A Brief Introduction  |  Quiz  |  Painting Galleries  |  Selection  |  Great Masters

The ‘Muses’ companion since Antiquity, wine has been represented through many different art forms, such as literature, music and photography, as well as architecture, decorative and fine arts. Wine seems to have been a particular source of fascination for painters.

LUNCHEON OF THE BOATING PARTY (Detail)

Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

1880-1881

The Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Wine takes centre stage in this painting by Renoir. Placed at the heart of the action, wine plays an active role and contributes to the painting’s happy, serene atmosphere.  The people in the painting are shown as happy to be together and enjoying the delights of friendship. Duncan Phillips describes this work as “overflowing with contagious good humour”.

Artists, especially painters, whether great or minor masters, have always acted as commentators. Wine has been part of our social, cultural, religious, political and economic history throughout the ages. By telling its story, these artists help us better understand our own.

>>  A THEMATIC TOUR: 5 PERMANENT COLLECTIONS, 31 PAINTING GALLERIES

THE VIRTUAL WINE MUSEUM'S COLLECTIONS

Great Masters: their contribution  >>

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While painting – canvases, frescoes and illuminations – takes centre-stage, the Virtual Wine Museum also exhibits many other art forms. It’s the museum of the “Wine of the Arts”, telling history of wine from Antiquity to the present day.

The Virtual Wine Museum: Wine in the Arts, a cultural story of wine from Antiquity to the present day

>>  1,000 WORKS OF ART FROM 28 COUNTRIES. THEY ARE WAITING FOR YOU.

      Wine and the Arts

      Picture of the Month

      Wine and Painting

Let us suggest the following route around the museum: Wine and the Arts to whet your appetite, the Picture of the Month to awaken your senses and the Gallery Collections to taste at your leisure or by following the guided tour below and at the bottom of the page. If you are pressed for time, why not take a quick trip around The Virtual Wine Museum’s selected highlights?

Take a quick tour of 30 selected works  >>

Wine-drinkers, Painters bear witness

Wine-drinkers have been portrayed by every kind of artist, and by great masters as well as more minor painters. One of these painters, Manet (who played a significant role in the representation of wine in art) believed that art should reflect life. Wine, when represented on canvas, is no exception to this rule. 
 
Such images are documentary, journalistic: they tell us the role played by wine in all walks of life, without exceptions. Daily life, social life, drunkenness and savoir-boire. Wine has been used as a social marker... (video: click on the icon)

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THE BROTHERS CLARKE WITH OTHER GENTLEMEN TAKING WINE

Gawen Hamilton, between 1730 and 1735 - Yale University, New Haven, CT, US

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A new perspective on the knowledge of wine 

This site was originally developed as part of a university project based around the creation of a virtual wine museum dedicated primarily to the medium of painting. The objective was to show how, and according to which themes, artists have treated wine and the vine. Like physical museums, virtual museums aim to promote culture and to make it accessible for everyone.

André Malraux’s ‘imaginary museum’ or ‘the museum without walls’ (as it is often translated)* is closer than ever before, thanks to new technological formats : Malraux' imaginary museum has become a virtual museum  >>. The Virtual Wine Museum shares Malraux’s vision and offers a new perspective on the knowledge of wine and its history, especially social history.

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The museum’s creator, Eric Beau, is a member of the UNESCO network 'Chair Culture and Traditions of Wine', Dijon. After having spent many years amidst the vines of the Côte de Beaune in Burgundy, he now lives in Bordeaux. He lectures at the University of Burgundy and in Bordeaux region.

Picture of the Month: An Ally to Seduction

Women drinking wine are an essential incarnation of vice in the work of Vermeer. The artist elegantly portrays the private lives of silent, timeless women in a movingly naturalistic way. He would dedicate seven of his thirty-five known works to the negative effects of wine. In this image, wine is clearly represented as an instrument of seduction. The man hopes that the wine will act as an aphrodisiac, lifting the young woman's inhibitions and laying the groundwork for more intimate pleasures. The woman has just drained the glass of wine and the man seems impatient to pour her more, almost as if he is trying to get her drunk. A musical instrument, the cittern, lies on the chair with musical notebooks. But the figure of Temperance is depicted in the stained glass window, adding to the tension in the scene. The symbol, directly in the seated woman's eye line, is intended as a warning.

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Paintings of the Month  >>

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As though to prove the importance of the vine in art, many artists have given this element pride of place in still life works, whether symbolic or decorative. This dates back to Antiquity, as shown by the vine motifs in mosaics and frescoes unearthed in the Vesuvius region. Still life began to emerge as a definable genre at the end of the sixteenth century. It would explode in popularity during the 17th century. This work by Osias Beerl is typical of the still life in fashion in the Netherlands and the Rhineland at that time. Only the piece of pie, the knife and the strawberry placed on the table give an inkling of a sense of life. 'Still life was to occupy the majority of the artistic space and the profusion of added elements adopted different aspects, evoking the opulence of well-stocked tables overflowing with food, crockery, people and animals… from a point of view which was both documentary and symbolic' (Le Louvre).

Gallery In Still Life  >>

> Click on the icons for a closer look at the artworks

Twitter 2020: the most popular works

"Dionysos, the god of wine, wears an ivy wreath hung with leaves and berries. This head is all that survives of what was once a life-size bronze statue of the god. The silvered whites of the eyes originally held inlaid irises. The dreamy, slightly unfocused gaze, as well as the slightly parted lips, conveys sensuousness and sexual ambivalence, characteristics frequently found in depictions of the god.
 

This portrayal derives from Hellenistic Greek art, in which the depiction of the god underwent a radical change. Before the Hellenistic period, the Greeks usually portrayed Dionysos as a mature bearded man. In Hellenistic and Roman art, Dionysos is a beardless youth, similar to images of the god Apollo, which sometimes makes it difficult to distinguish between the two gods. On this head, the ivy wreath identifies the god as Dionysos." (From Getty Museum)

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Vin et Peinture, Nectar of the Gods, Dionysos / Bacchus God of Wine  >>  

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Vine and wine in objets d'art  >>

The Virtual Wine Museum on Twitter  >>

> Click on the icons for a closer look at the artworks

> Click on the icons for a closer look at the artworks

TWITTER 2018

> Click on the icons for a closer look at the artworks

A Brief Introduction  |  Quiz  |  Painting Galleries  |  Selection  |  Great Masters 

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WINE AND THE ARTS   |   GALLERIES   |   PICTURE OF THE MONTH   |   WINE AND PAINTING   |   EXHIBITIONS

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