17th-19th French furniture exhibition at MNAR

Bucharest – An exhibition of furniture from the French regions of Provence, Normandy and Bretagne will open at the National Museum Art of Romania (NMAR) today, an event occasioned by the International Museum Day.
The exhibit brings to visitor attention 13 pieces of French regional furniture from between the 17th and the 19th century, the museum informs.


They belong to a special category of furniture and have never been displayed before. The MNAR has presented before furniture items from France, Italy, Austria and Russia in temporary exhibits, and even a permanent exhibition of the kind.
The exhibit of French provincial furniture from Provence, Normandy and Bretagne sets out to illustrate that creativity, imagination, beauty and the celebrated styles had not been attributes of Paris only, but of entire France. Regional furniture is strongly linked to the environment to which they belong, due to their functional role and their ability to express local specifics. The furniture includes rudimentary pieces but also some complex and richly decorated ones, folksy alternatives of established styles.
Provence is the French province best represented in the exhibition, given that region had been, starting from the 18th century, home to one of France’s most picturesque and lively styles. The main centre was set in the Provence capital of Arles. The typically Provence style is flowery, with fine and densely sculptured arched lines and many vegetal elements, including leaves and flowers.
The Upper Normandy, which is closer to Paris, and its styles, felt Paris’s influence a lot stronger than the Lower Normandy, which was more conservatory.
Unlike Normandy and Provence where borrowings are obvious from Paris’s Louis XV and Louis XVI furniture styles, Bretagne maintained for a long time a traditional furniture style characterised by massive forms and straight lines. The exhibition runs through July 1.
by Alex Elias