Art Of The Day Weekly
#474 - from 25 May 2017 to 31 May 2017
Hokusai, Under the wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave) from Thirty-six views of Mt Fuji. Colour woodblock, 1831. Acquisition supported by the Art Fund. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
EXHIBITIONS
Madame de Sévigné, glory through letters
GRIGNAN – Here is an exhibition that allows us to quench our distaste for certain present things without paying too much: Madame de Sévigné! This lady, who was born in Paris at place Royale (which later would become place des Vosges) in 1626 under the reign of Charles XIII and died at Grignan in Provence in 1696, survives three centuries later through the sole grace of her letters. She wrote over one thousand, mainly to her daughter by unveiling her heart of a loving mother full of good thoughts. After most of us sit bent over our keyboards day and night, producing thousands of e-mails, who will take the time to read us 350 years from now, and to savour our expressions, our wording, and our passions? We can only hope someone will keep the hard disks. The exhibition is held at her son-in law’s castle, where she herself passed away. It shows some of her letters, her amazing writing utensils including drying powder, pen sharpener, scissors for parchment, as well as paintings, engravings and objets d’art, wrapping up all the myth born around this correspondence of which nothing was published during her life.
• Sévigné, épistolière du Grand Siècle at the château de Grignan, from 25 May to 22 October 2017.