Document sans nom

The Mariette Association for promotion of french drawing

The Mariette Association has been created on the 3rd of december 2005 with the publication at the "Journal Officiel" (137ème année, n° 49, annonce n° 1346). This association aims to promote french drawing, collectors, data collection, the drafting(editorial staff) of catalogs and particularly the study of the collection Mariette.

The collection of graphic art of this big amateur of the XVIIIth century when was Pierre-Jean Mariette ( 1694-1774 ) is the first subject of studies of the Association, which intends to reconstitute her(it) and to publish the reasoned catalog. Not less than 8000 drawings are listed in the catalog of the sale after death(deaths) of Mariette in 1775 in Paris. The museum of Fine Arts of Boston en conserve a copy illustrated in the margins by Gabriel de Saint Aubin ( 1724-1780 ). The Mariette association, in agreement with the MFA suggests publishing faculty similé.

The office(desk) of the association is at present steered by Pierre Rosenberg, of the French Academy, assisted with its task by Benjamin Perronnet, secretary of the association as well as by Laure Barthélemy loaded(charged) with the reconstruction of the collection of drawings and by Karen Chastagnol as treasurer.

Interview of Pierre Rosenberg, from the Académie française, President of the Mariette Association (février 2006)

Since the remarkable exhibition(exposure) "Pierre-Jean Mariette" of 1967 of the museum of the Louvre, steered by Roseline Baccou and Françoise Viatte, no project of publication of a catalog reasoned by its collection did not have been able to be realized. Thanks to our sponsors, we began this immense and tremendous work of inventory of one of the most famous collections of graphic art which existed.

Pierre-Jean Mariette was not only a collector but also above all a historian of art in the modern sense(direction) of the term: he(it) was interested in the history of details(rooms), in their state of preservation(conservation) as well as in their restoration. Of a ciritique eye, he(it) tried to replace each of her in his(its) context. He(It) considered the domain of the engraving so important as the paint(painting) or the sculpture to understand(include) the evolution of the art. He wrote on this subject a history(story) of the engraving which was published regrettably never in his lifetime and which is known under the name of Abecedario today. In the XIXth century, Jean-Baptist Chennevières published it extracts of the manuscript kept(preserved) in the National Library of France.

Man of the century of the Lights, Pierre-Jean Mariette was Pierre Crozat's close, himself celebrate collector, of Rosalba Carriera, the count of Caylus with whom he published among others a Treaty of gems. His(her,its) intellience got involved in a deep curiosity for all the arts. He(it) corresponded with historians and collectors of Europe whole as A.M. Zanetti.

Pierre-Jean Mariette is one of represent the most important for the history of European art so much its research work is precious by its rigour and its wealth. It is thus with the big pleasure which we put in the work.

Generous Beaux-Arts patrons in the beginning of the project

The Mariette Association would not have been created without the support of generous fine art bosses: Jean Bonna, Noëlle Meyer, Jayne Wrightsman and the Tavolozza through the intervention of Katrin Bellinger-Henkel foundation.

We are anxious to thnak them for it again.

Promoting French drawing

The publication of the catalog reasoned by the collection of drawings Mariette is the first objective of the association.

In reference to the enormous work which the big amateur Pierre-Jean Mariette brought to the art history, the association decides to join more generally a step(initiative) of development of the French drawing.