Former Director of the Museums of France to Lecture, Meet with Baylor Art Students March 28

March 26, 2007

Francoise Cachin, director emeritus of the Reunion des Musees Nationaux of France (Museums of France), will deliver Baylor University's Allbritton Art Lecture at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, in room 149 in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Building. Cachin's lecture, "Self portraits: Manet to Gauguin," is free and open to the public.

Note: Mme. Cachin also will meet with art students on Wednesday and Thursday, including discussing Impressionism and Post-impressionism during Art 3357 at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, March 29, in room 158 in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Building.

Cachin's service as director of the Museums of France for a decade capped a lifetime career in art history and the French museum world. As director, she oversaw the 34 national museums of France that includes the Louvre, Versailles and the Musee d'Orsay, in addition to 1,000 other museums across France.

Prior to her appointment as director, Cachin served as director of the Musee d'Orsay and as curator of the National Museum of Modern Art. A scholar of 19th-century French painting, she has organized exhibitions on the works of Pissarro, Manet, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Seurat and has written books and catalogs on major figures of the 19th century, including Degas, Cezanne, Signac, Seurat and Gauguin.

The Allbritton Art Institute was established within Baylor's art department in 1998 by Mr. and Mrs. Joe Allbritton. The Institute promotes the appreciation and comprehensive study of the artists and art movements of the 19th and 20th centuries with special emphasis on the movements of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.

For more information on the lecture, call 710-1867. For information regarding Cachin's meeting with art students, contact Karen Pope at 710-6385.