Drawings by Gilles-Marie Oppenord in the Hermitage Collection

On 23 June 2006 an exhibition opened in the Twelve-Column Hall of the Winter Palace featuring 50 works by one of the best draftsmen of 18th century France.

The Hermitage collection of works by Gilles-Marie Oppenord (1672 - 1742) reflects the great variety of interests of the maitre and includes nearly all of his favorite themes and most typical examples of his oeuvre. Among them are innumerable variations on themes of fountains and grottos in which one can sense the influence of the Italian Baroque. In Oppenord's drawings there are endless variations on lion masks and the heads of dolphins, profiles in medallions and busts of winged women, mascarons and shells in the form of separate free inserts and treillages.

Here we see sheets of graphic art illustrating elements of church and theatre decoration; the plans for staging festivities; designs of tomb monuments, objects of applied art and furniture; drawings for wooden panels and tapestries; and all forms of interior decorating, the decoration of carriages, independent ornamental compositions and elements of book designs.

This monographic exhibition of the maitre will acquaint visitors not only with the undisputed drawings of the artist but also with those works that have raised doubts and even with copies whose publication and reproduction can be useful for further research.

The exhibition also presents collections of engravings done on the basis of Oppenord drawings. The overwhelming majority of these works will be totally new to the visitor.

On the occasion of this exhibition, the State Hermitage Publishing House has prepared a full scholarly catalogue of the Hermitage collection of works by Gilles-Marie Oppenord which comprises 67 works. The author of the catalogue and curator of the exhibition is V.G. Shevchenko, senior researcher in the State Hermitage's Department of Western European art.

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At the opening ceremony of the exhibition

At the exhibition

The exhibition catalogue