Femme, femme, femme: Paintings of Women in French Society from Daumier to Picasso from the Museums of France.

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	French masters celebrate the emergence of the modern woman at NOMA's Femme Femme Femme exhibit

"The works in Femme, femme, femme are appearing together for the first and only time," said E. John Bullard, director of the New Orleans Museum of Art. "We are extremely grateful to the nation of France for their support of NOMA and for their dedication to reviving the art community in New Orleans."

Femme, femme, femme is the fulfillment of a promise made to New Orleans just two months after Hurricane Katrina as the French Minister of Culture and Communication, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, and the President/Director of the Louvre, Henri Loyrette, led a delegation of French diplomats and art curators on a visit to the city and NOMA. As a measure of their support for the city of New Orleans and for NOMA, the Ministére de la Culture - Direction des musées de France and La Réunion des Musées nationaux (RMN) has organized an exhibition of nearly 85 works from the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, and 40 other museums throughout France. The French commissioners of this exhibition are Madame Daniéle Giraudy, honorary director of the Musées de Marseilles and Francis Ribemont, director of the Musée des Beauxs-Arts de Rennes.

"This exhibition represents our dedication to maintaining the New Orleans art community as it rebuilds following Hurricane Katrina," said Ambassador Levitte. "We encourage world citizens to visit NOMA to view this one-time-only grouping of some of France's best-known works."

With paintings by a wide range of artists, including Manet, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, Femme, femme, femme celebrates the emergence of the modern woman. This evolution of women's roles is grouped by several themes ranging from domestic duties and intellectual pursuits, from recreation to rural labor.

Femme, femme, femme begins with timeless images of domestic life in the family circle from birth to death. Opening with the quiet routines of motherhood, the domestic section includes images of maternal devotion that are both poignant and familiar. The theme of the family circle continues with celebrations of the joy and promise of courtship and marriage. The cycle is completed with the mourning of loved ones lost.

In the 19th century it became more common for women to work outside the home. Femme, femme, femme explores this modern phenomenon as it affected all social strata. Women of the lower classes worked in the cities as laundresses, café waitresses and sold vegetables and flowers in the market. In the country they harvested fruit, gleaned in the fields and helped the fishermen. This section of the exhibition includes paintings by artists such as Jean-Baptiste Corot and Honoré Daumier.

Another section of the exhibition displays images of the leisure activities enjoyed by women of all social classes. There are images of glamorous women attending balls and the opera or meeting for tea in fashionable pastry shops. Women of all classes enjoyed the new entertainments and popular diversions including cafés, the theater and dances, as well as the seashore and quiet idylls in the countryside. They attracted the attention of artists as diverse as James Tissot, Gustave Caillebotte, Kees van Dongen and Pablo Picasso.

The exhibition also explores the emergence of women in the professional spheres. There are portraits of leaders in arts and culture such as the actress Sarah Bernhardt, the painter Rosa Bonheur and writer George Sand, as well as a self-portrait by the influential female Impressionist Berthe Morisot.

Finally, modern women found an emerging independence in activities we now take for granted. They drove cars, rode bicycles and played sports. Femme, femme, femme reminds viewers that as the 20th century dawned, these were revolutionary acts.

Femme, femme, femme: Paintings of Women in French Society from Daumier to Picasso from the Museums of France was organized by the Ministére françis de la Culture et de la Communication - Direction des musées de France and La Réunion des Musées nationaux and is supported in France by Total. The exhibition is on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art from March 3 - June 3, 2007 and is presented in New Orleans by Freeport-McMoRan Foundation with additional support provided by Lakeside Shopping Center and The Feil Organization; The Helis Foundation; Blanchard and Company, Inc.; The Booth-Bricker Fund; Capital One; Chevron; Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation; Sheraton New Orleans Hotel; WDSU News Channel 6; Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport; Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation; Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrére & Denégre L.L.P.; Office of the Lieutenant Governor/Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism; Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; The Champagne Veuve Clicquot Collection; The Ruby K. Worner Charitable Trust.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Tickets, which include general museum admission and admittance to the exhibition, can be purchased at ticketmaster.com. Ticketmaster can also be reached at 504-522-5555.

The exhibit will conclude June 3, 2007.