In August 2012, the Ashmolean made one of the most important acquisitions in the Museum's long history, saving for the nation Édouard Manet's Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus (1868).
Lead support was provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) which gave a grant towards the acquisition; to support a tour of the painting to museums and galleries around the country; and a series of education and community based projects to widen access to the painting.
The final project in this series consists of new work by artists brook & black. In the Impressionist gallery the artists explore the themes of the painting and the life of Fanny Claus, the tragic subject of Manet's portrait. Mlle Claus (1846–77) was the closest friend of Manet's wife Suzanne Leenhoff. A concert violinist and member of the first all-women string quartet, Fanny was one of Manet's favourite sitters. She married the artist Pierre Prins (1838–1913) in 1869 and Manet was a witness at their wedding; but she died of tuberculosis just eight years later at the age of 30, leaving behind her husband and her young son, Lucien Emile Pierre Prins (1870–1945).
In brook & black's film, Sophie Prins-Gapinski the great-great granddaughter of Fanny Claus, who lives and works as an artist in Paris today, reads an account written by her great-grandfather of the visit he made to Manet's studio with his grief-stricken father shortly after Fanny’s death. It recounts the conversation they had with Manet as they looked at his mother’s portrait.
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Since acquiring the painting in 2012, the Ashmolean has worked with community groups to introduce them to the Manet and to get their responses to the work. The people who have taken part in the programme have come from:
Meadowbrook College Pupil Referral and Integration Unit (more info here)
Oxfordshire Hospital School (more info here)
The Roundabout Children's Centre (more info here)
In Beyond the Balcony, brook & black have worked with members of Oxfordshire Mind and Young Dementia UK and the Ashmolean's Education and Outreach team.
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In a series of artist-led workshops, participants used Manet's painting to inspire individual 'vignettes’ realised in collage, text, film and sound. In these workshops, the structure of the painting stood for an individual’s past, present and future, progressing from the interior of the room, to the balcony and off into the view beyond the canvas. Using this metaphor, participants collaborated on artworks showing themselves on the balcony and sharing their own views on life.
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With thanks to:
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)
brook & black
Arts partnership brook & black was established in 2003 by Leora Brook and Tiffany Black. They work with different media (video, printmaking, photography and sculpture) on public commissions, exhibitions and community based projects. They have exhibited across the UK and abroad with works at the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, France (2011); and at the Wallace Collection, London (2007). Leora Brook is an Associate Lecturer at Camberwell College of Arts, London and a Lecturer at Regent's University London. Tiffany Black is a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University.
Further Information:
Claire Parris, Press Officer | claire.parris@ashmus.ox.ac.uk | 01865 278 178
Download the press release here
