Correspondence

The exhibition offers an original dialogue between the contemporary work of Agnès Thurnauer and the art of the ^18th century, shedding new light on this period and highlighting its contemporary resonance. The artist engages in correspondence with masters such as François Boucher, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto, and emblematic female figures: Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Angelica Kauffmann, as well as writers and scientists such as Madame de Staël and Émilie du Châtelet.

In the ^18th century, although the status of women artists was ambiguous, some from privileged backgrounds managed to make their mark in the art world. Labille-Guiard and Vigée-Lebrun, in particular, were admitted to the Académie Royale de peinture in 1783, and a growing number of women artists exhibited at Salons, joined renowned studios and taught.

The exhibition also examines writing as a tool of emancipation, with works representing women creators and theorists. These pieces, confronted with contemporary issues, reveal an original and particularly invigorating reading of the art of the Enlightenment.

This carte blanche invites us to rediscover women’s contributions to art history and thought, while opening up a fruitful dialogue between past and present.