The Theater of Emotions, the exhibition at the Musée Marmottan Monet – Our pictures

Anger, boredom, joy, surprise, desire, fear, excitement… Equipped with their brushes and colors, painters from the modern times tried to represented all the shades of the human soul through the emotions. From April 13 to August 21, 2022, the musée Marmottan Monet offers you to come and admire the The Theater of Emotions, through an exclusive exhibition.

The museum gathered 70 works of art coming from different European and American museums, paintings made from the 15^th to 20^th centuries by the greatest artists of this time. The route of the exhibition shines a light on artistry by Charles Lebrun, Cesare Ripa, Courbet, Dali, Picasso, La Tour, Greuze, Dürer…

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This is through art Men manages to identify emotions, put words on what they feel and what people around can feel as well. Over the course of centuries, the way to represent emotions evolves.

The exhibition unveils the esthetic codes that defined the way one painted sadness or happiness. Codes have changed with the arrival of photography, psychiatry, as well as the rise of different art movements. Naturalist, symbolic and abstract artists did not work the same way and did not have the same goal.

Works displayed first show a will to represent as loyally as possible subtle shades of emotions that can be read in the eyes, face traits, body movements. Then, the goal is to unveil the inner torments, deep changes in men and women. The most modern painters look to spark emotions; the feeling must show through the painting.

From laughter to tears, from fear to boredom, from madness to reverie, painters and sculptors of all times have tried to understand and represent human emotions. The exhibition at the Musée Marmottan Monet gives us to look at all these works with an almost scientific impact. The route makes a loop: from the first timid tries in painting, one experiences multiple strong emotions, before falling back into the emotions erased by the tragedies of the 20^th century.

The “The Theater of the Emotions” exhibition invites us to dive into the great swirl of human emotions to discover how the eastern psychism slowly changed since the 15^th century. Come and enjoy this experience now!