Jeppson Idea Lab: Renoir's The Jewish Wedding

Pierre-Auguste Renoir The Jewish Wedding

September 24, 2016 - March 26, 2017
Jeppson Idea Lab

Above: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919), after Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798-1863), The Jewish Wedding, about 1875, oil on canvas, Museum Purchase, 1943.1

This Idea Lab presentation gives insight into the recent conservation of The Jewish Wedding by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). In 1875, Renoir was commissioned to paint a replica of Eugène Delacroix's 1839 The Jewish Wedding in Morocco, today in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Although faithful to Delacroix's original, Renoir adapted his Impressionist manner to the painting, creating a novel work of art, wholly distinct in its brushwork, palette, and use of light. Renoir's work, obscured by a 70-year-old discolored varnish, has now been restored by Andrew W. Mellon Fellow Maja Rinck, a transformation that resulted in the recovery of its original tonality, revealing a major Impressionist painting.

Video: Renoir's version of The Jewish Wedding

Video from Master Series Third Thursday
November 17, 2016, 6pm

Speaker: Judith Dolkart, Mary Stripp and R. Crosby Kemper Director, Addison Gallery of American Art

Filmed by WGBH Forum Network.