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| Jehan-Georges Vibert, "The Committee on Moral Books" |
"There is a certain element of irreverence in the art-loving public of France, and the piquancy, even audacity, of the artist’s treatment of the clergy was relished....With an intimate knowledge of human nature Vibert combines a surprising acquaintance with historical detail, and his pictures, therefore, radiant with light and brilliant with color, are as faithful to historic verity as it is possible to make them. In this regard he has been likened aptly to Meissonier, who in his costume pieces studied to make them absolute transcripts of the times from which his incidents were taken."
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Book: Cavaliers and Cardinals: Nineteenth-Century French Anecdotal Paintings
Free Google eBook: "The Science of Painting" by Vibert
There's a Vibert painting of Gulliver in my book Imaginative Realism.
Previous post about Vibert's Cardinals
Free Google eBook: "The Science of Painting" by Vibert
There's a Vibert painting of Gulliver in my book Imaginative Realism.
Previous post about Vibert's Cardinals
5 comments:
Always love these paintings of Vibert. The hypocritical delight on the faces is wonderful, as is that shadowy figure in the background. Thanks, James!
Many of Vibert's paintings are masterpieces in so many ways, and this one is no exception!
The cardinal seems to be not so much pompously judgmental and disdaining, as having a fun time. He looks very modern, too. As if he could be sitting in a Barnes & Noble and laughing at a kid's book.
Steve, thanks for mentioning the guy on the stairs. I didn’t see him at first.
ROTM81, I agree. So many things to admire in Vibert’s paintings.
Susan, yes, he sees the humanity in these guys, as well as hypocrisy, which perhaps explains why his work was even popular among the clergy.
Is there anywhere online to view ultra-high resolution scans of his paintings? A lot of what I've found is poor quality (less than 2000 pixels wide).
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