Books
LES MODERNES, la peinture à La Réunion de 1925 à 1946
Colombe Couëlle, Bernard Leveneur
Les années de 1925 à 1946 ont été déterminantes pour l'essor artistique de La Réunion. Les peintres de l'époque, appelés les "Modernes", sont des artistes locaux mais aussi des peintres voyageurs.
Cet ouvrage propose de découvrir la richesse de ce patrimoine, regroupant un ensemble d'oeuvres méconnues du public. Conservées dans les réserves du musée Léon Dierx et dans les collections du musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chrirac, appartenant à des collections privées ou dispersées dans les familles des artistes, elles composent un ensemble homogène sur les paysages de l'île.
L'ouvrage, illustré de nombreuses photographies d'archives et des oeuvres majeures, met en lumière ces artistes et leur travail, témoignant de la vitalité de la création artistique à cette époque et contribuant à l'écriture renouvelée, enrichie et nécessaire d'une histoire de l'art moderne réunionnaise.
Bordeaux : Éditions Hervé Chopin, 2023
Publié en partenariat avec le Conseil départemental de La Réunion et le musée Léon Dierx
191 p.
Prix : 20€
ISBN 9782357207677
Musée LÉON DIERX, île de La Réunion
Créé en 1912 à l’initiative des écrivains réunionnais Marius-Ary Leblond, pseudonyme littéraire de Georges Athénas et Aimé Merlo, le musée Léon Dierx présente un panorama des innovations picturales de la seconde moitié du 19e siècle en France et un parcours concernant l’histoire de l’art à La Réunion.
Cette dualité est assurément l’un des traits distinctifs des fonds du musée dès son origine.
Consacré à l’art mais aussi à l’histoire à ses débuts, le musée affirme sa vocation beaux-arts en 1947 avec la donation d’une partie des œuvres rassemblées par Ambroise Vollard, né à La Réunion. Le nom de ce célèbre marchand d’art contribue à la renommée internationale de l’institution.
Les fonds constitutifs, la donation Vollard et les enrichissements réalisés depuis plus d’un siècle sous l’égide du Département de La Réunion, font du musée Léon Dierx le premier musée beaux-arts des outre-mers français et la première collection impressionniste en dehors du territoire métropolitain.
Saint-Denis (Réunion) : Musée Léon Dierx, 2022
151 p.
Prix : 20€
ISBN 978-2-490171-13-2
Résonances, le musée du Louvre à La Réunion
Xavier Salmon, Brigitte Donon, Laurent Hoarau, Jean Barbier, Agnès Jean-Jacques, Anne-Laure Garaïos, Bernard Leveneur, Sonia Ribes-Beaudemoulin
Du 17 juillet au 15 octobre 2021, le département des Arts graphiques du musée du Louvre et cinq musées de La Réunion ont proposé une exposition déclinée dans cinq lieux différents de l'île.
C'est la première fois que le musée du Louvre organisait une telle manifestation dans les Outre-mer. Cette exposition déclinée en cinq volets a permis de faire dialoguer les collections des cinq musées de l’île (Muséum d’histoire naturelle, musée de Villèle, musée des Arts décoratifs de l’océan Indien, musée Léon Dierx, musée Stella Matutina) avec celles du département des Arts graphiques. Dans chacun des lieux retenus, une thématique différente est développée.
Ce catalogue unique qui permet au visiteur de passer de lieu en lieu, est le résultat d’une collaboration étroite entre les équipes scientifiques des musées de La Réunion et celle du département des Arts graphiques du musée du Louvre.
Saint-Gilles-les-Bains (Réunion) : Éditions Quatre épices, 2021
287 p.
Prix : 20€
EAN 9782956127710
At the heart of an island : the mountain areas of Reunion in the 19th century
Christian Germanaz, Bernard Leveneur, Leon-Dierx art gallery, National Park of Reunion
In the 19th century, artists started to explore the mountain areas of Reunion, leaving the first artistic traces of these areas, unique in the Mascareignes archipelago. River gorges, panoramas of the island’s cirques and the high plains, as well as the Volcano, were the most popular subjects and revealed the beauty of the island to Europeans. This catalogue presents a selection of the iconographic memory of the mountain areas of Reunion from the 1800s to the 1880s: drawings, paintings, lithographs and photographs present the heart and identity of Reunion island.
Catalogue of the exhibition, Saint-Denis, Léon Dierx art gallery, 16thSeptember 2017-1st April 2018
Saint-Denis (Réunion) : Published by Leon-Dierx art gallery, 2017
155 p.
Price : 20€
Ambroise Vollard, a remarkable gift
Fabienne Jonca, Bernard Leveneur
Ambroise Vollard, who was born in Reunion in 1866 and died in mainland France on the eve of the Second World War, had a decisive influence on late 19th and early 20thcentury art.
Vollard was a multifaceted personality. A man of art, all the arts, Vollard was at the same time art dealer, publisher of art books and writer. His gallery became the meeting place for all the important European and American collectors.
After his death in an accident in 1939, in 1947, his younger brother Lucien Vollard donated some of the works he had inherited to the Léon-Dierx museum, from then on a fully-fledged art gallery.
To mark the 70thanniversary of the Vollard donation to the Leon-Dierx art gallery, this work traces the development of a Reunionese who shared his talent with the island, even though he never returned here.
Saint-Gilles-les-Bains (Réunion) : Published by Éditions Quatre épices, 2017
215 p.
Price : 37€
Text in french
From Manet to Picasso: treasures of the Johannesburg art gallery and Léon-Dierx art gallery
Claude Allemand-Cosneau, Bernard Leveneur, Leon-Dierx art gallery
Collaborator : Johannesburg art gallery
Making up a unique collection in this part of the world, the collections of French art from the second half of the 19th century and the early 20thcentury housed by the Leon-Dierx art gallery in Reunion and the Johannesburg Art Gallery in South Africa were brought together for the first time. The catalogue presents a selection of works including rare original etchings by renowned artists who over half a century developed a new approach to representing the world by rejecting the codes of 19thcentury academic tradition.
Catalogue of the exhibition, Saint-Denis, Reunion, Leon-Dierx art gallery, 25th November 2016 - 4th June 2017
160 p.
Saint-Denis (Réunion) : Published by Leon-Dierx art gallery, 2016
Price : 20€
Text in french
Adèle Ferrand : a woman painter during the Romantic period
Claude Allemand-Cosneau, Leon-Dierx art gallery
This catalogue presents the development of this woman painter from the town of Nancy, where she was born, to Paris, where she became known in artistic circles, then in Saint-Pierre on Reunion island, where she died prematurely. In 1922, the Leon-Dierx art gallery received an important donation from Herve Le Coat de Kerveguen, Adele’s son. Over 300 works, both paintings and drawings, were added to the gallery’s collections of early 19thcentury art. The works of Adèle Ferrand reflect the innovative spirit of the Romantic period. The techniques she applied, both for portraits and for genre scenes, demonstrate her perfect mastery of drawing and use of colour.
Catalogue of the exhibition, Saint-Denis, Reunion, Leon-Dierx art gallery, 8th October 2015 to 27th March 2016
72 p.
Saint-Denis (Réunion) : Published by Leon-Dierx art gallery, 2015
Price : 10€
Text in french
Odilon Redon : sky, earth, sea
Collective
The exhibition of Odilon Redon’s work, entitled Sky, earth, sea, first of all aimed to shed new light on the work of Odilon Redon. This clearly idiosyncratic artist, often presented through his Symbolist and literary approaches, also appears to have been the repository of a double heritage which placed him at the heart of the final quarter of a century (the 19th), admittedly Symbolist and literary, but also demonstrating a curiosity for science and exploring nature in all its dimensions and peculiarities. Reunion island, where Marius-Ary Leblond, two of Odilon Redon’s friends, set up the Leon-Dierx museum in 1912, and where Camille Redon, the artist’s wife was born, offers an exceptional natural environment for examining the relationship between the artist and nature. Nature of origins, nature permanently evolving, simple immediate and coloured nature: Odilon Redon examined and recreated the universe in suspense, combining air, earth and sky.
Catalogue of the exhibition, Saint-Denis, Leon-Dierx art gallery, 12th October 2007 to 13th January 2008.
Paris : published by Reunion des Musees Nationaux and Saint-Denis (Réunion) : Leon-Dierx art gallery, 2007
224 p.
Price : 28 €
Text in french
Sens dessus dessous (Upside-down), Leon-Dierx art gallery
Collective
This publication presents the history of the art gallery, its functioning, its evolution and transformations.
Catalogue of the exhibition, Saint-Denis (Reunion, Leon-Dierx art gallery 9th March - 6th June 2007)
Saint-Denis (Réunion) : published by Leon-Dierx art gallery, 2007
121 p.
Price : 15 €
Text in french
That was Ambroise Vollard
Jean-Paul Morel
How did Ambroise Vollard a young man from Reunion arriving in Paris to study law, manage to become a billionaire art gallery owner? Jean-Paul Morel, journalist and researcher, carried out a fascinating and thoroughly documented enquiry focused on the career of the art dealer born in Reunion in 1866.
Paris : published by Edition Fayard, 2007
622 p.
Price : 19,50 €
Text in french
The Leon-Dierx art gallery, La Réunion
Collective
Catalogue presenting the history of the art gallery and its collections since its creation. An English version of the catalogue is also available.
Paris : published by BNP Paribas and Reunion des musees nationaux, and Saint-Denis (Réunion) : Leon-Dierx art gallery, 2001
119 p.
Price : 23 €
French edition & english edition
The Ambroise Vollard collection of the Leon-Dierx art gallery: the 1912 and 1947 donations
Catalogue directed by Jean-François Rebeyrotte
In 1912, Ambroise Vollard donated two paintings, signed by Valtat and Vlaminck, to the Leon Dierx museum in Saint-Denis, Reunion, which had just been opened to the public.
In 1947, Lucien Vollard, his younger brother, donated 157 works to the museum, which now became an art gallery, located in a recently created French overseas department which just one year previously was still a colony.
This publication presents the 159 works making up the Vollard collection and traces its history.
Catalogue published for the itinerant exhibition organised between October 1999 and January 2001 in New-Delhi, Mumbai, Singapore, Paris and Reims.
Paris : published by Somogy, 1999
228 p.
Price : 31 €
Text in french
