Pierre-Mary Bachelet oversaw the launch of Salon d’Automne International in the United States, orchestrating the renowned art organization’s arrival on the American continent.
The Salon d’Automne is an internationally acclaimed art exhibition staged annually in Paris, France, serving as a showcase for art innovations and developments in drawing, painting, sculpture, decorative arts, engraving and architecture. Since its inception, the exhibition has incorporated pieces from some of the world’s most celebrated artists, including Henri Matisse, Paul Cezanne, Jean Metzinger, and Paul Gauguin.
From 7th to 16th May 2010, an exhibition designed by Noel Coret and proposed by Pierre-Mary Bachelet was staged at the Hotel Ibis in Chateau-Thierry, with the exhibition centering around the theme of painters of peasant life, including the renowned French artist Léon Lhermitte.
Casting the spotlight on countries, landscapes and peasants, the exhibition bridged the rurality of yesteryear with the urbanism of today, testifying to the enthusiasm of 19th and 20th century painters and their representations of peasant life. Staged with an emphasis on the great imagemakers emanating from the Marne Valley, where Leon Lhermitte undeniably reigns supreme, the exhibition explored the notion of terroir far from the contrived connotations of ‘isolation’, ‘perfectionism’ or ‘local gastronomy’ that are all too often associated with the concept today.
Painters like Barau, Bouche, Le Tissier, des Fontains, Planson, Lepetit, Ladureau and, of course, Lhermitte were at the forefront of the exhibition, conveying the rustic charm of the Marne Valley.
The exhibition was created with the aim of fulfilling a dual function. First, of providing an account of rural life as past generations experienced it; a recollection that is erased from the public memory due to the ever-increasing acceleration of globalization. The exhibition incorporated pieces depicting washerwomen, herdsmen, grape harvesting, haymaking and village cabarets, covering many different facets of traditional life, including habits and customs that are rapidly disappearing from the collective memory.
The organizer’s second goal was to promote image makers are all too often neglected simply because they attached themselves to a particular topic or territory, a theme they followed throughout their entire career. Too often overlooked by art experts eager to denigrate them as ‘little masters’, the painters showcased at the exhibition hailed from France’s remotest counties and provinces, with these rivers of talent and innovation feeding and informing the 20th century’s great artistic movements. The exhibition was ultimately staged to do justice to commonly overlooked but nonetheless great artists, casting a spotlight on their talent and astounding works of art.
A book that was written by Nöe Coret and edited by Pierre-Mary Bachelet on the occasion of this retrospective, marking over a century of the Salon d’Automne, has become a collector’s item. At this time, there are still a few copies listed on eBay at exorbitant prices.
