BALTIMORE, MD. — The Walters Art Museum will present “The Repeating Image in French Painting from David to Matisse” (working title), on view October 14–January 6.

Why do painters repeat themselves? What did repetition mean in the academic tradition? How do the motivations for repetition change in the modern period? This exhibition will explore these questions through some 60 paintings, 25 works on paper and two sculptures, ranging in date from the late Eighteenth to early Twentieth Century.

Artists included are David, Deloroche, Delacroix, Gerard, Ingres, Gérôme, Corot, Millet, Monet, Degas, Cézanne and Matisse. The varied motivations for the avant-garde tactic of painting in series will be distinguished from an earlier tradition in which repetition is untroubled by the modern anxiety over originality. Conservation analysis will investigate material questions of technique, determining the sequence of repetitions if unknown, method of compositional repetition and lingering issues of attribution when possible. The exhibition will travel; venues include the Phoenix Art Museum.

The Walters Art Museum is at 600 North Charles Street. For information, 410-547-9000 or www.thewalters.org.