With the exhibition Le fabuleux destin... it is to discover a true epic series that the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes invites its visitors.
The story begins in France at the Revolution with the nationalization of the clergy's property. After the closure of places of worship, an immense quantity of works of art, collected by the Church for several centuries, are removed from their place of origin and dispersed. Naturally, it is from the rich churches of Paris and Île-de-France that thousands of works are extracted. This immense heritage is undergoing various changes. A large proportion of the masterpieces are set aside to be displayed in the museums recently created by the Republic throughout the country. Thus, about ten paintings from Parisian churches were sent to the Musée de Rennes in 1801 and 1811.
After this first selection, a large number of paintings are sold before they are lost. Among the latter, 180 paintings acquired by an abbot named Philippe Desjardins, arrived in Quebec City after a long and hugely successful trip by boat and sled. The paintings are intended for sale. The abbot thus thought he would make both a deal and a good work with this commercial operation, the finalization of which was taken care of by his brother Louis, also a religious living in Quebec City.
Having suffered from transport, the canvases need to be restored. The operation will be carried out thanks to amateur artists and nuns of good will. Then began the dispersion of the paintings that left to furnish churches throughout the immense province of Quebec. Rehabilitated, sometimes strongly transformed to adapt to their new assignment, these French works of art will have a second life in their adopted homeland where they will be at the origin of a painting school but also of the creation of the first public artistic institutions. The exhibition presents an unpublished selection of some forty paintings by French masters (Quentin Varin, Simon Vouet, Michel Dorigny, Jean-Jacques Lagrenée...) that have not been seen in Europe for two hundred years.
