Exhibition En forêt in the Mathurin Méheut Museum in Lamballe

The Mathurin Méheut Museum (Côtes d’Armor) presents, from April 6, 2019 to January 4, 2020, a thematic exhibition on the undergrowth and forest studies the naturalist painter realized for the french publisher Albert Lévy.

In love with nature, Mathurin Méheut became interested in forest early on. On the September 17, 1915, from the trenches, the painter wrote a few words to his wife in which he expresses his admiration for the forests: “I was looking the many wonders of the forest in autumn, my artistic heart swelled… you have no idea, my dear wife, how wonderful are the tree trunks, the undergrowth, the fauna and flora, it is a pure enchantment.” A few years later, Mathurin Méheut has been asked to illustrate Étude de la forêt which is published in 1927 by Albert Lévy. Especially sensitive to the beauty of the forest landscapes painted by Mathurin Méheut, the Groupe Charlois acquired in 2017 an original edition of this book dedicated to trees and forests.

This remarkable book, including 110 plates in two volumes, is the starting point of the subject of the exhibition presented in the Mathurin Méheut Museum. The visit tour is also punctuated with works of contemporary artists as Nils-Udo, Tomohide Kameyama, Sylvain Le Corre, Eunji Peignard-Kim and Agnès Prévost inviting visitors to consider the dialogue between those contemporary works and the paintings of Mathurin Méheut.

Visuel : Mathurin Méheut, Hiver, 1927 © Adagp, Paris 2019