A Tale of Three Cities: Monet in Rouen, London and Venice
TALK
THURS 10 OCT AT 6PM
Professor Richard Thomson FRSE, Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art (1996-2018), University of Edinburgh.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of painter Claude Monet (1840–1926). To commemorate this occasion, Professor Richard Thomson will present a lecture on behalf of the the Society of Friends of the Institut français d’Écosse.
In his fifties and sixties, Claude Monet (1840-1926) painted in three very different cities. His work in Rouen concentrated on the great medieval cathedral, culminating in an exhibition in 1895. Several campaigns in London focussed on the extraordinary light effects of the industrially polluted atmosphere, and were exhibited in 1904. During his 1908 trip to Venice he painted famous sites as well as back canals, showing the series four years later. Together his paintings of the three cities show fascinating and contrasting aspects of this great painter’s work, which will be discussed in the wider context of the period with some comparison to other painters.
Tickets: Members free; Non-members £7. Advance booking recommended at www.ifecosse.org .
Location: Institut français d’Écosse W Parliament Sq, Edinburgh EH1 1RN
Sir Ian Rankin in Conversation with Professor Siân Reynolds
PAST EVENT (THURS 4 JUNE AT 6PM)
As a fund-raising event our patron, Sir Ian Rankin, kindly agreed to take part in an informal discussion about translation with Professor Siân Reynolds as his interlocutor and literary agent Jenny Brown in the chair. With over a million Francophone readers, no fewer than ten different translators have been involved in translating the Rebus novels into French. But from his experience of working in France and attending conferences worldwide, Sir Ian noted an imbalance, with patchy reciprocal willingness to translate foreign language crime fiction into English. Siân brought to bear her fascinating experience as translator of Georges Simenon and Fred Vargas from French into English. Touching on what was gained and lost in translation, and how poorly remunerated translation is, we heard about the degree of control and interaction between translator and author. There were some amusing anecdotes about differences, misunderstandings and mistakes relating to demotic speech, idiosyncratic parlance or local knowledge. The audience of 60 strong, including some new to the Institut français d’Ecosse, had an enlightening and enjoyable evening and a total of over £800 was raised towards the cultural programmes of the IFE. Our heartfelt thanks to all the participants.
‘Engraved on Man’s Skin’: The Auld Alliance, Much More than a Military Alliance
TALK
PAST EVENT (THURS 23 OCT AT 3PM)
‘For this bond was not written on parchment but engraved on the living flesh of man’s skin, not in ink but with their mixed blood.’
As the Society of Friends’ contribution to the various Auld Alliance celebrations held at and around the Institut on Thursday 23rd October, we invited art historian Dr Bryony Coombs to give a lecture drawn from the subject of her book. Her lecture,’“Engraved on Man’s Skin”: The Auld Alliance, Much More than a Military Alliance’, introduced us to four representative figures from the early modern period whose lives and patronage of the arts gave valuable insights into the workings of this ancient Franco-Scottish alliance at the political, military, religious, or dynastic level. It was well attended (around 50), and the questions and buzz of chat afterwards showed how appreciative the audience was. Our thanks to Bryony, whose focused topic admirably complimented the historical sweep of the lecture that followed by Professor Clarisse Godard-Desmarest, President of the Association franco-écossaise, France.
Dr Bryony Coombs is Renaissance Teaching Fellow at The University of Edinburgh lecturing on the art of the northern Renaissance. Her first monograph entitled, Visual Arts and the Auld Alliance: Scotland, France and National Identity c.1420-1550 was published by Edinburgh University Press in September 2024 and has been shortlisted for the Berger Prize.
Location: Institut français d’Écosse W Parliament Sq, Edinburgh EH1 1RN
From Toulouse to Saint Tropez: regional painters and visiting painters, 1885-1905
TALK
PAST EVENT (THURS 29 MAY AT 6PM)
Richard Thomson was Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art (1996-2018) at the University of Edinburgh, to which he remains attached in retirement. He has published widely on late 19th century French art, his most recent book being The Presence of the Past. Modernity and Continuity in French Art, 1870-1905 (2021). He has also curated many exhibitions in Britain and abroad, including the major retrospectives on Toulouse-Lautrec (1992) and Monet (2010-11) at the Grand Palais, Paris.
His lecture will cover the ‘discovery’ of the Midi and the Mediterranean coastline at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries by painters, a process made possible by the spread of the railways. He will set that against the often rather little-known work being done by painters native to Provence and the Languedoc, showing the quality of their art. The lecture will cover well-known figures such as Paul Cezanne and Paul Signac and unfamiliar ones such as Henri Martin and Achille Laugé. It will explore tensions between Paris and the regions, interplay between artists from north and south, and the often arresting (and sometimes amusing) results that arose.