VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents MFAH December Gallery Conversation: Unseen Evidence: Beneath the Surface of Rousseau´s The Eiffel Tower, Saturday, December 11, at 2:30 p.m. at the Audrey Jones Beck Building American General Conference Room.

Presented by:
Wynne Phelan, Director of Conservation, MFAH
Dr. Anikó Bezur, The Andrew W. Mellon Research Scientist at the MFAH and the Menil Collection
Andrea Guidi di Bagno, Chief Paintings Conservator, MFAH

Henri Rousseau once declared to Pablo Picasso, his good friend and ardent supporter, We are the two greatest painters of this era: you in the Egyptian style and I in the modern style! Rousseau´s painting, The Eiffel Tower, (detail pictured) in the Audrey Jones Beck Collection at the MFAH exemplifies the conscious sense of naïveté he deliberately maintained in his art, a quality that belies his willful manipulation of reality.

The painting has raised many questions. In search of answers, the museum´s conservators probed beneath the surface of the paint for answers, only to find that the work yielded even more mysteries. For the December Gallery Conversation, the museum´s conservation staff will take the painting off the gallery wall, un-frame it, and bring it into the conference room for this richly illustrated special presentation and discussion of their findings.

Please ask the Security Guard in the lobby of the Beck Building to direct you to the staff elevator; then follow the signs to the American General Conference Room. This program is open to the public and free with general museum admission. Museum members always receive free admission.