until Sunday February 08 2026

Musée Cognacq-Jay
8 Rue Elzévir
75003 Paris
France

Contact
T : +33 01 40 27 07 21
https://www.museecognacqjay.paris.fr

The exhibition offers a unique dialogue between Agnès Thurnauer's contemporary work and 18th-century art, shedding new light on this period and highlighting its current resonance. The artist engaged in correspondence with masters such as François Boucher, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto, and emblematic female figures: Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Angelica Kauffmann, as well as writers and scientists such as Madame de Staël and Émilie du Châtelet.

In the 18th century, although the status of women artists was ambiguous, some from privileged backgrounds managed to establish themselves in the artistic world. Labille-Guiard and Vigée-Lebrun, in particular, were admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture in 1783, and a growing number of women artists exhibited at the Salons, joined renowned studios, and taught in their own right.

The exhibition also explores writing as a tool for emancipation, with works depicting women creators and theorists. These pieces, confronted with contemporary issues, reveal an original and particularly invigorating interpretation of Enlightenment art.

This carte blanche thus invites us to rediscover women's contributions to art history and thought, while opening a fruitful dialogue between past and present.