1.
History painting
–
History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than artistic style. History paintings usually depict a moment in a story, rather than a specific and static subject. The term is derived from the senses of the word historia in Latin and Italian, meaning story or narrative. Most history paintings are not of scenes from history, especially paintings from before about 1850, History paintings almost always contain a number of figures, often a large number, and normally show some type of action that is a moment in a narrative. The genre includes depictions of moments in religious narratives, above all the Life of Christ, as well as scenes from mythology. These groups were for long the most frequently painted, works such as Michelangelos Sistine Chapel ceiling are therefore history paintings, History painting may be used interchangeably with historical painting, and was especially so used before the 20th century. Where a distinction is made historical painting is the painting of scenes from secular history, in the 19th century historical painting in this sense became a distinct genre. In phrases such as historical painting materials, historical means in use before about 1900 and he placed emphasis on the ability to depict the interactions between the figures by gesture and expression. This view remained general until the 19th century, when artistic movements began to struggle against the establishment institutions of academic art, which continued to adhere to it. Scenes from ancient history had been popular in the early Renaissance, and once again became common in the Baroque and Rococo periods, and still more so with the rise of Neoclassicism. In some 19th or 20th century contexts, the term may refer specifically to paintings of scenes from history, rather than those from religious narratives. Scenes from ancient history and mythology were also popular, artists continued for centuries to strive to make their reputation by producing such works, often neglecting genres to which their talents were better suited. The large works of Raphael were long considered, with those of Michelangelo, un Peintre qui ne fait que des portraits, na pas encore cette haute perfection de lArt, & ne peut prétendre à lhonneur que reçoivent les plus sçavans. He who produces perfect landscapes is above another who only produces fruit, a painter who only does portraits still does not have the highest perfection of his art, and cannot expect the honour due to the most skilled. By the late 18th century, with religious and mytholological painting in decline, there was an increased demand for paintings of scenes from history. Classical history remained popular, but scenes from national histories were often the best-received, the unheroic nature of modern dress was regarded as a serious difficulty. When, in 1770, Benjamin West proposed to paint The Death of General Wolfe in contemporary dress and he ignored these comments and showed the scene in modern dress. Although George III refused to purchase the work, West succeeded both in overcoming his critics objections and inaugurating a more historically accurate style in such paintings. M. W, conveniently their clothes had been worn away to classical-seeming rags by the point the painting depicts
2.
Henri Fantin-Latour
–
Henri Fantin-Latour was a French painter and lithographer best known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian artists and writers. He was born Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-Latour in Grenoble, Isère, as a youth, he received drawing lessons from his father, who was an artist. In 1850 he entered the Ecole de Dessin, where he studied with Lecoq de Boisbaudran, after studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1854, he devoted much time to copying the works of the old masters in the Musée du Louvre. Although Fantin-Latour befriended several of the artists who would later be associated with Impressionism, including Whistler and Manet. Whistler brought attention to Fantin in England, where his still-lifes sold so well that they were unknown in France during his lifetime. In addition to his paintings, Fantin-Latour created imaginative lithographs inspired by the music of some of the great classical composers. And he has asked her whether she had seen the painting by Fantin-Latour which had recently been exhibited. His first major UK gallery exhibition in 40 years took place at the Bowes Museum in April 2011, Musée du Luxembourg presented a retrospective exhibition of his work in 2016-7 entitled À fleur de peau. The painting A basket of roses was used as the cover of New Orders album Power, the art of Henri Fantin-Latour, his life and work, London, Dranes ltd. Lucie-Smith, Edward, Henri Fantin-Latour, New York, Rizzoli,1977, poulet, Anne L. & Murphy, A. R. Corot to Braque, French Paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, The Museum,1979. ISBN 0-87846-134-5 Rosenblum, Robert, Paintings in the Musée dOrsay, New York, Stewart, ISBN 1-55670-099-7 Henri-Fantin-Latour. org 273 works by Henri Fantin-Latour Henri Fantin-Latour, Still Life,1867, watercolor, Bryn Mawr College Art and Artifact Collections
3.
John La Farge
–
John La Farge was an American painter, muralist, stained glass window maker, decorator, and writer. La Farge was born in New York City to wealthy French parents and was raised bilingually, as a child, he and his interest in art began during his studies at Mount St. Marys University in Maryland and St. Johns College in New York. He initially intended to study law, but this changed after his first visit to Paris, stimulated by the arts in the city, he studied with Thomas Couture and became acquainted with notable literary people. La Farge also studied with the painter William Morris Hunt in Newport, La Farges earliest drawings and landscapes, from his studies in Newport, show marked originality, especially in the handling of color values. Many of La Farges mythological and religious paintings, including Virgil, were executed in an area of Rhode Island known as Paradise and he was a pioneer in the study of Japanese art, the influence of which is seen in his work. During his life, La Farge maintained a studio at 51 West 10th Street in Greenwich Village, between 1859 and 1870, he illustrated Tennysons Enoch Arden and Robert Brownings Men and Women. In the 1870s, La Farge began to do murals, which became popular for public buildings as well as churches and his first mural was done in Trinity Church, Boston, in 1873. Then followed his decorations in the Church of the Ascension and St. Pauls Chapel, for the Minnesota State Capitol at St. Paul, he executed at age 71 four great lunettes representing the history of law. He created a series based on the theme of Justice for the State Supreme Court building at Baltimore. He also took private commission from wealthy patrons and was reputedly worth $150,000 at one point, La Farge made extensive travels in Asia and the South Pacific, which inspired his painting. He visited Japan in 1886, and the South Seas in 1890 and 1891, in spending time. Henry Adams accompanied him on trips as a travel companion. He visited Hawaii in September 1890, where he painted scenic spots on Oahu, in 1892, La Farge was brought on as an instructor with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Schools to provide vocational training to students in New York City. He served as President of the National Society of Mural Painters from 1899 to 1904 and he learned several languages, and was erudite in literature and art, by his cultured personality and reflective conversation, he influenced many other people. Though naturally a questioner, he venerated the traditions of religious art, La Farge died at Butler Hospital, in Providence, Rhode Island in 1910. The interment was at Green-Wood Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York and his papers, together with some of those of certain children and grandchildren, are held by Yale University Library. La Farge experimented with color problems, especially in the medium of stained glass and his work rivaled the beauty of medieval windows and added new resources by his use of opalescent glass and by his original methods of layering and welding the glass. Opalescent glass had been used for centuries in tableware, but it had never before been formed into sheets for use in stained-glass windows
4.
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes
–
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes was a French painter best known for his mural painting, who came to be known as the painter for France. He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Puvis de Chavannes was a prominent painter in the early Third Republic. Émile Zola described his work as an art made of reason, passion, Puvis de Chavannes was born Pierre-Cécile Puvis in a suburb of Lyon, France. He was the son of a mining engineer, being descended from an old noble family of Burgundy, he later added the ancestral de Chavannes to his name. Throughout his life, however, he spurned his Lyon origins, preferring to identify himself with the blood of the Burgundians. Puvis de Chavannes was educated at the Amiens College and at the Lycée Henri IV in Paris and he intended to follow his fathers profession until a serious illness compelled him to convalesce at Mâcon with his brother and sister-in-law in 1844 and 1845, interrupting his studies. A journey to Italy opened his mind to fresh ideas, and he studied first under Eugène Delacroix, but only very briefly, as Delacroix closed his studio shortly afterwards due to ill health. He studied subsequently under Henri Scheffer and then Thomas Couture and his training was not classical as he found that he preferred to work alone. He took a studio near the Gare de Lyon and attended anatomy classes at the Académie des Beaux Arts. It was not until a number of later, when the government of France acquired one of his works. Puvis de Chavannes made his Salon debut in 1850 with Dead Christ, Negro Boy, The Reading Lesson, and Portrait of a Man. In Montmartre, he had an affair with one of his models, Suzanne Valadon, who would one of the leading artists of the day as well as the mother, teacher. One of his protégés was Georges de Feure, Puvis de Chavannes is best known for his mural painting, and came to be known as the painter for France. His first commission was for his brothers chateau, Le Brouchy, the principal decorations take the four seasons as their theme. His first public commissions came early in the 1860s, with work at the Musée de Picardie at Amiens, the first four works were Concordia, Bellum, Le Travail and Le Repos. Over the course of his career, Puvis received a number of commissions for works to be carried out in public. His early work at the Musée de Picardie had helped him to develop his style. Among his public works are the later cycles completed at Amiens, at Marseille, at Lyon, of particular importance is the cycle at the Palais de Beaux Arts in Lyon, which includes three significant works, filling the wall space in the main staircase
5.
Salon (Paris)
–
The Salon, or rarely Paris Salon, beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world, at the 1761 Salon, thirty-three painters, nine sculptors, and eleven engravers contributed. From 1881 onward, it has been managed by the Société des Artistes Français, in 1667, the royally sanctioned French institution of art patronage, the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, held its first semi-public art exhibit at the Salon Carré. The Salons original focus was the display of the work of recent graduates of the École des Beaux-Arts, exhibition at the Salon de Paris was essential for any artist to achieve success in France for at least the next 200 years. Exhibition in the Salon marked a sign of royal favor, in 1725, the Salon was held in the Palace of the Louvre, when it became known as Salon or Salon de Paris. In 1737, the exhibitions, held from 18 August 1737 to 5 September 1737 at the Grand Salon of the Louvre and they were held, at first, annually, and then biennially, in odd-numbered years. They would start on the feast day of St. Louis, once made regular and public, the Salons status was never seriously in doubt. In 1748 a jury of awarded artists was introduced, from this time forward, the influence of the Salon was undisputed. The Salon exhibited paintings floor-to-ceiling and on every inch of space. The jostling of artwork became the subject of other paintings. Printed catalogues of the Salons are primary documents for art historians, critical descriptions of the exhibitions published in the gazettes mark the beginning of the modern occupation of art critic. The French revolution opened the exhibition to foreign artists, the vernissage of opening night was a grand social occasion, and a crush that gave subject matter to newspaper caricaturists like Honoré Daumier. Charles Baudelaire, Denis Diderot and others wrote reviews of the Salons, the 1848 revolution liberalized the Salon. The amount of refused works was greatly reduced, the increasingly conservative and academic juries were not receptive to the Impressionist painters, whose works were usually rejected, or poorly placed if accepted. The Salon opposed the Impressionists shift away from traditional painting styles, in 1863 the Salon jury turned away an unusually high number of the submitted paintings. An uproar resulted, particularly from regular exhibitors who had been rejected, in order to prove that the Salons were democratic, Napoleon III instituted the Salon des Refusés, containing a selection of the works that the Salon had rejected that year. It opened on 17 May 1863, marking the birth of the avant-garde, the Impressionists held their own independent exhibitions in 1874,1876,1877,1879,1880,1881,1882 and 1886. In 1881, the government withdrew official sponsorship from the annual Salon, in December 1890, the leader of the Société des Artistes Français, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, propagated the idea that Salon should be an exhibition of young, not-yet awarded, artists
.jpg)
Media related to Thomas Couture at Wikimedia Commons
