Images of Épinal: Educational and Entertaining!
Hull, Quebec, January 30, 1997 — Beginning January 31, the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) will present a magnificent exhibition from the Musée du Québec. Images of Épinal: The Golden Age of Popular Imagery in France showcases childhood images from religion, fairytales and legends to paper theatre, Pierrots and Colombines, and the Napoleonic era. Images of Épinal includes 170 works and will be in The Gallery of the CMC from January 31 to April 27, 1997.
The expression images d'Épinal has long been part of French vocabulary. But who knows its origin? Who knows that Épinal is a small town nestled in the French Vosges, and that Épinal prints have been produced and disseminated worldwide by a modest family firm, the Fabrique Pellerin, in Épinal? In the modern sense, an Épinal print is a popular image, recognized the world over. The imagery is associated with portrayals of historical characters and events, legends, popular rhymes or songs, all engraved on wood or lithographed, and touched up by hand-stencilled bright colours.
The exhibition includes over 170 works and documents from the Musée départemental d'art ancien et contemporain d'Épinal, grouped according to four themes: Épinal as a place, trade, and type of imagery; religious and secular prints; paper armies; and a mini-museum for children, the exhibition's main component. Visitors will become reacquainted with the games they loved as youngsters - construction games, snakes and ladders, and Punch and Judy marionettes. The young and young-at-heart will be able to play with several of the games, reproduced especially for the exhibition.
"This exhibition is certain to please the whole family. In fact, both parents and grandparents will be delighted by the images of their childhood. As for the little ones, they'll benefit from their elders' memories," states Dr. George F. MacDonald, President and Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. Not only will this exhibition delight and entertain, it will also provide an overview of a particular aspect of French history.
Images of Épinal introduces visitors to a fascinating, vital art form that, though often demoted to the rank of popular imagery, nonetheless remains one of the most valuable testimonies to traditional print dissemination, an ongoing look at a society whose time has come and gone, yet continues to be amazingly relevant. Each Épinal image, therefore, relates several stories, including the saga of a unique business undertaking.
Images of Épinal was presented at the Musée du Québec from September 13 to February 11, 1996 and at the Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, from November 1, 1996 to January 5, 1997. It will be presented at the Elvehjem Museum of Art, Wisconsin-Madison University, from September 6 to November 30, 1997. Its tour will end at the Musée départemental d'art ancien et contemporain d'Épinal in France, where it will be shown from April to June 1998.
Images of Épinal: The Golden Age of Popular Imagery in France at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull from January 31 to April 27, 1997 in The Gallery.
The Images of Épinal exhibition was developed and circulated by the Musée du Québec, in partnership with the Musée départemental d'art ancien et contemporain d'Épinal with the support of the Canada-France agreement under Heritage Canada.
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