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Lecture by Géraldine Lefebvre—Director of MuMa
Géraldine Lefebvre, director of MuMa, will speak during the festival about the work of Jean Francis Auburtin. Fascinated by the seabed and coastal landscapes, Auburtin developed a unique vision of the sea—blending naturalist observation and symbolism—that resonates directly with Le Havre’s maritime heritage.
Dates and times
Wednesday, October 7, 6:45 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.
Address
Marseille Wharf, Eure Basin
*Le Fond de la mer* was one of Jean-Francis Auburtin’s (1866–1930) first major public commissions and a key work in his career as a set designer. In 1897, the architect of the New Sorbonne, Henri-Paul Nénot, commissioned Auburtin to create a large panel for the zoology lecture hall, then known as the Milne-Edwards Lecture Hall. This commission was part of the Sorbonne’s extensive decorative ar programme , in which each lecture hall was adorned with a design related to the discipline taught there.
Painted between 1897 and 1898, *Le Fond de la mer* is a vast underwater landscape intended to serve as a backdrop for zoology classes. The work depicts a marine world teeming with aquatic plants, shells, fish, and underwater organisms, observed with a certain scientific rigor but rendered in a decorative, symbolist style. The artist prepared for this commission by studying marine flora and fauna at the biological stations and aquariums in Roscoff and Banyuls-sur-Mer, from which he brought back numerous preparatory drawings. The painting reflects the late 19th-century interest in the natural sciences, oceanography, and discoveries of the underwater world. Auburtin, however, offers a poetic vision rather than a strictly scientific record. The work also reveals the influence of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, whose large-scale, monumental paintings he admired.
The decoration remained in place in the amphitheater for nearly seventy years, until it was removed in 1968. Unfortunately, the work was subsequently largely scattered or destroyed. According to recent research conducted at the Sorbonne, a single fragment is believed to survive today in the municipal storage facilities of Ivry, while the rest of the set is considered lost and survives only through preparatory watercolors. Nevertheless, old photographs taken by the Moreau brothers provide insight into its overall appearance. This commission marked the beginning of Auburtin’s reputation as a leading decorator of the Third Republic. It preceded his work on the Palais Longchamp in Marseille and, later, for the Council of State.
Several historians consider *Le Fond de la mer* to be the founding work of his marine imagination, which would later inspire his major compositions featuring coastlines, nymphs, and Mediterranean or Norman landscapes. It is one of the first monumental attempts at an artistic representation of the underwater world at a time when it remained largely invisible to the general public. Auburtin drew directly on the advances in the nascent fields of marine biology and oceanography to construct a setting that combines scientific knowledge, educational ambition, and Symbolist poetry.
Géraldine Lefebvre
A graduate of the École du Louvre, Géraldine Lefebvre began her career at MuMa as a heritage curator and deputy director from 2004 to 2015. During this time, she worked on major projects for the museum, such as the Senn-Foulds donation, the 2013 exhibition “Pissarro in the Ports ” held as part of the second edition of “Normandie Impressionniste, ” and the preparation of the exhibition “Eugène Boudin: The Studio of Light.” Géraldine Lefebvre continued her career with the City of Le Havre’s Museums of Art and History. In 2018, she defended her dissertation on *Le Cercle de l’art moderne du Havre* ( *) at the University of Paris-Nanterre—a subject that was the focus of an exhibition of the same name at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris in 2012–2013—and earned her Ph.D. in art history. She then requested a leave of absence to lead several exhibition and publication projects. Three of these projects were particularly significant for her career, including “Monet-Auburtin,” the exhibition marking the 10th anniversary of the Musée des Impressionnismes in Giverny. In 2020, she compiled the *Catalogue Raisonné of Claude Monet’s Pastels* in collaboration with the Wildenstein Plattner Institute. Then, in 2023, she curated the exhibition *Léon Monet*, featuring the artist’s brother and collector, at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris. Now at the helm of the MuMa, Géraldine Lefebvre will be responsible for developing the institution’s new scientific and cultural program.
