Photograph
by Sarah Moon – courtesy Palazzo Fortuny
Venice
- Palazzo Fortuny – Winter at Palazzo Fortuny
Venice
- Palazzo Fortuny – Winter at Palazzo Fortuny. Four Women, four incredible
personalities and four great exhibitions are on show - until March 13 - Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny; Henrietta Fortuny, Romaine Brooks, Sarah Moon and Ida
Barbarigo.
Above.
Sarah Moon - Omaggio a Mariano Fortuny - silver salt print, cm 111x141.
Palazzo
Fortuny – Winter at Palazzo Fortuny – Henriette Fortuny. The exhibition pays tribute to a woman who, by her
intelligence and sensitivity, succeeded in supporting and inspiring one of the
most refined artists of the past century. At the beginning of the 20th Century in Paris, French
born Henriette met Mariano Fortuny, an already a well-known artist,
involved in experimenting with a complex system of lighting that from its early
application would revolutionize stage lighting in the theater. And, for no less
than 47 years, Henriette would be at Fortuny’s side, contributing in a decisive
manner to the success of his splendid textile creations.
Above. Manifattura Fortuny
- Delphos dress with over garment c. 1920. Photograph of Henriette - Mariano
Fortuny – c.1905.
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Henriette Fortuny. Henriette
was, for instance, responsible for the idea of the Delphos, the fine plisse
silk gown that became a worldwide icon of style and the symbol of a timeless
elegance.
Mariano Fortuny - Modella con abito Delphos
c.1920 - Lastra di vetro alla gelatina, 120 x 90 mm - Archivio
Museo Fortuny, inv. MFN02173 - ©Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia - Museo
Fortuny.
Manifattura Fortuny -
Abito Delphos
dopo
il 1909 - Taffeta di seta plisse, alt. 146 cm - Collezioni Museo Fortuny, inv.
C016 - ©Paolo Utimpergher
Co-Curators of the exhibition. Cristina Da Roit and
Daniela Ferretti, who is also the director of the Museum of Palazzo Fortuny. The exhibition is the result of the research,
re-ordering and maintenance undertaken during the course of 2015 in the
collections of Museo Fortuny.
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Henriette Fortuny. In
the house and workshop of Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei, Henriette worked
alongside her husband in the creation of fine printed fabrics and silk
lampshades, coordinating the work of the craftsmen they employed. It was she
who maintained the delicate relations with an increasingly numerous and
international clientele, leaving Fortuny to dedicate himself to his studies,
research and experiments in various artistic disciplines.
Delphos dress with over garment in printed silk organza
Collezioni
di Museo Fortuny - inv. C016 e C29
Henriette
and Mariano Fortuny
Henriette,
photographed by Mariano in her work clothes and Mariano Fortuny, photographed
by Henriette in his work shirt both in Venice, Palazzo Pesaro Orfei c.1920
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Henriette Fortuny
Fortuny
block print on silk velvet fabric c. 1920
Mariano
Fortuny’s Travel Photographs - Egypt 1938
Courtesy
Palazzo Fortuny
Mariano
Fortuny - Henriette
Photographed
in the garden of their home in Paris, Boulevard Berthier 1903-04
Pellicola in
celluloide, 120 x 90 mm - Archivio Museo Fortuny, inv. MFN05712 - ©Fondazione
Musei Civici di Venezia - Museo Fortuny
Painting - c. 1915
Tempera su
cartone, 50,5 x 34 cm - Museo Fortuny, inv. FORT0110 - ©Claudio Franzini per
Museo Fortuny
Photograph
courtesy Palazzo Fortuny
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Sarah Moon – A Tribute to Mariano Fortuny. The highly personal and visionary style
of Sarah Moon, the intensity of her gaze and the poetry of her photographs
could find no more enchanting and empathetic space in which to be displayed
than Palazzo Fortuny. The soft lights of the lagoon in winter that penetrate
through the large windows, the folds, the swirls and reflections created by the
fabrics and drapes of the clothes designed by Mariano Fortuny, are a source of
inspiration for this new exhibition, curated by Alexandra de Leal and Adele Re
Rebaudengo, which the great photographer has built up over the years during her
frequent visits to the house/workshop of Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei.
Above.
Sarah Moon - A Tribute to Mariano Fortuny – silver salt print.
photograph
and copyright by manfredi bellati
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Sarah Moon – A Tribute to Mariano Fortuny. Sarah Moon is one of the major photographers
of contemporary fashion, and the first woman in 1972 to take photos for the
Pirelli calendar, the French artist has for many years expanded the horizons of
her focus, with a particular interest in three themes: the evanescence of
beauty, uncertainty and the passage of time.
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny
Sarah
Moon – A Tribute to Mariano Fortuny
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny - Sarah Moon – A Tribute to Mariano Fortuny. The inkjet and
silver salts prints tell fragments of an inner story, which takes shape in the
shadows created by the movement of the fabrics recalling the softness of the
pleats of the Delphos, the iconic dress made by Fortuny, and in the lines –
blurred by memory – of the palazzo’s architecture.
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Romaine Brooks – Paintings, Drawings, Photographs. With
this exhibition, the first ever in Italy to be dedicated to the American artist
Romaine Brooks, we discover the non-conformist, refined and cosmopolitan community
that animated the most sophisticated cultural circles of the Belle Epoque in
Paris, Capri and Venice: Jean Cocteau, Paul Morand, Luisa Casati, Ida
Rubinstein and Gabriele d’Annunzio are just some of the characters who were
privileged to be immortalized by the artist, famous for her palette of
moonlight tones.
Above.
Paintings by Romaine Brooks:
Self-portrait with Veil c.1905 -
By the Seashore 1914 - Self-portrait c.1912.
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Romaine Brooks – Paintings, Drawings, Photographs. Romaine Brooks was born in Rome in 1874 to
American parents and married to pianist John Ellington Brooks, Beatrice Romaine
Goddard was one of the most interesting figures of the artistic scene of the
Twenties. Romantically linked to the writer Nathalie Clifford Barney and,
simultaneously, to the dancer Ida Rubinstein – her model for many paintings -–
the American artist also had an intense relationship with d’Annunzio, whom she
immortalized in two famous portraits.
Above.
Romaine Brooks – Self-portrait c. 1900-1905 – charcoal and white lead on grey
paper.
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Romaine Brooks
Paintings,
Drawings, Photographs
Ida Rubenstein c.1914-1917
vintage
prints and original negatives
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Romaine Brooks – Paintings, Drawings, Photographs. Romaine Brooks was initially
influenced by the painting of Whistler, she soon found her unmistakable
signature style, one marked by an infinite variety of greys and old pinks and
an uncanny ability to capture the soul of her subjects. However, it is the
drawings that are the deepest mirror of her tragic and lonely soul. Charged
with a suffering poetry, emotion and mystery, irony and pessimism, these
elements blend in the taut line devoid of any decorative frills that almost
cuts into the paper without hesitation or second thoughts; they accompany us
with modesty and apparent detachment through the meanders of an inner world,
constantly poised between light and darkness.
Above.
Romaine Brooks – Kidnapped c. 1930 – graphite on paper.
Photograph courtesy Palazzo Fortuny
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Romaine Brooks
Paintings,
Drawings, Photographs
Gabriele d’Annunzio – The Poet in Exile1912
Olio su
tela, 116x 95 cm - Paris, Centre Pompidou - Musée national d'art modern - ©Photo
Centre Pompidou. MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Romaine Brooks
Paintings,
Drawings, Photographs
Romaine
Brooks – A study for Spring c. 1911
pencil on
paper
photograph
courtesy Palazzo Fortuny
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Romaine Brooks - Paintings, Drawings, Photographs. Curated by Jerome Merceron on
the basis of a project by Daniela Ferretti, the exhibition arises from the
felicitous meeting with Lucile Audouy, a passionate and feisty collector in
Paris, who has generously loaned a very important group of works for the
exhibition in Venice, many of which never before seen in public.
Above. Romaine Brooks – Portrait Marchesa Casati
c.1920 -
Olio
su tela, 248 x 120 cm - Collezione Lucile Audouy - ©Photo Thomas Hennocque
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Ida Barbarigo – Herms and Saturns. The descendant of an
illustrious family of artists, present in Venice for more than three centuries,
Ida Barbarigo presents a selection of works from two series made over two
decades, between 1980 and the end of the 1990s, at Palazzo Fortuny, in an
exhibition curated by Daniela Ferretti.
Above.
Ida Barbarigo – Sfinge 1995 and Grande Sfinge 1994 – oil on canvas
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Ida Barbarigo – Herms and Saturns.
Born in Venice in 1920, her mother, Livia Tivoli, was a
painter and poet, her father, the painter Guido Cadorin. Ida continues the
humanist tradition of a family in which sculptors, architects, painters,
scholars and writers have succeeded each other for centuries. In 1949, she
married Zoran Music with whom she shared the passion for art. She lives and
works in Venice.
Above.
Ida Barbarigo – Self-portrait – 1981 – oil on canvas.
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Ida Barbarigo – Herms and Saturns. The Herms and Saturns are the enigmatic
witnesses of a complex development undertaken by the artist through painting.
The canvas, colors, acids, brushes; punches are simple tools through which her
vision takes shape, revealing itself in the material nature of the work.
Seductive and enigmatic, with simplicity Ida loves to recount her constant and
passionate commitment to painting, as emerges perfectly in the splendid essay
by Luca Massimo Barbero published in the exhibition catalogue.
Above.
Ida Barbarigo - Herms 1984 - oil on canvas.
Winter
at Palazzo Fortuny – Ida Barbarigo – Herms and Saturns
Ida Barbarigo
– Saturns 1998
Oil
on canvas
