is Paul Tampier. To the left is the painter Émile Bernard. And standing behind and to the left of him is Toulouse‐Lautrec, a regular at the Mirliton went on to revolutionize printmaking.

In the background is Aristide Bruant himsel, the owner of the establishment. Dressed in a red shirt, he stands on the bar's counter, hands on his hips, preparing to recite poetry. He was a huge success at Le Chat Noir, and decided to open his own cabaret, the Mirliton, in 1885. It became a veritable creative hub in the heart of Montmartre as well as one of the first establishments to permanently exhibit works by Toulouse‐Lautrec. 

Another work of Louis Anquetin is also included at the MMFA's Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition. It is a print entitled At the Circus.

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Hover your mouse over images for description and credits.

You can read about the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition here.

You can also read my post about the two works by Théophile Steinlen which are also included in the MMFA's Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition here.

For more information, visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website.

MMFA 2016: Théophile Steinlen

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen
June 18 - October 30, 2016

The above poster by Théophile Steinlen is included in the current Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' exhibition TOULOUSE-LAUTREC ILLUSTRATES THE BELLE ÉPOQUE. One more of his works is also on display at the exhibition, a drawing of a dance hall interior executed in coloured crayons.  

Théophile Steinlen was the Toulouse-Lautrec's contemporary. He was a Swiss-born painter and printmaker of the French Belle Époque. His permanent home was Montmartre, the realities and the environments of which were his favourite subjects throughout his life. He often painted scenes of some of the harsher aspects of life in that area of Paris.

Steinlen frequented the literary cabaret known as Le Chat Noir, founded by a fellow Swiss expatriate Louis Rodolphe Salis. It was there that Steinlen met and befriended writers such as Paul Verlaine, and artists Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Louis Anquetin, Jean-Louis Forain, Henry Somm, Adolphe Willette, Félix Vallotton, and Caran d’Ache, among others. All these writers and artists influenced each other and created works of art and literature that are still greatly valued today.

Visit MMFA exhibition TOULOUSE-LAUTREC ILLUSTRATES THE BELLE ÉPOQUE to see, among others, Steinlen's two original works, and to learn about the French Belle Epoque.

Click on the image of the poster above to enlarge it.

Hover your mouse over it for description and credits.

You can read about the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition here.

You can also read my post about the two works by Louis Anquetin which are also included in the MMFA's Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition here. 
  

For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions, visit the museum's website.

Vittorio Fiorucci Posters Exhibition

MONTREAL THROUGH THE EYES OF VITTORIO:
50 YEARS OF CITY LIFE AND GRAPHIC DESIGN

September 25, 2015 - April 10, 2016

McCord Museum presents works by internationally celebrated Montreal poster artist Vittorio Fiorucci. The public is invited to discover the graphic work of Vittorio Fiorucci who captured some great moments in the social and cultural life of Montreal from the 1960s to the end of the last century. His style is marked by simple shapes, bright colours and humour.

The exhibition consists of about 125 posters, photographs, illustrations, magazines, toys and comics, most of them from the collection of Judith Adams, Vittorio’s partner. Screenings, videos and interview excerpt are also part of the display.

The exhibition is divided into five zones. This offers a continuous journey through the unique world of Vittorio Fiorucci. The zone entitled Montreal, Cultural Metropolis depicts the Montreal’s flourishing cultural world in the early 1960s, when Vittorio’s vocation as a poster artist was established. The development of a number of artistic disciplines in Montreal at the time opened for him unexpected horizons in cinema, theatre, contemporary dance, and popular music. Some of his collaborations with the Opéra de Montréal, the Just for Laughs Festival, the Montreal International Film Festival, and the making of album covers for major Quebec artists are on display.

Another zone, Vittorio’s passion, introduces the social environment in which he evolved, as well as and his great passion for the Montreal of European restaurants, cafés, women, friendships, cars and the mixing of cultures. These themes presented an opportunity to experiment with photography, comics and collages.

The zone Vittorio the ambassador highlights photographs taken by him for publications and famous magazines, including Time. The zone Montreal, close to Vittorio’s heart reflects Vittorio’s commitment to humanitarian and charitable concerns. He was not a man of great causes, but he created posters with social and political criticism, even taking positions on international issues.

The exhibition ends with the zone Vittorio, prodigal son, which takes the visitor into the colourful childlike world that inspired his creative process. Among other objects, visitors will see Vittorio’s toy robots.

In collaboration with Les Éditions de l’Homme, the McCord Museum has also published an illustrated book on the life and career of the artist, Through the Eyes of Vittorio, written by Marc H. Choko, Curator of the exhibition. The book is available in French and English.

A Montreal street was named in his memory in 2011.

Various activities and lectures are available in conjunction with the exhibition. Find the description and schedule on the McCord Museum website.

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Hover your mouse over images for description and credits.

MMFA 2014: Warhol Mania

Warhol Mania: A Brand-new Look at His Advertising Posters and Magazine Illustrations

November 5, 2014 – March 15, 2015

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is presenting this new exhibition featuring Andy Warhol's fifty posters and an impressive selection of magazine illustrations created by the artist throughout his career. The items on display come from a private collection of Montreal collector and art historian Paul Maréchal. He started collecting Warhol's illustartion works and posters in 1996. Six years later in 2002, he acquired the last item and had to stop because Warhol's works became too prohibitively expansive. 

The exhibition also coincides with the publication of two catalogues written by Paul Maréchal about Warhol works. Both catalogues are available at the museum's bookstore. 

As a leader of the American Pop Art movement, Andy Warhol saw his works, together with his image, given wide media coverage. Amongst his final few disigns is the poster below, where he uses his own image. There were only 300 copies printed of this poster, most of which no longer exist.

It is important to note that Warhol illustrated more than 400 magazine issues, including more than fifty covers. Although they represent an important part of his career, few of the original drawings have survived. Indeed, more than 90 per cent of the illustrations were never returned to the artist. They were simply destroyed, the usual practice in a magazine’s graphic arts department. The magazine was considered to be the original; the drawing was just one stage in its creation.

Items on display represent only about 25% of Paul Maréchal's private collection. Yet a visitor will see some remarkable works.

A Pop Art icon, Warhol was an illustrator, painter, printmaker, avant-garde filmmaker and music producer. He was born in 1928 in Pittsburgh and died in New York in 1987. He completed a bachelor’s degree in commercial art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, and then worked in New York as a commercial artist for Glamour magazine, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. He received the Art Directors Club medal for his newspaper advertisements in 1952 and was honoured with other awards during the course of the decade.

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For more information, visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts's website:

http://www.mbam.qc.ca/en