France in Los Angeles: Major Art Exhibitions Open in Southern California

Calling all francophiles in southern California. Two new exhibitions are shining the spotlight on artist Édouard Manet and Paris in the Belle Époque.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Presents Manet and Modern Beauty

For the first time ever, the Getty presents an exhibition exploring the last years of Édouard Manet’s short life (1832 – 1883) and career. “Manet and Modern Beauty” highlights a more intimate side of this great painter of modern Paris, who shocked contemporary audiences with his provocative paintings. This exhibition focuses on Manet’s later paintings, with his increased focus on fashionable scenes of Parisian life and the stylish portraits of the women and men with whom he was acquainted. His growing fascination with fashion, flowers, and the “Parisienne”, who embodied modern femininity, is vividly portrayed in his luscious still lifes, delicate pastels and watercolors, and vivid café and garden scenes.

October 8, 2019 – January 12, 2020
The Getty Center
1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles

E.Manet [1881] Spring, Oil on canvas, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Public domain

The Norton Simon Museum presents its newest exhibition “By Day & Night: Paris in the Belle Époque,” which explores the rich range of artistic responses to life in Paris during the “beautiful era”. Indeed Paris was at the forefront of art and culture in this golden age, from 1871-1914, with the construction and completion of the Eiffel Tower and the ascendancy of Montmartre as an epicenter for art and entertainment. In this climate, especially in Paris, the arts flourished.

This exhibition, featuring works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Vuillard, Edgar Degas, Pierre Bonnard and Pablo Picasso, focuses on the ordinary details of modern life that inspired their creative expression. As demonstrated through paintings, drawings, prints and photographs, we view how these artists participated in the inventive spirit of the day by interpreting the everyday as something extraordinary.

October 4, 2019 – March 2, 2020
Norton Simon Museum
411 West Colorado Blvd., Pasadena

Image credit: Norton Simon Museum