Thursday, March 29, 2018

Photos of Academic Artists

Here are some photos of prominent academic artists.




Books about Academic painting and painters:
The Art of the Salon: The Triumph of 19th-Century Painting
The Lure of Paris: Nineteenth-Century American Painters and Their French Teachers
Jean-Leon Gerome
William Adolphe Bouguereau
Ernest Meissonier: Rétrospective
Alexandre Cabanel: The Tradition of Beauty
Lawrence Alma-Tadema: At Home in Antiquity
Against the Modern: Dagnan-Bouveret and the Transformation of the Academic Tradition
Edouard Detaille, Un Siecle de Gloire Militaire
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Previous posts about Academic Painting

12 comments:

David Webb said...

it's interesting to see some of the photographic poses of the day, such as hand on hip, leaning on a sideboard. For the chaps, arty moustache/beard fitted as standard.

Reminds me, must update my photo.

Susan Krzywicki said...

As always, I am looking at this from my female and minority lens. 5% female and it doesn't look like too much in the way of minority artists. Think of all the missed potential when our society narrows us down to just one slice of the populace having a voice. Things are changing and I wonder about one aspect of the way things have changed:

When artists open up their range of materials - to new media and unconventional approaches, does that make room for more voices? Does the very act of using things like snow or hair or formaldehyde create a space for others who have ideas about these things?

So, the combination of a heightened sense of the wide range of humanity (which our entire society is going through) and an interest in the non-traditional (which art is going through) seems to loosen up the room for intriguing, challenging and new ideas.

This blog is focused on traditional, representational art which I love dearly, and so I hope I am not offending anyone by talking about people who's vision encompasses the weirder, wilder approaches to "what is art?" - I just like to think about stuff like this!

Pierre Fontaine said...

Looking through the names I was surprised to see "Caran D'Ache" represented. I've always associated this with the brand name of art supplies. It turns out "Caran D'Ache" is the pseudonym of Russian-born artist Emmanuel Poiré. Fascinating!

James Gurney said...

David, Yes, the poses resemble poses for painted portraits. And Adolphe-Leon Willette kind of stands out for having neither mustache nor beard.

Susan, It's OK to bring that up. I noticed the few women who were shown there, too, and I was glad to know it wasn't purely a "boy's club." I made a note to learn more about Louise, Juana, and Virginie pictured here, because I wasn't familiar with any of them, and I imagine they had interesting stories to tell. (I gather that Rosa Bonheur was greatly admired, but I don't think she participated a lot of organizational meetings.) I would note that Bouguereau at Academie Julien was well known for welcoming women students, particularly from America; women weren't allowed to study from the nude in most other ateliers.

Sankam said...

I'm assuming that particular Boucher isn't the one from the 18th century that I'm familiar with. Apparently he was well-known enough to just go by the one name though!

Amanda said...

The Art Canada Institute has a website with ebooks about Canadian artists. In the one on Emily Carr it says "Academie Julian and Academie Colarossi accepted women around 1870, though the Julian initially charged them double fees". https://www.aci-iac.ca/

Smurfswacker said...

Those bushy beards were useful for feathering edges.

Unknown said...

The lack of women makes me angry. Even today it seems like there are far more successful male illustrators. If one looks at successful illustrators today, I think that if you are an Asian male, you would have an easier time succeeding than as a white woman. There are statistics out there on the web to back this up too. There probably wouldn't have been as many minority artists in 19th century France as today but couldn't Pissarro have been considered a minority to some degree? In regards to Susan's earlier comments, I really think that the interest in non-traditional art tends to exclude those interested in traditional arts in regards to gallery representation.

Peter Drubetskoy said...

@Pierre Fontaine, yes! I saw that too! Some years ago, upon learning about the company "Caran D'Ache", I wrongly assumed that we Russians use the word karandash (карандаш) because of this company. Turns out it is the other way around, namely, Caran D'Ache "was the pseudonym of the 19th century French satirist and political cartoonist Emmanuel Poiré" (who was of Russian extraction) and "the Swiss art products company Caran d'Ache is named after him" (source)! That's fascinating!

Peter Drubetskoy said...

Correction to my comment above - Caran d'Ache was not of Russian extraciton, simply born in Russia...

Peter Drubetskoy said...

Another interesting thing one learns about Caran d'Ache from the Wikipedia entry:

In 1898 he co-founded the satirical, anti-Dreyfusard weekly magazine Psst… ! along with fellow artist and designer Jean-Louis Forain. The magazine lasted 85 issues and was made up entirely of editorial cartoons by Caran d'Ache and Forain, caricaturing society and its scandals from an antisemitic, pro-Army viewpoint.

(The Russian language version of the entry does not mention that.)

Jasmine Kurb said...

Great