Ongoing exhibitions

 

Alsace
Dreaming the lost province
1871-1914

From 6th october 2021 to 7th february 2022
at Jean-Jacques Henner national museum

In patnership with Alsatian museum
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Alsace Henner exposition



The Jean-Jacques Henner National Museum, in partnership with the Strasbourg Alsatian Museum, offers an exhibition on the image of Alsace, a lost province, following  the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Based on several works by the painter Jean-Jacques Henner (1829-1905), one of the major figures of the Alsatians of Paris, the exhibition questions the way in which the image of Alsace from Paris is constructed and disseminated between 1871 and 1914.

A set of varied works (paintings, sculptures, art and everyday objects, drawings, posters,prints...), divided into five sections, offers both picturesque, historical and popular representations of Alsace and the intimate vision of Jean-Jacques Henner. Starting from a spectacular image of the War of 1870 and its consequences - the loss of a part of the national territory -, the exhibition addresses the way in which the myth of Alsace, like a lost province, was constructed. The mourning of the "little homeland" is followed by the image of exile or the myth of unfailing resistance to the invader.

alsacienne assiette alsace henner paris musée
L'Alsace et la Lorraine, entre 1920 et 1950 (réédition d’un modèle conçu en 1914), assiette en faïence de Sarreguemines (Moselle), Utzschneider et Cie, Strasbourg, Musée Alsacien
© Photo Musées de Strasbourg, M. Bertola

 

The exhibition touches on the sociability networks of the Alsatians of Paris and their important impact on French cultural, political and economic life. The notion of revenge is also discussed. A specific room is dedicated to the dissemination and instrumentalization of the image of the lost provinces in popular culture (objects of daily life, toys, advertising products...).


This exhibition takes place in the context of the commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the Franco-Prussian War and the memory of the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Frankfurt (May 1871), by which defeated France ceded Alsace and Moselle to Germany.

eugénie henner peinture paris musée
Jean-Jacques Henner, Alsacienne ou Eugénie Henner en Alsacienne tenant un panier de pommes, 1869 © RMN-Grand Palais / Gérard Blot

 

sculpture alsacienne bartholdi
Auguste Bartholdi, La Borne frontière, vers 1880, plâtre, Colmar, Musée Bartholdi © Christian Kempf

In addition, the Museum Jean-Jacques Henner also celebrates the 150th anniversary of its "Alsatian Mona Lisa", “L’Alsace. Elle attend”, a painting reproduced in a lot of school textbooks and disseminated abundantly by engraving.


For the occasion, generous loans from institutions and private collections from the "Grand Est" region (Strasbourg, Colmar, Mulhouse, Reims, Epinal, Nancy, Hagondange, Belfort, Logelbach), Cahors, Lille, Pau and Suresnes and Paris, were granted.

Direction
Marie-Cécile Forest, Director of Jean-Jacques Henner and Gustave Moreau national museums

Exhibition curators 
Maeva Abillard, curator of Jean-Jacques Henner national museum
Marie Pottecher, chief curator of cultural heritage, Director  Alsatian museum;
assisted by Candice Runderkamp-Dollé, curator assistant of Alsatian museum, in charge of collections, and by Marie Vancostenoble, curator assistant of Jean-Jacques Henner national museum. 

 


Financial support for the exhibition and the related catalogue was provided by Novalix society
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Media relations

Download Press release 
logo heymann presse  Heymann Associates agency
  www.heymann-associes.com
  T.+33 (0)1 40 26 77 57
Ophélie Thiery 
ophelie@heymann-associes.com
06 31 80 29 40 
Sarah Heymann 
s.heymann@heymann-associes.com

06 80 48 88 2

 


 

 

 

 


PARTNER EXHIBITIONS : 

Jean-Jacques Henner (1829-1905)
La Chair et l'Idéal 

at Strasbourg Fine Arts museum 

More informations 

Press release

Henner La Source

Jean-Jacques Henner drawer

at Mulhouse Fine Arts museum

More informations 

dessin henner mulhouse
Etude d’après l’Eglogue, fusain sur papier calque, après 1879, Bibliothèque de Mulhouse, dépôt de la SIM, ©Bibliothèque Mulhouse

 

 

 

 

 

 

End-off-residency exhibition
4th october - 11th december 2023