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Pierre Bonnard: Fruit and French Windows, 1927-1930
In 1927, Pierre Bonnard spent much of the first half of the year at his villa in Le Cannet, paying visits to Arcachon and Paris. In May, he bought a plot of land adjacent to the villa, in which to...
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Celebrating the 500th anniversary of Tintoretto, 2: Tradition and success
After Jacopo Tintoretto had completed his series of paintings showing the Fables of Ovid in the palace at San Paternian, he turned to what was to be his mainstay throughout his career: religious scenes...
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Too Real: the narrative paintings of Jean-Léon Gérôme, 5
For Gérôme, the Third Republic brought new challenges to which he had to rise. He had found favour with Napoleon III and his court, and had received Imperial commissions. His history paintings of...
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A Different Kind of Impressionist: Pierre-Georges Jeanniot
Over the last hundred years, a highly coherent view of mainstream French Impressionism has developed, which seems to have been quite unlike what happened at the time. Leading Impressionists such as...
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Alexandre Cabanel and his pupils: the master
Over the last few months, I have paid particular attention here to artists in France and the Nordic countries who, in the late nineteenth century, painted in realist style and may be thought of as...
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Alexandre Cabanel and his pupils: the pupils
Having looked at the life and work of Alexandre Cabanel, I turn now to representative works of some of his pupils: those who learned their skills, techniques, and perhaps styles and motifs in his...
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Plutarch’s Lives in Paint: 9a Alcibiades
The next character covered in Plutarch’s Lives is one of the most colourful statesmen in classical history: Alcibiades, whose love life was so reckless that it couldn’t be depicted until the nineteenth...
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Celebrating the 500th anniversary of Tintoretto, 3: Washing and Genesis
In 1548, with his Miracle of the Slave (E&I 46) (discussed in my previous article), Tintoretto had made a success of his first really large-scale commission, bringing him renown throughout Venice....
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Pierre Bonnard: Bathrooms and tabletops, 1931-1936
In 1931, Bonnard celebrated his sixty-fourth birthday, but showed no signs of easing off in his work. He divided his time between Arcachon, where he escaped from Marthe’s imposed social isolation,...
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Too Real: the narrative paintings of Jean-Léon Gérôme, 6
The first decade of the Third Republic had been a stormy period in France, and by the 1880s the old guard royalists were in decline, and the civic powers of the Republic were expanding to include the...
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Celebrating the 500th anniversary of Tintoretto, 4: Saints and sinners
At about the time that Tintoretto was painting a cycle of works based on the early chapters of the book of Genesis, in the early 1550s, he completed three religious paintings for the Palazzo dei...
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Susanna and the Elders 1: Origins and early development
Popular painted narratives which examine critically issues facing women throughout history are few. Among them, and some of the most popular narrative religious paintings in the Western canon, are the...
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Susanna and the Elders 2: Masters and the modern
In the first article of this short series, I looked at paintings telling the story of Susanna and the Elders, from the Old Testament book of Daniel. I have focussed on those showing Susanna in her...
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Plutarch’s Lives in Paint: 9b Coriolanus
Several of the subjects of Plutarch’s Lives have had their fame promoted in modern literature; Coriolanus has that distinction, although Shakespeare’s play about him is one of the his lesser-known, and...
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Celebrating the 500th anniversary of Tintoretto, 5: First work for the...
The late 1550s were a challenging time for Jacopo Tintoretto: he had established his art in the city of Venice with several paintings of renown, but hadn’t been able to tap in to the rich patronage...
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Pierre Bonnard: At home with Marthe, 1937-1943
Prior to the start of the Second World War, Pierre Bonnard continued to paint and live life at a pace which would put many far younger than him to shame. In 1937, he spent much of the Spring and summer...
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Too Real: the narrative paintings of Jean-Léon Gérôme, 7
During the later years of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s career, he devoted much attention to the rising Impressionists – whom he vehemently opposed – sculpture, photography as an art, and the depiction of truth....
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Celebrating the 500th anniversary of Tintoretto, 6: Crucifixion and the Choir
Jacopo Tintoretto closed the 1550s with three of the major religious paintings from his early career, in which he moved on from the archaic, and learned to handle crowds. Jacopo Tintoretto (c...
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Bathsheba and King David: 1 The standard account
Last weekend, I looked at one of the popular stories from the Old Testament featuring a woman in its leading role, that of Susanna and the Elders, in which Susanna’s virtue is maintained and eventually...
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Bathsheba and King David: 2 Differing views
Most of the paintings telling the story of Bathsheba and King David had shown its opening scene, featuring the nude figure of Bathsheba in the foreground, and a distant king watching her from his...
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