The Musée d’Orsay announced on Friday May 10 that it had filed a complaint after The Origin of the World, a famous nude by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), was tagged on Monday. The painting, preserved by the Musée d’Orsay, is currently on display at the Center Pompidou-Metz as part of an exhibition dedicated to one of its most famous owners, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. It was protected by a window on which two women, indicted on Tuesday, tagged “MeToo”.
“Smeared with red paint, the work was taken down for examination by a qualified conservator. The frame has received numerous paint splashes which could leave lasting marks even after restoration,” the museum explained in a press release, adding that it had “filed a complaint.”
“Tests carried out to clean the protective glass have shown that the use of solvents will be necessary, altering its properties and leading to its replacement,” he said. “All of these operations are delicate and must be prepared for through more in-depth analysis. Also, given the time required for interventions, The Origin of the World by Gustave Courbet cannot be hung up in the exhibition “Lacan, when art meets psychoanalysis” before its closing on May 27,” added the museum.
The Origin of the World, which represents a woman’s genitals, is one of the most famous paintings in the history of 19th century painting. For a long time it was only known to art historians and connoisseurs, but after the death of Jacques Lacan in 1981, his heirs bequeathed it to the State and, in 1995, the painting joined the collections of the Musée d’Orsay.
The work was created in 1866 for Khalil Bey, a Turkish-Egyptian diplomat and collector of erotic paintings (including The Turkish Bath, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres), before changing ownership several times. Her model, who remained anonymous for more than one hundred and fifty years, is the dancer Constance Quéniaux, according to a discovery made in 2018.
Four other tagged works and one stolen
Four other works were tagged with the words “MeToo” on Monday, one of which “could have been compromised in its integrity because not all of them were protected,” according to the public prosecutor in Metz, Yves Badorc. A red embroidery on fabric by Annette Messager, called I think therefore I suck (1991), was also stolen.
This “action”, organized by the Franco-Luxembourgish performance artist Deborah De Robertis, was called “We do not separate the woman from the artist”. She was indicted with another woman, and both were placed under judicial supervision. A third person, who could be behind the theft, was not arrested.
In a video sent to Agence France-Presse, the performer explained that she carried out this feminist performance because “the very closed world of contemporary art has remained mostly silent until now”. She also denounced, in an open letter, the behavior of six men in the industry, calling them “calculators”, “predators” or “censors”.
A photo by Deborah De Robertis, called the Mirror of the Origin of the World, is on display near the Origin of the World for the Center Pompidou-Metz exhibition. We see the artist posing, naked, under Courbet’s work. The performance was illegally carried out on May 29, 2014 at the Musée d’Orsay.
Fined for stripping in front of the Lourdes Grotto in 2018, she was acquitted after other similar actions, notably in 2017 for showing her genitals at the Louvre Museum in front of the Mona Lisa.
