Musée No:318.020

Musée No:318.020

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Reunion de Famille

Artist: Pierre Prud'hon
Date:1801 - 1802

    Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758 –1823) was a French Romantic painter and draughtsman best known for his allegorical paintings and portraits. He was born in Cluny, of Abbey fame, and was the thirteenth child of the family. In his biography it says that he married Jeanne at 19 and it proved to be the ‘torment of his life’, in about 1804 he had her committed to a lunatic asylum. He received his artistic training in the French provinces and went to Italy when he was twenty-six years old to continue his education. On his return to Paris, he found work decorating some private mansions. His work for wealthy Parisians led him to be held in high esteem at Napoleon's court. He painted a portrait of each of Napoleon's two wives. His painting of Josephine portrays her not as an Empress, but as a lovely, attractive woman, which led some to think that he might have been in love with her. Prud'hon was at times clearly influenced by Neo-classicism, at other times by Romanticism. Appreciated by other artists and writers such as Stendhal, Delacroix, Millet and Baudelaire for his chiaroscuro and convincing realism, he is probably most famous for his Crucifixion (1822), which now hangs in the Louvre. Following his portraits for the Emperor he became extremely successful and in 1811 he was named “Painting Professor to the Sovereign”.

    The family are the Schimmelpenninck’s, a family of the Dutch Nobility; the mother is Catharina, the father Rutger Jan, an ambassor and politician. They are accompanied by their children the 12-year-old Catharina and her 8-year-old brother Gerrit (sorry no idea for the dog's name). Rutger was appointed as the Ambassador to France and moved to Paris in 1798.  Following Napoleon’s coup d’état in1799 he became fascinated by the Emperor and he participated in the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. He saw himself as an independent negotiator between the English and French factions, in practice he wasn’t independent and had to agree with the French. In 1804, Schimmelpenninck was asked to write a new constitution for the Batavian Republic (now Holland) by Napoleon. He was then appointed Grand Pensionary to the republic in 1805, although on paper he was the republic's chief executive, in practice he had become a puppet to Napoleon.

    Borders & Mounts

    None of our prints come with separate mounts. Some have a printed border which replaces the need for a mount, and some are borderless pieces. In either case the edge to edge size of the prints is 'A' sized as stated. If you should want a mount around your print, then you just need to buy a mount for the 'A' size you choose and then a frame to go with that.

    What size frame do I need ?

    Each piece of artwork in the Musée gallery has been resized to work perfectly with International 'A' paper sizes. All you need to think about when framing your Musée artwork is that it needs to be in the appropriate A sized frame. This means that no part of your artwork will be lost to cropping when choosing frame sizes. It also means that everything will work proportionately in gallery walls, and print sets. There are many budget, off the shelf A sized frames on sites like Etsy and Ebay which we very happily recommend for our prints.

    We also now produce our own collection of high quality, professionally framed artwork, ready to hang.

    To see our collection of quality frames - CLICK HERE

    Print Quality

    Our approach to printing is built on the ability to faithfully reproduce artworks using the finest inks and papers available today. A world away from mass produced posters we take pride in producing beautiful, affordable, fine art prints in-house, for discerning interior lovers everywhere.

    Giclée Printing - In order to achieve this consistent, outstanding quality we produce every archival pigment print (alternatively know as giclée) to order using the same ink, paper and printing techniques used by museums all over the world. (Giclée is pronounced gee-clay with a soft G) Our archival giclée prints are loved for their vibrant tonal range and the handmade feel of their beautiful textured papers. The quality of a giclée print is far superior to all other forms of printing and when done authentically it is the closest reproduction printing method possible for matching to an original artwork.

    Acid Free Paper - Each piece of Musée Art is printed to order on 312 GSM Paper. GSM is a measurement of the thickness of the paper. It is based on calculating the amount a sheet of paper would weigh, in grams, if it was exactly one square metre in size. Paper with a higher GSM will generally be thicker and therefore more difficult to crease or tear. Museum grade acid free papers are made from 100% cotton pulp rather than wood-based products. High quality cotton fibre paper is known to last hundreds of years without appreciable fading, discolouration, or deterioration due to the fact no chemicals are used in its production. Unlike wood based, mass produced alternatives,which will deteriorate, fade and change colour over time.

    Inks - Archival pigment printing (giclée) uses inks which have longevity rates calculated at over 100 years. This printing technique must utilise eight or more different ink colours which are colour profiled to match the archival paper to achieve a perfectly colour accurate reproduction of the original piece of art. 

    Mount Board - All Musée museum quality prints are professionally mounted on 2.4mm acid free art board ready to free stand or frame. Mounted prints also help to preserve the qualty of the edges and keep the prints perfectly flat with no risk of cockling. Cockling is the process by which a print starts to ripple due to changing levels of ambient moisture which are naturally present in the air in all our homes. Also, when you decide to either change your Musée artwork in your frames or swap them out for a new find, a Musée mounted print will stay flat and safe whilst in storage.

    Stacked image of fanned white 312 gms paper showing the high quality and softly woven texture of the surface of the paper.

    312 gsm Paper

    All muséee prints are reproduced on the finest quality 312 gsm museum archival acid free paper.

    Mount Board

    All Musée prints are mounted on acid free 2.4 mm mount board ready for
    framing or free standing display.

    Image of a single sheet of cotton rag paper showing the soft woven texture of the surface.

    Cotton Rag

    100% natural cotton based paper has a beautiful fine textured finish.