Spring

Getty Publications Spring 2016
An absorbing examination of some of the most
spectacular works of art on paper ever created
An elegantly conceived book on the
revolutionary and stunning works
of a nineteenth-century French master
Getty Publications New Titles
Noir
The Romance of Black in 19th-Century French Drawings and Prints
Unruly Nature
The Landscapes of Théodore Rousseau
Edited by Lee Hendrix
Scott Allan and Édouard Kopp
With Line Clausen Pedersen
Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867), arguably the most important French landscape artist of the midnineteenth
century and a leader of the so-called Barbizon School, occupies a crucial moment of transition
from the idealizing effects of academic painting to the radically modern vision of the Impressionists. He
was an experimental artist who rejected the traditional historical, biblical, or literary subject matter in favor
of “unruly nature,” a Romantic naturalism that confounded his contemporaries with its “bizarre” compositional
and coloristic innovations.
Lavishly illustrated and thoroughly documented, this volume includes five essays by experts in the
field. Scott Allan and Édouard Kopp alternately examine Rousseau’s diverse techniques and working procedures
as a painter and as a draftsman, as well as his art’s mixed economic and critical fortunes on the
art market and at the Salon. Line Clausen Pedersen’s essay focuses on Mont Blanc Seen from La Faucille,
Storm Effect, an early touchstone for the artist and a spectacular example of the Romantic sublime in the
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek’s collection.
This catalogue accompanies an eponymous exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from
June 21 to September 11, 2016, and at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek from October 13, 2016, to January 8, 2017.
With contributions by Lee Hendrix, Cynthia Burlingham, Laurel Garber, Timothy David Mayhew,
Michelle Sullivan, and Nancy Yocco
Due to the technological advances of the nineteenth century, an abundance of black drawing media
exploded onto the market. Charcoal, conte crayon, and fabricated black chalks and crayons; fixatives; various
papers; and many lifting devices gave rise to an unprecedented amount of experimentation. Indeed,
innovation became the rule, as artists developed their own unique — and often experimental — processes.
The exploration of black media in drawing is inextricably bound up with the exploration of black in prints,
and this volume presents an integrated study that rises above specialization in one over the other.
Noir brings together such diverse artists as Francisco de Goya, Maxime Lalanne, Gustave Courbet,
Odilon Redon, and Georges Seurat and explores their inventive works on paper. Sidelining labels like “conservative”
or “avant-garde,” the essays in this book employ all the tools that art history and modern conservation
have given us, inviting the reader to look more broadly at the artists’ methods and materials.
This volume accompanies an eponymous exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from February
9 to May 15, 2016.
LEE HENDRIX is senior curator of drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum, where NANCY YOCCO is senior
paper conservator and where LAUREL GARBER and MICHELLE SULLIVAN were both graduate interns.
CYNTHIA BURLINGHAM is deputy director at the Hammer Museum. TIMOTHY DAVID MAYHEW is an
artist and scientist at the Atelier Cedar Ridge in New Mexico.
SCOTT ALLAN is associate curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum. ÉDOUARD KOPP is associate
curator of drawings at the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA. LINE CLAUSEN PEDERSEN is
curator of modern art at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen.
J. Paul Getty Museum
184 pages, 9½ x 11 inches
111 color illustrations
ISBN 978-1-60606-482-5, hardcover
US $39.95 X [UK £27.50]
J. Paul Getty Museum
224 pages, 9½ x 11 inches
140 color and 15 b/w illustrations
ISBN 978-1-60606-477-1, hardcover
US $49.95 X [UK £32.50]
FEBRUARY
JUNE
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ART HISTORY
ART HISTORY
Théodore Rousseau (French, 1812–1867). Forest of Fontainebleau,
Cluster of Tall Trees Overlooking the Plain of Clair-Bois at the
Edge of Bas-Bréau, ca. 1849–52, oil on canvas, 90.8 x 116.8 cm
(35¾ x 46 in.), J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
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