| Beaux-arts de Paris

The exhibition will be closed during the Christmas holidays from 17 December to 3 January inclusive. It will reopen on Wednesday 4 January.

Baalbek, an emblematic site on the Bekaa plain in northeastern Lebanon, attracted two young architects in the 19th century who were residents of the French Academy in Rome: Achille Joyau and Gaston Redon.

As part of their "Envois", exercises imposed on the winners of the Prix de Rome in which they had to propose a restoration of an ancient monument, they drew with watercolors and rendered with scrupulous fidelity the beauty of these ruins surrounded by high walls and the arid and mountainous environment that surrounds them. The twenty-five unpublished works presented in this exhibition are unique testimonies of the archaeological site which was not excavated until 1898.

The site of Baalbek remains to this day a major archaeological jewel of Lebanon.

Admired by Lamartine, Châteaubriand and Flaubert, Baalbek, an emblematic site of the Bekaa plain in Lebanon, attracted in the 19th century two young architects who were then boarders at the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici: Achille Joyau in 1865 and Gaston Redon in 1887. As part of their "Envois", school exercises imposed on the Prix de Rome laureates, they were given the task of studying an ancient monument and proposing a restitution, i.e. a restoration.

Joyau and Redon decided to venture out of Rome and discover this mythical place in Lebanon. Before reaching it, they each made long journeys by caravan or on horseback, crossing difficult roads and staying, depending on their route, in Alexandria, Cairo, Memphis, Jerusalem, Damascus or even Smyrna.

Celebrated for its gigantism, Baalbek seduces by the originality of its Greco-Roman architecture enriched with Semitic and Oriental elements. The stays of Joyau and Redon, which varied between five and ten months, allowed them to draw up a precise state of the ancient monuments through superb watercolor sketches. Their drawings reflect with scrupulous fidelity the beauty of these ruins surrounded by high walls, but also the arid environment that surrounds them with the high mountains of the Anti-Lebanon in the background.

Their approach, close to that of an archaeologist, carefully restores the numerous buildings that made up the sanctuary, as well as their various architectural elements, including the layout of the walls, the entablatures and the capitals of the columns. To this description is added the sensitivity of the artists towards the materials used, the vegetation that invades the ruins in a disorderly manner, the bright blue sky.

The graphic qualities of these works reveal the watercolor talents of these young architects and are unique testimonies of the site of Baalbek, which only had its first archaeological excavations in 1898.

Curated by Emmanuelle Brugerolles and Corisande Evesque.

Joseph-Louis-Achille Joyau (1831 – 1873) Temple d’Héliopolis, état actuel, façade latérale sud [à gauche : détail ; ci-dessous oeuvre entière] Graphite, plume, encre noire et aquarelle sur papier entoilé, 0,8 x 3,2 m

Joseph-Louis-Achille Joyau (1831 – 1873) Temple d’Héliopolis, état actuel, façade principale Graphite, plume, encre noire et aquarelle sur papier entoilé, 0,6 x 1,4 m

Gaston-Fernand Redon (1853 – 1921) Héliopolis. Temples de Baalbek, plan de restauration à 0 m 01 p.m., élévation restaurée des façades des temples. Graphite, plume, encre noire et aquarelle sur papier entoilé, 1,3 x 3,2 m

Joseph-Louis-Achille Joyau (1831 – 1873) Vue du temple d’Héliopolis à Baalbek Graphite et aquarelle, 0,15 x 0,5 m

Joseph-Louis-Achille Joyau (1831 – 1873) Rue au Caire Pierre noire, lavis d’encre de Chine, rehauts de gouache blanche et beige sur papier bleu, 0,35 x 0,23 m

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Gratuité (sur présentation d’un justificatif en cours de validité) :

• moins de 18 ans

• étudiants et enseignants des écoles nationales supérieures d’art et d’architecture du Ministère de la Culture

• étudiants des institutions membres de l’Université Paris-Sciences-et- Lettres (PSL)

• étudiants de l’École du Louvre

• titulaires de la carte du Ministère de la Culture

• Amis des Beaux-Arts de Paris

• détenteur des cartes : Maison des Artistes, ICOM, ICOMOS, Association française des commissaires d’exposition (CEA)

• journalistes

• demandeurs d’emploi, bénéficiaires des minima sociaux

• handicapés civils et mutilés de guerre (avec un accompagnateur)

At the initiative of the Beaux-Arts de Paris, Felicità Milieu des choses invites the thirty-five artists Felicità 2020 and 2021 of the Beaux-Arts de Paris to offer a very personal reading of the environment and its edges, on a proposal by the artist and curator Thomas Fougeirol.

"Each artist is a milieu around which multiple ecosystems gravitate, the result of a personal history and different socio-cultural contexts. How sensitive are we to other environments, to others in their environments? The world is full of objects and connections are made at lightning speed, the artist must slow down to make other things, other events with a deep and intimate resonance. The skin, the texture of these things and performances are like drums, they materialize deep sounds.

If some artists think of the thing as a target to be reached by planting its arrow in its middle, others explore its edges." Thomas Fougeirol

Organized outside the walls, the exhibition Felicità Milieu des choses is the result of a collective work. The works and performances have been imagined to take over the large 1,800 m2 plateau of POUSH in Aubervilliers.

A publication accompanies the exhibition.

Curated by Thomas Fougeirol.

Reservation

Congratulated 2020

Among the 94 students who graduated in 2020, 14 were congratulated by the jury presided by Béatrice Gross and composed of Marc Bembekoff, Mohammed Bourouissa, Emilie Renard and Barthélemy Toguo.

Kenia Almaraz-Murillo, Amie-Sarah Barouh, Thibaut Bouedjoro-Camus, Audrey Carmes, Diane Chéry, Gabriel Day-Boulongne, Théo Krief, Gaspard, Elsa Michaud, Chalisée Naamani, Keijiro Nagamine, Winnie Mo Rielly, Robin Rozenkranc, Lucas Tortolano.

Congratulated 2021

Among the 123 students graduating in 2021, 21 were congratulated by the jury chaired by Thomas Fougeirol and composed of Alexandra Baudelot, Aude Cartier, Gaëlle Choisne, Marianne Lanavère, Julia Marchand, Myriam Mihindou and Matthieu Poirier.

Chadine Amghar, Barbana Bojadzi, Lucas Bouan, Félix Bouttier, Javier Caro Temboury, Clara Champsaur, Clément Courgeon, Pauline d'Andigné, Darya Danilovich, Elisa Florimond, Clédia Fourniau, Juliette Green, Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos, Halldora Magnusdottir, Dylan Maquet, Hedi Nabil, Louise Rocard, Eulalie Thebault Maviel, Eugénie Touzé, Chloé Vanderstaeten, Constantin Von Rosenschild Paouline.