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The painted politics of Édouard Debat-Ponsan
This week’s dip into the missing artists archive brings a painter whose fine academic finish mixed pastoral scenes with strong political messages, and whose grandson was an architect of modern France’s...
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Too Real: the narrative paintings of Jean-Léon Gérôme, 2
By the end of the Paris Salon of 1853, the young Gérôme had cause to celebrate. He was receiving good reviews, and his lightweight, amusing narrative paintings were going down well with the public. As...
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Pigment: Two whites, lead and chalk
My last two pigments in the series, for the time being at least, are two of the most ubiquitous, and both white: Lead White, which until the twentieth century was almost the only white used in oil...
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Hail Caesar: paintings of the Colosseum and its spectacles, 1
When the crowds at the Paris Salon of 1859 first saw Jean-Léon Gérôme’s painting Ave Caesar, Morituri Te Salutant, its visual impact would have been very different from those on a modern viewer. It was...
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Hail Caesar: paintings of the Colosseum and its spectacles, 2
Gérôme’s Ave Caesar, Morituri Te Salutant (1859) was unusual if not radical because of its panoramic view, its depiction of the Colosseum of Rome in reconstruction, and its details of gladiatorial...
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Plutarch’s Lives in Paint: 5b Cato the Elder
Cato the Elder must have stood out from the crowd, if Plutarch’s description of his reddish hair and keen grey eyes is anything to go by. As one of the early Roman historians, writing a critical...
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Pierre Bonnard: Beaches and Bathing, 1921-1923
Bonnard’s relationships were approaching crisis by the start of 1921. Still living unmarried with Marthe, who had been his partner and muse since they met in Paris in 1893, he was then deeply in love...
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Celebrating the 500th anniversary of Tintoretto, 0: Introduction and contents
This year we might be celebrating a very special anniversary: half a millenium has passed since the birth of Tintoretto, one of the great Masters of Venice. I write might, because there is considerable...
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Painting Truth: When did she emerge from a well?
At the very end of the nineteenth century, there was a sudden rush of paintings depicting the personification of Truth as a nude woman climbing from a well. They came apparently from nowhere, were...
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Too Real: the narrative paintings of Jean-Léon Gérôme, 3
The third of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s history paintings shown at the Salon of 1859 sadly vanished after being sold in 1951, and is now known only from a monochrome photograph which I have been unable to find...
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Elizabeth Nourse and Family Life 1: 1883-1892
It’s often very hard to get more than a handful of images of paintings for any given woman painter, which prevents me from doing them justice in articles here. I’m delighted to say that this was not a...
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Elizabeth Nourse and Family Life 2: 1895-1910
By 1895, Elizabeth Nourse (1859–1938) had lived and painted in northern France for eight years. Her travels had taken her as far afield as Italy and the Netherlands, and she was exhibiting her work...
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Plutarch’s Lives in Paint: 7a Pericles
Plutarch’s next subject in his Lives is one of the most colourful of his Greek statesmen: Pericles. He starts his account with a lengthy peroration to justify starting this book. You don’t have to get...
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Pierre Bonnard: Marriage and the Coast, 1924-1926
In 1924, Pierre Bonnard’s longstanding partner Marthe had her first exhibition of pastel paintings in the Druet Gallery; she signed herself Marthe Solange. At the end of the year, the couple started...
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Celebrating the 500th anniversary of Tintoretto, 1: The Fables of Ovid
The great Venetian painter Jacopo Tintoretto was probably born in late September 1518, the first child in a family which was to grow to 21. His father, whose surname was actually Comin, was a dyer in...
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Too Real: the narrative paintings of Jean-Léon Gérôme, 4
By 1862, Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904) had reached the height of his narrative powers, exhibiting a succession of narrative paintings, several of which had been turned into prints and were selling...
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The Franco-Prussian War: Depicting defeat
Painting in Europe during the latter half of the nineteenth century was centred on Paris. A lot happened in other countries too – the Pre-Raphaelites for one – but the major movements of the time all...
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The Franco-Prussian War: Destruction of Paris
Following a series of disastrous defeats of the French Army, on 19 September 1870, Prussian forces had taken control of the country around Paris, and put the capital under siege. With the surrender of...
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The Franco-Prussian War: Aftermath
The provisional French government had been very circumspect about capitulating at the end of the Franco-Prussian War in late January 1871, because of their fears of insurrection. The dangers of this...
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Plutarch’s Lives in Paint: 7b Quintus Fabius Maximus
Plutarch claims that the first Fabius, founder of the great Fabii family of Rome, was the son of Hercules (Heracles), and that Quintus Fabius Maximus, the greatest of the clan, was fourth in descent...
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