In spring 2026, the Musée Jacquemart-André, in collaboration with the Hispanic Society of America (New York), will celebrate Hispanic Baroque art. It will offer you the opportunity to admire around forty works from the prestigious American institution, brought together in France for the first time, including paintings by the great masters of the Golden Age such as Velázquez, El Greco, and Zurbarán.
A collection of significant scale Founded in 1904 by the American scholar and patron Archer Milton Huntington (1870-1955), the Hispanic Society of America is the oldest and most important museum institution dedicated to the study and promotion of the arts and cultures of the Hispanophone and Lusophone worlds outside the Iberian Peninsula. Driven by a deep passion for Spain and its artistic and literary expressions, Huntington assembled an remarkable collection of paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, archaeological pieces, and art objects through his studies and travels, which he housed in a specially designed setting in northwest Manhattan, New York (Audubon Terrace). Intended as a place capable of "condensing the soul of Spain, through the works of hand and mind," in Huntington's words (1898), the Hispanic Society of America now houses more than 750,000 items, from antiquity to the contemporary era, covering more than 35 countries and a wide variety of techniques and mediums. The Hispanic Baroque At the crossroads of Italian and Flemish influences, but also nourished by discoveries and exchanges from the newly conquered American territories, Spanish art of the Golden Age is characterized by remarkable aesthetic and thematic richness. This production constitutes one of the most singular chapters in Western art history, although it is proportionally underrepresented in French collections. Artists from across Europe, such as El Greco (1541-1614) or Antonio Moro (c. 1520 – c. 1577), contributed to the renewal of Spanish painting by infusing it with innovation and vitality. Spain thus became fertile ground for the flourishing of the Baroque style. This term, derived from the Portuguese barroco, originally referred to the shape of an irregular pearl and is characterized in art by exuberant, theatrical, and triumphant forms aimed at seducing the senses. Francisco de Zurbarán, Juan Carreño de Miranda, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and Matteo Cerezo are among the masters of this period. Spanish painting excelled particularly in the genres of portraiture and religious themes. These religious subjects, imbued with the spirit of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, glorify history, devotion, and sacred dogmas in an expression that is both visually eloquent and intensely spiritual. Spanish portraiture reached its peak with Velázquez, who revitalized old formulas to the point of revolutionizing the genre. His Portrait of a Young Girl (c. 1638-1642), presented in the exhibition, perfectly illustrates this ability to confer a striking presence to his models. A work by John Singer Sargent serves as a counterpoint, testifying to the lasting influence of the artist whom Manet had dubbed "the painter of painters." THE HISPANIC WORLD BEYOND EUROPE The exhibition also includes major works by artists from the 17th and 18th centuries active in or originating from Latin America. Heirs to the great Spanish pictorial tradition introduced after the conquest of the "New World," these painters managed to blend Western contributions with local techniques and traditions. This mixing gave rise to unprecedented and remarkable production, rarely shown in French museums, which the exhibition will present in a valuable showcase.
Price: From 10 to 19 euros.
Source: paris.fr — photo: Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York