De la vigne au verre. Le vin chez Balzac

Omnipresent in 19th-century society, wine stands out as a recurring motif in Balzac's work: it tells the story of an era, reveals social ambitions and accompanies both pleasures and excesses. The exhibition « De la vigne au verre. Le vin chez Balzac  », presented by the Maison de Balzac, highlights this abundant presence of wine in Balzac's world.

Through more than 80 works and objects (paintings, engravings, posters, winemaking equipment and tableware), the exhibition sheds light on Balzac's reflections on wine-growing and on the place of wine in the French art of living, from everyday moments to great occasions.

In the 19th century, wine, just like bread, was a staple of the diet. A symbol of quality of life, it was also seen as a public health issue.

At the same time, the growth of vineyards went hand in hand with major technical and commercial innovations, turning wine into a vehicle for wealth.

Balzac offers a multifaceted reading of it — by turns economic, sociological and artistic — never adopting a moralising stance, across a wide variety of literary forms: short journalistic essays such as the Traité des excitants modernes; novels largely devoted to the subject (L'Illustre Gaudissart; Eugénie Grandet); passing references within a page (La Muse du département; Illusions perdues; La Rabouilleuse…); correspondence with his friends, and so on.

The exhibition unfolds across the museum's 4 exhibition rooms, each devoted to a specific theme