Histoires de familles

« Histoires de familles »

Exhibition from March 15 to July 18, 2027

Framed by the Civil Code, championed by the bourgeoisie, traversed by the first feminist wave, and shaken by the romantic transformations of the couple, the family in the nineteenth century is a prime observatory of the tensions within modern French society.

Artists and photographers — professional or amateur — offer representations that are at times idealized, at times critical, and often ambiguous.

Whether studio portraits or snapshots captured live, genre scenes or tableaux vivants, photographs depicting families are always somewhat performative. By showing and narrating the family, they reinforce it in return.

Curators: Servane Dargnies, Chief Curator of Paintings; Marie Robert, Chief Curator of Photography and Film