VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens presents the Carol and Les Ballard Lecture Series:  Furnishing Louisiana: Creole and Acadian Furniture 1735–1835, Tuesday, November  8, at 6:30pm, at the Caroline Wiess Law Building, Brown Auditorium. Presented by H. Parrott Bacot, professor emeritus of art history, Louisiana State University, and former director/curator of the LSU Museum of Art

Twice yearly, Bayou Bend presents a remarkable opportunity to hear renowned scholars speak about interesting and important aspects of American decorative and fine arts.

The book Furnishing Louisiana: Creole and Acadian Furniture 1735–1835 is the first comprehensive examination of the Colonial and Federal period furniture made in the vast Mississippi River Valley. This lecture focuses on those objects made within the borders of the present state of Louisiana. The talk moves from the early Colonial pieces, which reflect strong French and French Canadian influences, to the acculturated objects dating from the late 18th and early 19th centuries that exhibit the blending of French, Spanish, Anglo-American and West Indian traditions in a fresh Creole style. The achievements of the more modest Acadians of southwestern Louisiana will not be ignored.

H. Parrrott Bacot earned his BA from Baylor University and his MA as a Fellow of the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of New York. He is a Fellow of the Attingham Park Summer School in Great Britain. For 37 years he served as curator and director of the LSU Museum of Art and professor of the history of art. He is the author of "Nineteenth-Century Lighting: The Candle-Powered Devices, 1783–1883" and co-author of "Natchez-Made Silver," "Crescent City Silver," and, with his wife, Barbara, "Marie Adrien Persac: Louisiana Artist." He is the principal co-author, with Jack D. Holden, of "Furnishing Louisiana." He has written numerous exhibition catalogues and articles for journals such as "The Magazine Antiques"; served as an adviser to historic house museums in Louisiana and Mississippi; and spoken at major antiques forums such as Colonial Williamsburg. This lecture marks his third presentation for the MFAH.

Pictured:  American, Low Slat-back Side Chair, 1790–1810, various undetermined woods. The Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Mrs. James Anderson, Jr.