Courtesy the American Federation of Arts and the Chrysler Museum of Art.
Have a taste of the French countryside and a look into the hunger and opulence that shaped it with the Cincinnati Art Museum’s newest exhibition. Farm to Table: Food and Identity in the Age of Impressionism features works by renowned artists such as Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin.
Today, thoughts of France evoke images of delicacies, from croissants to macarons. However, during a tumultuous time in history, it became the forefront of the nation’s challenges.
Organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Chrysler Museum of Art, this traveling exhibition invites viewers to explore the history of French cuisine, beginning in the 1870s.
“People in the 19th century talked about food being central to French identity,” says exhibition curator Andrew Eschelbacher. “And so when there’s a food crisis, it overwhelms, because if that’s core to your identity, and then you don’t have it anymore, what does that mean for you as a nation?”
Courtesy the American Federation of Arts and the Chrysler Museum of Art.
Through wars and famine, food touches every aspect of French society. Impressionism emerged during this period as a way to capture the fleeting moments of everyday life. This is integral to the exhibition’s theme, where swift brush strokes, like a glossy veneer, veil the true nature of France’s sociopolitical state. Those on the fringes of society worked tirelessly on farms, while others dined in lush gardens.
“This is an age where artists were really pushed to explore the art of the everyday,” Eschelbacher says. “And what’s more everyday life than food? [It] is so universal that whether you’re in a period of privation, or you’re in a period of bounty, you all have to eat to survive.”
This contradiction between scarcity and abundance is evident in the gallery’s setup. On one side of the exhibition lives paintings depicting peasant life. Harried girls in homespun dresses harvest wheat, their ruddy faces burned by the sun. Shepherds herd their sheep, light glinting off the white fur.
On the other side of the gallery reside the ostentatious dresses and feathered hats of the French upper class. Still lives of leftover dessert show hordes of fruit spilling over glass bowls, complete with puffy pastries. Scenes of Parisian restaurants evoke the sound of laughter as gentlemen puff their cigars, the wisps of smoke vanishing into the canvas.
Courtesy the American Federation of Arts and the Chrysler Museum of Art.
Some artworks in the exhibition are from the Cincinnati Art Museum’s collection itself. A Paul Cézanne painting of bread fits right into this period, giving viewers a new context to the piece.
“Every time that we have the opportunity to display the works in our collection in a different way, you almost see something new,” says Peter Bell, curator of European paintings, sculpture, and drawings at the Cincinnati Art Museum. “You appreciate the collection in a different way.”
While it tells a story of identity in 19th-century France, some themes of the exhibition remain relevant today. As discussions of widening wealth gaps, rising food prices, and national identity intensify in America, the exhibition’s exploration of labor and luxury, scarcity and surplus, feels familiar.
Courtesy the American Federation of Arts and the Chrysler Museum of Art.
“France, like the United States, has had this long history of self-definition, and through revolution, through imperialism, we have a lot of similarities that way,” Bell says. “I think one could easily argue that we’re in another moment here now, in this country, of grappling with what it means to be a people and to be a nation.”
Farm to Table: Food and Identity in the Age of Impressionism will be on view until September 21 in the Western & Southern Galleries. Although ticketed, the exhibit is free on Thursdays after 5 p.m. Tickets also grant access to Cycle Thru! The Art of the Bike.
The exhibition is also free at Art After Dark on June 27 from 5-9 p.m. The reimagined title, From Farm to Fierce, is part of the museum’s celebration of Pride Month.
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