“Salons” Diderot” in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Exhibition overview

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts hosts the exhibition “Salons” of Diderot. Contemporary Art Exhibitions in 18th Century Paris. Denis Diderot (1713-1784), writer, philosopher, encyclopedist, one of the key figures of the Enlightenment, she shows in the role of an influential art critic. His handwritten reviews of academic exhibitions at the Louvre were originally addressed to a narrow circle of European monarchs, including Catherine II, but quickly became popular outside the courts: witty, lively, detailed reviews created the effect of presence. The Salons, published after Diderot’s death, are recognized as one of the pinnacles of his work. At the current exhibition, illustrations were added to them, and natural ones at that, these are the very works (from Pushkin, the Hermitage, and other Russian museums) that Diderot used to analyze in his time. The Parisian artistic atmosphere of the “age of reason” was imbued Igor Grebelnikov.

Russia was very lucky with Diderot – in the sense that even now, when inter-museum ties with Europe are cut off, it is possible to collect a brilliant exhibition on French art of the 18th century exclusively from Russian museums, libraries, archives. The great philosopher participates in it not only with his name and quotes from the Salons, which suggest a completely different optics of perception to the well-known works of Boucher, Greuze, Fragonard, Chardin, Vernet and other artists from the permanent exhibitions of the Pushkin Museum and the Hermitage. At the current show, paintings, sculptures and graphics, tapestries, medals and maps have been supplemented with something that directly refers to the glory of Paris as the capital of the Enlightenment – book rarities from Diderot’s famous library, including volumes of the Encyclopedia prepared by him, his manuscript, editions of the manuscript Literary Correspondence magazine, which published reviews of the exhibitions of the Royal Academy.

The purchase by Catherine II in 1765 from Diderot of his personal library was a generous friendly gesture towards the philosopher with whom she had long corresponded: the empress left the books for him to use until the end of her life, appointed him a librarian himself and paid a salary for 50 years in advance, providing thus a comfortable life. Diderot did not remain in debt: the writer praised the empress and her reign as best he could, responded (unlike Voltaire and Rousseau) to her invitation to come to Russia and spent five months here, communicating with Catherine almost daily. Diderot recommended to her as the author of the monument to Peter I his friend, the sculptor Falcone, and even took part in the creation of The Bronze Horseman with advice, contributed to the acquisition for the Hermitage of the collection of the financier Crozat de Thiers, which included masterpieces by Raphael, Giorgione, Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, Poussin, not speaking of contemporary French artists, who, through his mediation, received orders from the Empress. And of course, he influenced the taste of Catherine II through his brilliant reviews of the Louvre exhibitions: she was the most generous subscriber of Literary Correspondence.

This regular publication, intended for a few subscribers – European monarchs and members of their families, was started in 1753 by the German publicist Friedrich Melchior Grimm, who settled in Paris. Its handwritten pages covered the most striking literary and theatrical events in Paris (described mainly by Grimm himself), and from 1759 reviews of Diderot’s exhibitions began to appear in the magazine, the section was called “Salon”. This was a new occupation for the philosopher himself, by that time already a world celebrity – the initiator, editor and one of the authors of the Encyclopedia, or Explanatory Dictionary of Sciences, Arts and Crafts. Describing exhibitions, Diderot, who was friends with many artists, either emphasizes his neophyteism, or, on the contrary, shines with incredible art history savvy, either praises or smashes the same artists, from time to time gives advice on how it would be better and how he would act . Criticizing or praising, he almost always describes paintings, sculpture, graphics in the most detailed way, adding vivid personal impressions and sharp remarks to this, and all this is almost with a conversational intonation. “There are many pictures, my friend, many bad pictures. But I always prefer praise to blame. Admiring, I am happy. What could be better than to admire and be happy?” With this passage the philosopher begins his first review of 1759.

The fact that the “Literary Correspondence” was initially sent to the address and only to high-ranking persons allowed Diderot not to be shy in expressions, because he seemed to speak non-publicly. “Tell me, Mr. Schall, how did you manage to become an artist? – he addresses rhetorically to Jean Frederic Chall, the master of frivolous scenes, knowing that he is unlikely to read this tirade. – After all, there are many other professions, and in society even mediocrity is useful. An artist must be born. And you have been doing this craft for more than thirty years, not knowing what it is, and you will die without guessing anything.

And even, it would seem, the favorites of the philosopher are not immune from harsh assessments. François Boucher Diderot admired “Christmas” in his first review from the Salon, but when he saw Boucher’s pastoral at the exhibition of 1765, he called for the most drastic measures: “My friend, is there really no police at the Academy? If no commissar has been found to prevent this picture from getting here, then will it not be allowed to throw it out of the Salon with a kick? .. “

Diderot’s reviews came out, of course, without illustrations. The exhibition at the Pushkin Museum undertakes to correct this “injustice” – the benefit of the work reviewed by Diderot in its time is in our collections – but does this move achieve its goal? Would the author write the same thing, knowing that a visual illustration would be attached to his words? Quotes from Diderot related to this or that work can now be compared with the painting itself, hanging nearby, but at the same time, the energy of his texts, designed to stimulate our imagination, is dissipated. However, nothing prevents from board to board to re-read the Salons after the exhibition.

The exhibition itself (and this is more than 200 exhibits, many of which are shown for the first time, 40 are specially restored, 20 are exhibited with new attribution), according to the plan of the curator Anna Sulimova, also claims to be a thorough immersion in the Parisian artistic and intellectual life of the Enlightenment. Thus, an extensive section is devoted to the very phenomenon of the academic Salon: the first public, free exhibition was held at the initiative of Louis XIV in 1667 in the courtyard of the Palais Royal, and since 1699 they began to be held regularly in the Louvre, attracting more and more participants and the public every year, creating the image of Paris as an artistic capital. One of the halls reproduces the scale of the Louvre Square Salon (which gave the name to these exhibitions) with an example of a trellis hanging of paintings that strictly observes the hierarchy of genres: from painting on historical and mythological subjects in the upper rows and important persons in the center to genre scenes, still lifes and portraits on eye level. The curators managed to find exhibits (either their variants or graphic copies) belonging to the Salons of different years, according to which the viewer may well feel the growth of a liberating wave in the development of painting from classicism to rococo, and Diderot’s comments will support it.