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“The Death of Marat” (c. 1793), by the studio of Jacques-Louis David. © Reims, Musée des Beaux-Arts. Photo: C. Devleeschauwer |
One gets the feeling that after the curators of the exhibition “Crime and Punishment” came up with their theme, they were overwhelmed by the abundance of material …
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““The Death of Marat” (c. 1793), by the studio of Jacques-Louis David. © Reims, Musée des Beaux-Arts. Photo: C. Devleeschauwer |
One gets the feeling that after the curators of the exhibition “Crime and Punishment” came up with their theme, they were overwhelmed by the abundance of material available. The visitor is a bit overwhelmed, too, by the magnitude of this show, but who can deny the great fascination of death, gore and human perversity?
Right at the beginning, along with paintings and drawings by the likes of Edvard Munch, Gustave Moreau, William Blake and Georg Grosz (showing Hitler in hell, head in hands, with scores of miniature skeletons climbing up his legs), we get to see a real guillotine (dating from 1872, which means it wasn’t used on any royal heads) up close. This is followed by any number of depictions of executions, naked corpses, severed heads and other body parts (notably Théodore Géricault’s powerful “Study of Feet and Hands,” used on the exhibition’s poster).
One section focuses on the fear of women as murderesses, witches and hysterics as expressed in art. Judith, Salomé, Herodias and Lady Macbeth are popular subjects here. Picasso’s “Femme au Stylet” (1931) shows a particularly ferocious woman with pointed teeth killing a tiny-headed man, producing rivers of blood. Marat, famously killed by Charlotte Cordier in his bath, is the subject of many paintings, including the marvelously stark, modern-looking 1793 canvas (pictured above) by Jacques-Louis David’s studio, showing only the victim, his arm hanging over the side of the wooden tub, along with the inscription “Unable to corrupt me, they assassinated me.”
One of the great discoveries for me in this show were the drawings of Victor Hugo, better known as a writer than an artist, especially a series of wonderfully expressive caricatures of judges and spectators at the trial of a witch for “Le Poème de la Sorcière” (1872-73).
The show also includes scores of magazine and book illustrations with lurid depictions of true-crime stories (mothers murdering their own children have always been especially popular) and a section on theories of criminal physiognomy popular in the 19th century, which postulated that a criminal nature could be detected from bumps on the head (phrenology) and the shape of facial features.
I have always wondered why Edgar Degas’ “La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans,” a sculpture that every museum seems to own (27 bronze casts were produced after his death and many wax models have survived) was such a singularly unappealing little creature. Now I know. It is because the artist was fascinated by those theories and modified the appearance of his model’s head to conform to them, which explains the little dancer’s prominent jaw and sloping forehead. She was originally displayed in a glass case (as she is here) like a scientific specimen. Critics at the time noted her “precocious depravity” and described her as a “petit rat” (as corps de ballet members were commonly called) who might contaminate members of high society attending the ballet.
The exhibition ends appropriately with some exquisite corpses by Surrealist painters, who were themselves fascinated by crime and anarchy. As André Breton wrote, “The simplest Surrealist act consists of dashing down into the street, pistol in hand, and firing blindly, as fast as you can pull the trigger, into the crowd.”
It won’t kill you to see this show, and it’s no punishment either, unless you are the sensitive type or tire easily.
Musée d’Orsay: 1, rue de la Légion d’Honneur, 75007 Paris. Métro: Solferino. RER: Musée d’Orsay. Tel.: 01 40 49 48 14. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m., until 9:45 p.m. on Thursday. Admission: €9.50. Through June 27. www.musee-orsay.fr
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