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This fall, as the College celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Marquis de Lafayette’s birthday, students will have the chance to experience art representative of the 18th and early 19th century world in which the Marquis lived.
Lafayette is planning a yearlong celebration during 2007-08 in recognition of the life and legacy of the man for whom it is named. Major events will include a lecture series, entitled Lives of Liberty, featuring renowned speakers; a historical exhibit at the Williams Center for the Arts, entitled A Son and his Adoptive Father: The Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington; and a birthday party on Sept. 6.
Running through January, the foreign languages and literatures department will sponsor the “Lafayette in the Artistic Context” exhibit in the Foreign Languages and Literatures Resource Center featuring reproductions of artwork produced during the Marquis’ lifetime.
Those who are unfamiliar with the art can take an iPod audio tour of the exhibition. The Foreign Languages and Literatures Resource Center, located in Pardee Hall room 418, is open Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and 7-10 p.m., Friday 9 a.m. -4 p.m., and Sunday 7 p.m. -10 p.m.
The exhibit will include posters of The Declaration of Independence, Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David, The Tennis Court Oath by Jacques-Louis David, Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix, Embarkation for Cythera by Jean-Antoine Watteau, Execution of the Defenders of Madrid by Francisco de Goya, Marriage a La Mode by William Hogarth, Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough, The Father’s Curse or the Ungrateful Son by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, and a Don Quixote Tapestry created at the Royal Manufactory of the Gobelins.
“We chose art for this exhibit that was representative of the 18th and early 19th century world in which the Marquis lived; the time period ranged from his youth, signified by the Watteau piece, to three years before his death, signified by the Delacroix piece,” explains Mary Toulouse, director of the Foreign Languages and Literatures Resource Center. “Hopefully, on seeing the posters, our audience will have a better understanding of the Marquis as a man who was ahead of his time.”
From the world in which he grew up to the audacity of his youth to his idealism to the horrors of war and a revolution gone wild, each poster reproduction provides a window into life and art as the Marquis saw it.
“The Marquis was an international guy,” explains Toulouse. “He traveled to England, hid in Spain, and then went to Austria, and the United States. This aspect is nice because many of our students are learning different languages and can still use this exhibition as a learning tool.”
Toulouse believes the exhibition is an extension of other exhibits on campus.
“When people come and see the exhibit, they should be wondering what the Marquis was thinking when he saw this art and the effects it had on his actions,” says Toulouse. “We want to try to figure out the psychology of the situation; back then art wasn’t just art but a way of communicating.”