This summer, Musée Granet is devoting an original exhibition – the first of its kind – to the great Provençal Baroque painter Jean Daret (Brussels, 1614 – Aix-en-Provence, 1668).
Jean Daret painted for the most prestigious patrons of his time, including King Louis XIV and the Governor of Provence. Still, his name only became more widely known in 1978 when his work was included in an exhibition of Provençal paintings in Marseille.
That said, Jean Daret is still far from a household name. Although his paintings hang in museums in France, the United States, and Russia, in churches and cathedrals across Provence, and in private townhouses in Aix-en-Provence —the Hôtel de Châteaurenard and the Hôtel Maurel de Pontevès—his extensive body of work deserves better recognition.
The exhibition at Musée Granet is an opportunity to display an outstanding ensemble of about one hundred pieces, including the artist’s most accomplished works, oils on canvas, drawings and engravings, alongside paintings by great seventeenth-century masters, including Paris-based artist Jacques Blanchard and Provençal painters Nicolas Mignard, Reynaud Levieux and Gilles Garcin.
Jean Daret (1614-1668) and Nicasius Bernaerts (1620-1678), Hunter with his Dogs, 1661
Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris
The public will also be able to admire his works outside the museum, in the churches of towns and villages across three départements of Provence.
The show will be organized into eight themed sections, presented in chronological order, exploring each stage in the artist’s career, from his early masterpieces in “Daret: Caravaggesque painter” to his elegant and opulent genre scenes and his devotional and decorative works in the “Art Collecting” and “Decoration” sections. The exhibition will also examine the central place occupied by his religious paintings, celebrated for their sobriety and pathos, gentleness, and expressiveness, before concluding with his second stay in Paris and his final years.
This will be the first exhibition devoted to Jean Daret’s work and, more generally, to Provençal Baroque painting in many years. It will provide an opportunity to appreciate this oeuvre’s significance and highlight recent discoveries in the field.
The exhibition aims to restore Jean Daret to his rightful place in the history of seventeenth-century French painting and highlight the rich heritage of Aix-en-Provence and the surrounding region.
Curatorial team
General curator: Bruno Ely, Head Curator, Director of the Musée Granet
Specialist curator: Jane MacAvock, Specialist in the work of Jean Daret.
Executive curator: Pamela Grimaud, Heritage Curator, Head of Research and Conservation at Musée Granet
Associate curator: Pierrick Rodriguez, Curator of Historic Monuments at the DRAC CRMH.