The National Gallery is mounting an exhibition on the Swiss pastellist Jean-Etienne Liotard's masterpiece "The Lavergne Family Breakfast", which it acquired in 2019. The exhibition will run from 16th November 2023 – 3rd March 2024.
Discover Liotard and the Lavergne Family | Exhibitions | National Gallery, London
Jean-Etienne Liotard | The Lavergne Family Breakfast | NG6685 | National Gallery, London
A book to accompany the exhibition is due for release on 28th November:
Francesca Whitlum-Cooper, with contributions by Iris Moon, Discover Liotard & The Lavergne Family Breakfast (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2024), 120 pages, ISBN: 978-1857097023, $20.
Francesca Whitlum-Cooper, with contributions by Iris Moon, Discover Liotard & The Lavergne Family Breakfast (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2024), 120 pages, ISBN: 978-1857097023, $20.
Reviewed by Neil Jeffares (15th November):
Liotard at the National Gallery | Neil Jeffares (wordpress.com)
Liotard at the National Gallery | Neil Jeffares (wordpress.com)
There has been some criticism of the National Gallery's decision to include a label pointing out that the sugar the breakfasters are enjoying was produced by enslaved peoples: the Guardian reviewer complains that the observation strikes an awkward note: "The brutal facts don’t help you see this gentle art any more clearly. Rather, you feel bad for enjoying it. Liotard suddenly slips away, the fragile beauty of his pastels lost in the bloodstained Atlantic."
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