Artist ,Poet, And Writer's Info

Claude Monet

2013-01-21T13:50:00.004+06:00

Claude Monet
French painter & caricaturist
born 1840- died 1926
Claude Monet (14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant).
He was the second son of Claude Adolphe Monet and Louise Justine Aubrée Monet, both of them second-generation Parisians.he was baptized in the local parish church, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, as Oscar-Claude, but his parents called him simply Oscar.

On 1 April 1851, Monet entered Le Havre secondary school of the arts. Locals knew him well for his charcoal caricatures, which he would sell for ten to twenty francs. Monet also undertook his first drawing lessons from Jacques-François Ochard, a former student of Jacques-Louis David. On the beaches of Normandy in about 1856/1857, he met fellow artist Eugène Boudin, who became his mentor and taught him to use oil paints. Boudin taught Monet "en plein air" (outdoor) techniques for painting. Both received the influence of Johan Barthold Jongkind.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

2013-01-21T13:26:00.001+06:00

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
French painter, draftsman, printmaker, engraver & violinist
Born in: Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France)
Died in: Paris (Departement de Ville de Paris, Ile-de-France, France)

Also known as:

J.A.D. Ingres, Zhan Ogiust Dominik Engr, Jean-Dominique Ingr

Nationality:

French

A man profoundly respectful of the past, he assumed the role of a guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ascendant Romantic style represented by his nemesis Eugène Delacroix. His exemplars, he once explained, were "the great masters which flourished in that century of glorious memory when Raphael set the eternal and incontestable bounds of the sublime in art ... I am thus a conservator of good doctrine, and not an innovator."Nevertheless, modern opinion has tended to regard Ingres and the other Neoclassicists of his era as embodying the Romantic spirit of his time, while his expressive distortions of form and space make him an important precursor of modern art.

Alphonse Maria Mucha

2013-01-21T13:19:00.001+06:00

Czechoslovakian painter & printmaker
born 1860- died 1939

Also known as:

Alfons Marie Mucha, Alphonse Marie Mucha

Nationality:

Czechoslovakian

Teacher of:

Roman Kryzanovsky (1885-1929), Clara Weaver Parrish (1861-1925)

Alphonse Maria Mucha was born in the town of Ivančice, Moravia (the present Czech Republic). Although his singing abilities allowed him to continue his education through high school in the Moravian capital of Brno, drawing had been his main hobby since childhood. He worked at decorative painting jobs in Moravia, mostly painting theatrical scenery. In 1879, he relocated to Vienna to work for a major Viennese theatrical design company, while informally augmenting his artistic education. When a fire destroyed his employer's business during 1881 he returned to Moravia, to do freelance decorative and portrait painting. Count Karl Khuen of Mikulov hired Mucha to decorate Hrušovany Emmahof Castle with murals, and was impressed enough that he agreed to sponsor Mucha's formal training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.

Peter Paul Rubens

2013-01-21T12:56:00.000+06:00

Peter Paul Rubens
Peter Paul
Rubens
painter & diplomat
born 1577- died 1640Born in: Belgium

Also known as:

Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Pieter Paul Rubens, Peter Paolo Ruben

Teacher of:

Sir Antony van Dyck (1599-1641), Lucas Vorsterman (1595-1675)

Assisted by:

Theodoor Rombouts (1597-1637)

Worked with:

Jan the elder Brueghel (1568-1625)

Michelangelo

2013-01-21T12:52:00.000+06:00

Michelangelo

Italian painter, sculptor, architect & poet
born 1475- died 1564Born in: Caprese Michelangelo (Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy)
Died in: Rome (Lazio, Italy)

Also known as:

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Michelagnolo Buonarruoti, Michel An

Nationality:

Italian

David
1504
Marble
Galleria dell'Accademia (Florence, Italy)

Web Gallery of Art
Added: 2001-10-04

On Beauty
by Michelangelo Buonarroti

Beauty was given at my birth to serve
As my vocation's faithful exemplar,
The light and mirror of two sister arts:
Who otherwise believes in judgement errs.
She alone lifts the eye up to that height
For which I strive, to sculpture and to paint.
O rash and blind the judgement that diverts
To sense the Beauty which in secret moves
And raises each sound intellect to Heaven!
No eye infirm the interval may pass
From mortal to divine, nor thither rise
Where without grace to ascend the thought is vain.

Mine eyes that are enamored of things fair
And this my soul that for salvation cries
May never heavenward rise
Unless the sight of beauty lifts them there.
Down from the loftiest star
A splendor falls on earth,
And draws desire afar
To that which gave it birth.
So love and heavenly fire and counsel wise
The noble heart finds most in starlike eyes.

John William Godward

2013-01-21T12:48:00.000+06:00

John William Godward
English artist
born August 9 1861- died December 13 1922

Nationality:English

Biographical Information

Reprinted below is an extract from the opening chapter of Dr Vern Swanson's landmark biography of the artist: John William Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism. The above link will take you to the entire text of the book, illustrated online from works in the ARC Museum.

The serene beauty and astonishing technical execution of John William Godward's paintings contradict the fact that this important artist has received virtually no critical acclaim or art historical recognition. We know little about this artist's private life, which is not betrayed by his art. Melancholy, kindly, reclusive, handsome, talented and shy, J. W. Godward's life is still a mystery, a censored book, protected by himself and sealed by his family. Unlike most Olympian Classicists before him, he preferred anonymity and privacy.

Ignored by the quickly changing tastes of the art critics, Godward became the climatic figure of English classical-subject painting as this genre itself shriveled under the blaze of the 20th century avant-garde. He was the best of the last great European painters to straight-forwardly embrace classical Greece and Rome in their art. Herein lies his significance to art history. With him and his colleagues, we see the nightfall of five hundred years of Classical subject painting in Western art.

Desperately idealistic, Godward was one of those artists, who at first glance, we think we fathom completely. Since he is often dismissed with the inadequate catch phrases: an Alma-Tadema clone, a "too late" Classicist, a "pedant of the brush", a "pot-boiler" or merely the painter of an insipid world of languorous women on marble benches, no serious study of his art has been undertaken. And because we are a society that honors "firsts" rather than "lasts" few art historians have examined the demise of Classical subject-painting, of which Godward is a chief exemplar. All of these judgements, in the light of historical distance, can be seen as unjust prejudices.

In Godward's work we see the final summation of half a millennium of Classical antique influence on Western painting. Next to Christianity it was by far the greatest outside influence on European painting. It vanished during Godward's generation -- killed, as it were, by contemporary nihilistic philosophies. While pointed references to Classicism continued, even unto today, the idealistic rhetoric accompanying it has died. During a period of rapidly declining interest in Greco-Roman antiquity courageous artists from the 19th century continued, against all odds, in this field for the first third of the 20th century ...

John William Waterhouse

2013-01-21T12:38:00.001+06:00

John William Waterhouse
English painter & draftsman
born 1849- died February 10 1917

Born in: Rome (Lazio, Italy)
Died in: St John's Wood (London, Greater London, England)

Also known as:

Nino, J.W. Waterhouse

Nationality:

English

Associate member of:

The Royal Academy of Art

Full member of:

The Royal Academy of Art

Biographical Information

John William Waterhouse was born in Rome, and was always known by his family, and personal friends as Nino, the diminutive of the Italian Giovanino. Both his parents were artists. Today Waterhouse is among the most popular of all the artists on this web site. It is interesting to note however that little is known about his personal life today, considering he died in 1917, and was an active member of the Roay Academy. What is known indicates he was a retiring, shy man, he left no diaries or journals and I suspect, quite deliberately covered his tracks. His friend, William Logsdail [1859-1944] wrote his memoirs, but I have not been able to locate a copy of them. I set out below such information I as I have about Waterhouse.

Waterhouse became ARA in 1885, and a full RA in 1895. In 1883 he married Esther Kenworthy at the parish church in Ealing in West London. There were no children. The newly married couple lived in a purpose built artistic colony in Primrose Hill, fellow residents, and close friends were Logsdail, and Maurice Greiffenhagen and his wife. The houses had studios. Around 1900 Waterhouse and his wife moved to St John's Wood, evidence of both increasing prosperity, and the need to be part of the artistic community. He was I think one of the most accomplished British painters of the second half of the 19th century. He shared with many of them a fascination with events from antiquity and legend.

Early in his career Waterhouse established his style. It changed little, but he continually refined it, and his beautiful ladies were recognisable flesh and blood, with superb skin tones. He also painted a few excellent portraits of women, some of them being of the members of the Henderson family of Lord Faringdon, of Buscot Park fame. A lot of the pictures spent many years on the walls of prosperous Home Counties families, but the problems of Lloyds of London have, in many cases, forced their sale, just as their real value, and the artistic worth of Waterhouse's achievement has come to be realised. He continued to do the same thing throughout his career, but he did it so well, who are we to complain?

In 1917 he died of cancer, but he had carried on working virtually to the end of his life, as evidenced by the two very late pictures bought by Lord Leverhume, still on show at the Lady Lever Gallery to this day.

OBITUARY - The Times Monday February 12th 1917.
Mr J. W. Waterhouse RA died at his house in St John's Wood on Saturday, after a long illness in his 68th year.

The first of his paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy was Sleep and his Half-Brother Death, in 1874, and since then there have been few Academies without one or two of his works. He was elected an ARA in 1885 the year of one of his best paintings St Eulalia. The Magic Circle, painted in 1886 which was purchased for the Chantry Bequest Collection, and The Lady of Shallot, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1888 were others of his most popular works. He became an RA in 1895.

His painting Hylas and the Nymphs, shown at the Royal Academy in 1897 passed into the collection of the Corporation of Manchester, and by them was lent for Exhibition in Glasgow in 1901, and the Franco-British Exhibition 7 years later. At other loan exhibitions in Whitechapel, Manchester, City of London Guildhall, and Earls Court examples of his work have been on view from time to time. His wife several times exhibited paintings of floral subjects at the Royal Academy.

Mr Waterhouse was an eclectic painter. He painted Pre-Raphaelite pictures in a more modern manner. He was in fact a kind of academic Burne-Jones [1833-1898], like him in his types and moods, but with less insistence on design and more on atmosphere. His art was always agreeable, for he had taste and learning as well as considerable accomplishments; he was one of those painters whose pictures always seem to suggest that he must have done better in some other work. This means that he never quite 'came off,' that he raised expectations in his art that it did not completely satisfy; and a reason for this is to be found in his eclecticism. He never quite found himself or the method which would completely express him. One feels that his figures are there to make a picture rather than they are occupied with any business of their own. They do make it very skillfully, but neither they or the pictures seem quite alive. He was at his best, perhaps, in the Martyrdom of St Eulalia, now in the Tate Gallery which escapes more than usual from the Burne-Jones lethargy, which though very natural and expressive in Burne-Jones himself, seems to be a mere artistic device in Waterhouse. But he was at any rate, quite free from that theatricality which is the common vice of academic and subject painters. He painted always like a scholar and a gentleman, though not like a great artist.

COMMENT
Waterhouse was yet another unhappy artist who had lived into the time of modernism in the early twentieth century, when in the art world the untalented became the fashionable, something, alas, still happening today. Thus newly dead Victorian artists were the subject of further attack in their obituaries. One wonders just what this reviewer would think were he alive today to see the high prices, critical praise, and popularity of the art of John William Waterhouse. On a more general point I have noticed whilst researching these obituaries, that it was felt to be intrusive to say virtually anything about the character of the deceased artist, surely one of the main purposes of any obituary.

Source: Victorian Art in Britain.

Leonardo da Vinci

2013-01-21T12:32:00.001+06:00

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci
Italian painter, sculptor, architect, author, engineer, inventor, lutanist, mathematician & scientist

Born in: Vinci (Florentine province, Tuscany, Italy)
Died in: Amboise (Indre-et-Loire, France)

Also known as:

Leonard de Vinci, Leonardo da Vinci

Nationality:

Italian

Rival of:

Michelangelo (1475-1564)

Student of:

Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488)

Teacher of:

Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio (1466-1516), Andrea Solario (1460-1524)

Uncle of:

Pierino da Vinci (1531-1554)

Biographical Information

Leonardo da Vinci was a Florentine artist, one of the great masters of the High Renaissance, who was also celebrated as a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist. His profound love of knowledge and research was the keynote of both his artistic and scientific endeavors. His innovations in the field of painting influenced the course of Italian art for more than a century after his death, and his scientific studies particularly in the fields of anatomy, optics, and hydraulics anticipated many of the developments of modern science.

John Singer Sargent American painter, draftsman, sculptor, portraitist, muralist, watercolorist & guitarist

2013-01-21T12:17:00.001+06:00

John Singer Sargent
American painter, draftsman, sculptor, portraitist, muralist, watercolorist & guitarist
Born in: Florence (Florentine province, Tuscany, Italy)
Died in: London (Greater London, England)
Biographical Information
Living in Western Europe for much of his life, John Singer Sargent became one of the world's greatest portraitists and muralists of his time. With his virtuoso handling of paint and ingenious compositions, he brilliantly captured his sitter's character, often focusing on their aristocratic refinement and individual hauteur. As ARC Chairman Fred Ross notes: "The power of his compositions are legendary, and give his work a wall presence that surpasses most other artists from any period. He is perhaps the most sought after American artist of his time and his major works sell for many millions of dollars in the major auction houses of New York."

Sargent was born in Florence, Italy in 1856 to American ex-patriots. It would not be until age 21 that would he visit America for the first time. Well schooled and fluent in several languages, Sargent moved with ease in European aristocracy. When combined with his artistic training by the famous Parisian portraitist Carolus-Duran [1838-1917], Sargent launched a lifelong career of success after success.

But his career was not without scandal.

As early as 1882, Sargent had a great desire to paint the portrait of Madame Pierre Gautreau (1859-1915). Madame Gautreau was an American from New Orleans and moved to Paris with her French mother after the death of her father. Not long after, she married the banker Pierre Gautreau and quickly established herself in Parisian society pages. Madame Gautreau did not commission Sargent. Instead, he was able to obtain an introduction and persuade her to let him paint her portrait. The finished product was exhibited in the Salon of 1884 as Portrait de Mme, now known as Madame X.

The painting caused a great deal of horror and scandal. The original portrait showed Madame Gautreau with her right shoulder strap erotically slipped over her shoulder. This eroticism, combined with her grave flesh tones, proved too much for conservative critics. Not long after the scandal, Sargent moved to London where he would live for the rest of his life. He kept the Portrait of Madame X, and more than twenty years later, he sold it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Writing to the museum's director Edward Robinson in 1916, Sargent wrote: "I suppose it is the best thing I have done."

In London, Sargent quickly re-established his career as a portraitist, and through the patronage of several key London elites, he was once again able to secure the trust of his aristocratic sitters. The 1890s and early 1900s saw Sargent's career rise to unprecedented heights through important portrait and mural commissions.

While preparing for a trip to Boston from his London residence, Sargent died quietly in his sleep of a heart attack on April 25, 1925 at the age of sixty-nine.

Lord Frederick Leighton

2013-01-21T12:11:00.000+06:00

Lord Frederick Leighton English painter, sculptor, illustrator & writer

Biographical Information

The leading establishment figure in Victorian art, was the first artist to be ennobled. He was President of the Royal Academy for almost two decades, and his presidency was a time of unrivaled prestige, and success. Leighton carried out his duties with panache, and scrupulous fairness. He was a classical painter producing highly finished pictures, and was also an excellent portraitist (see his portrait of Sir Richard Burton the explorer and orientalist). Leighton was a sophisticated, cosmopolitan figure, much of his early life having been spent in Germany and Italy. The Leighton family was financially independent, his grandfather having been Doctor to the Russian Royal Family. Leighton's father was also a Doctor, but retired in middle-life due to the onset of deafness. Leighton enrolled in the Berlin School of art in his early teens, having lied about his age. The following year he enrolled in an Art Academy in Florence. The Nazarenes and Italian Renaissance painters were considerable early influences. His cosmopolitan early life exposed him to a wider range of influences than any other English painter of his day. Many people now believe that his decorative pictures of the 1870s represent his best work, though his large classical pictures remain extremely impressive.

In 1855 Leighton sent his vast canvass Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna is Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence, to the Royal Academy Exhibition, where it was a sensation, creating his reputation as an artist overnight. This vast painting, done in Rome was the product of two years work. It is over 17 feet long! The subject concerns Cimabue's Rucellai Madonna being taken in procession from the painter's house to a large church in 13th century Florence. The painting was meticulously planned by Leighton, and a great number of preparatory sketches were used. The whole vast picture is wonderfully painted, and in it's style points towards the mature large works of the painter. It is, however, very static, also an enduring feature of Leighton's work. The picture was greatly admired by Prince Albert, and as result was bought by Queen Victoria. In the immediate following years, Leighton was unable to repeat this success, but as the 1860s progressed grew steadily more successful. He moved to London in 1859, was elected in Associate of the Academy in 1864, a full Academician in 1868, and PRA in 1878.

Leighton was a lifelong bachelor. In later life his favorite model was Ada Alice Pullen, known as Dorothy Dene. George Bernard Shaw knew them both, and it is likely that they were the models for Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolitlle in Pygmalion. Throughout his life he was energetic, and hardworking, and his inability to take life more easily when in his sixties accelerated his death. It is a curious fact that Leighton was only Baron Leighton of Stretton on the last day of his life. His funeral was at St. Pauls Cathedral.

Leighton's magnificent home Leighton House, is now a museum.
ADVICE TO YOUNG ARTISTS.
By Sir Frederic Leighton, 1893.

At the Royal Academy Banquet on the eve of the opening of the exhibition, the President gave expression to what must have been often in the minds of all artists for a considerable time past. Sir Frederic's words were directed to young artists only, but his excellent advice might be profitably considered by every painter, old and young. After referring to what he considers to be the comprehensive catholicity of the present collection, a phrase perhaps a little over-strained, Sir Frederic continued: 'Looking from a wide standpoint at this exhibition and embracing further in the field of vision the many and manifold exhibitions, especially of paintings, which each season brings forth; struck as we all must be, deeply with the vehement and almost feverish strife of conflicting theories and opinions which is rife about us, it is impossible not to feel how perplexing such a condition of things must be to the very young, who, on the outer threshold of their career, eager and still malleable, seek a secure path in such a labyrinth of contradictions. Extreme youth when it is healthy is bold and fearless, and not a little inclined to rebel against tradition, however rooted in the long assent of men. And here, gentlemen, I would not be misunderstood. Steeped as I am to my innermost marrow in reverence for the mighty men of the past to whom Art owes whatever true sublimity it boasts; convinced, unshakably, of the vital validity of the great principles on which their achievements rest, I am yet not one of those who would refuse to Art all power of evolution, or who believe that, though assuredly it will never reach more lofty summits, it may not send forth lateral green shoots fresh and delightful as only they are, indeed, nourished from the strong sap of the parent stem.

In brief, I do not believe - to change the metaphor - that they who, in our time, have wedded their lives to art have clasped to their breasts a lovely but lifeless corpse. To the very young then, I would fain offer one or two matters for thought, if, perchance, they will hearken to one who has grown old in unwavering sympathy with their struggles and doubts. I would beg them to keep ever before their eyes the vital truth that sincerity is the well-spring of all lasting achievement, and that no good thing ever took root in untruth or self-deception. I would urge them to remember that if every excellent work is stamped with the personality of its author, no work can be enduring that is stamped with a borrowed stamp; and that, therefore, their first duty is to see that the thoughts, the emotions, the impressions they fix on he canvas are in very truth their own thoughts, their own emotions, their own spontaneous impressions, and not those of others: for work that does not spring from the heart has no roots, and will of certainty wither and perish. The other maxim also I would urge on them - that true genius knows no hurry, that patience is of its essence, and thoroughness its constant mark; and, lastly, I would ask them to believe that the gathered experience of past ages is a precious heritage and not an irksome load; and that nothing will fortify them better for the future, and free development, than the reverent and loving study of the past."

Raphael Italian painter, frescoist, sculptor, architect, poet & archaeologist

2013-01-21T12:02:00.001+06:00

Raphael Italian painter, frescoist, sculptor, architect, poet & archeologists
Born in: Urbino (Pesaro e Urbino, Marches, Italy)
Died in: Rome (Lazio, Italy)

Also known as:

Raffaello Sanzio, Raffael Santi, Rafael Sanzio de Urbino, Ra

Nationality:

Italian

Student of:

Pietro Perugino (c1445-1523)

Teacher of:

Luca Penni (1500-1577), Polidoro da Caravaggio (1497-1543), Giulio Romano, Giulio Romano (c1499-1546), Tommaso di Andrea Vincidor (-1536)

Colleague of:

Marcantonio Raimondi (1480-1534)

Son of:

Giovanni Santi (1430-1494)

Assisted by:

Giovanni da Udine (1487-1564), Giovanni Francesco Penni (1496-1528), Antonio da, the younger Sangallo (1484-1546)

Friend of:

Bernardino Pinturicchio (c1454-1513)

Worked with:

Pietro di Giacomo Rosselli (1474-1532)

Employee of:

Perino del Vaga (1501-1547)

Patronized by:

Atalanta di Galeotto Baglioni (-1508)

Jean Leon Gerome French painter, draftsman & sculptor

2013-01-21T11:48:00.002+06:00

Jean Leon Gerome

French painter, draftsman & sculptor
Born in: Vesoul (Haute-Saône, Franche-Comté, France)
Died in: Paris (Departement de Ville de Paris, Ile-de-France, France)

Student of : Paul Delaroche (1797-1856), Charles Gleyre (1808-1874)

Biographical Information

French painter, was born on the 11th of May 1824 at Vesoul (Haute-SaOne). He went to Paris in 1841 and worked under Paul Delaroche, whom he accompanied to Italy (1844—1845). On his return he exhibited The Cock-fight, which gained him a third-class medal in the Salon of 1847. The Virgin with Christ and St John and Anacreon, Bacchus and Cupid took a second-class medal in 1848. He exhibited Bacchus and Love, Drunk, a Greek Interior and Souvenir d’Italie, in 1851; Paestum (1852); and An Idyll (1853).

In 1854 Gérôme made a journey to Turkey and the shores of the Danube, and in 1857 visited Egypt. To the exhibition of 1855 he contributed a Pifferaro, A Shepherd, A Russian Concert and a large historical canvas, The Age of Augustus and the Birth of Christ. The last was somewhat confused in effect, but in recognition of its consummate ability the State purchased it. Gérôme’s reputation was greatly enhanced at the Salon of 1857 by a collection of works of a more popular kind: the Duel: after a Masquerade, Egyptian Recruits crossing the Desert, Memnon and Sesostris and Camels Watering, the drawing of which was criticized by Edmond About. In Caesar (1859) Gérôme tried to return to a severer class of work, but the picture failed to interest the public. Phryne before the Areopagus, Le Roi Candaule and Socrates finding Alcibiades in the House of Aspasia (1861) gave rise to some scandal by reason of the subjects selected by the painter, and brought down on him the bitter attacks of Paul de Saint-Victor and Maxime Ducamps. At the same Salon he exhibited the Egyptian chopping Straw, and Rembrandt biting an Etching, two very minutely finished works. Gérôme’s best paintings are of Eastern subjects; among these may be named the Turkish Prisoner and Turkish Butcher (1863); Prayer (1865); The Slave Market (1867); and The Harem out Driving (1869). He often illustrated history, as in Louis XIV. and Moliere (1863); The Reception of the Siamese Ambassadors at Fontainebleau (1865); and The Death of Marshal Ney (1868).

Gérôme was also successful as a sculptor; he executed, among other works; Omphale (1887), and the statue of the due d’Aumale which stands in front of the chateau of Chantilly (1899). His Bellona (1892), in ivory, metal, and precious stones, which was also exhibited in the Royal Academy of London, attracted great attention. The artist then began an interesting series of Conquerors, wrought in gold, silver and gems — Bonaparte entering Cairo (1897); Tamerlane (1898) and Frederick the Great (1899). Gérôme was elected member of the Institut in 1865. He died in 1904.

Oil on canvas
Private collection

Harem Women Feeding Pigeons in a Courtyard is a masterwork created during Gérôme's adventures to the middle east. At a time when travel involved health risks, physical discomforts and potentially lethal hazards that we today can only imagine, Gérôme's travels were an act of heroism and exploration of a type that is no longer possible in our shrinking world. The composition of the picture is remarkable, all the way across the canvas from left to right through the line of action. The white veiled women are each distinct individuals by the color of their robes and the poise of their individual poses. The woman feeding the pigeons extends her hand in easy grace, enhanced by Gérôme's depiction of the birdfeed as it gently drifts towards the ground. I cannot with certainty say that Gérôme consciously wished to evoke the Madonna, but her robe is the unmistakable gentle tint of blue used by artists for centuries when depicting this iconic figure. Surely it is significant that the light catches some of the pigeons, bleaching them dove-white as angels on the wing.

In contrast, the palace guard is a true outsider to the scene. Unlike the women, his face is uncovered and his skin is dark. He wears a dramatic, military red robe and his arms are tightly clenched to his body. He is not in any way involved in her act of charity and nourishment, which is particularly feminine. The comparison is made that the women tend to the flock of pigeons as the man tends to the flock of women; a commentary on Arabic culture. The birds are masterfully done, flying in-and-out of shafts of bright sunlight. Their shadows are cast on the sun-drenched steps, and they nest in the beams overhead. The sense of flight is complete, with elegant wings suspending them mid-air, mixed with a sense of both delicacy and movement.

The most impressive aspect to this picture, is the way in which Gerome has captured the lofty space and feeling of the courtyard. The pillars have support beams stretching back to the wall, providing a sense of depth. The pillars on the left are partially lit, providing a sense of height and scale. One can almost experience the cool recesses of the space and hear the coo of the birds. The door behind the birdfeeder leads into darkness and the cooler recesses within, while the window to the right opens out into the sun and open air. This enclosed space, is fully realized and complete.

The Great English philosopher Sir Francis Bacon Biography And Photo Gallery

2011-06-02T15:58:00.002+06:00

Francis Bacon was born on January 22,1561 in london.He is famous for English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He came of an aristocratic family, being the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. His mother was the daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, and sister-in-law of Sir William Cecil (Lord Burghley).

Not much is known of Francis Bacon's early boyhood. He is believed to have been a delicate child who suffered prolonged spells of ill-health. The gravity of his manner in his youth was due perhaps to this circumstance. His boyhood was marked also by an intense absorption in studies which normally attracted young men much senior to him in age.

In his thirteenth year he, along with his elder brother (two years his senior), proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge. He spent three years at Cambridge and, when he left, he carried with him a deep dislike of the system of academic education that prevailed there.He had already become acquainted with court life. This was made possible, of course, by the high position occupied by his father and other influential family connections. Queen Elizabeth visited, on more than one occasion, her Lord Keeper at the latter's country residence. Once, observing the young man's grave demeanor, she referred to Francis as "her young Lord Keeper". Some of his essays provide evidence that he had early become familiar with the manners and conventions of the court. The advice he gives in his essays of how persons in high positions should behave towards superiors, inferiors and equals is based on expediency as well as reasons. Respect to one's superiors is not, according to him, an act of servility but of practical duty. Besides, if we do not respect our superiors, what respect can we expect from those inferior to us ?
On June 27, 1576 both Francis and his elder brother (Antony) were admitted to Gray's Innt. But only a few months later Francis went abroad with the English Ambassador to France, and began his practical training in diplomacy. His study of continental politics and diplomacy supplied material at Gorhambury in Hertfordshire. Such as Of Ceremonies and Respects and Of Honors and Reputation.One of the four societies which have the exclusive right to call candidates to the English Bar. They arrange lectures and hold examination in law. The other three societies are known as Lincoln's Inn, the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple (The phrase "to call the bar" means to permit person to practice as a barrister orbar-at-law.)for his "Notes on the State of Europe". France was at that time in a disturbed state. Catholic and Huguenot were arrayed against each other in civil strife, and the cruel scenes that were enacted as a result thereof later provided material for his essay: Of Faction. Bacon's stay in Paris also gave him an opportunity to acquire a high degree of proficiency in the French language.

In 1579, after his father's death, he returned to England and took up residence at Gray's Inn because he found no other avenue, his representations to the government for a suitable post having gone unheeded. He was called to the bar in 1582. In 1584, having failed to better his circumstances through other channels, he entered parliament as representative of Melcombe Regis. During the winter of 1584-85 he wrote a "Letter of Advice to Queen Elizabeth" which reveals a political judgment mature beyond his years and a coolness of temper considerably in advance of the times. In it he advocated not only a milder treatment of the Puritans but also, for catholics, replacement of the oath of supremacy by an oath acknowledging thai any Englishman would be a traitor if he refused to bear arms against any foreign enemy, the Pope included.

In the 1586, parliament, he represented Taunton and in that of 1589 for Liverpool, serving on a number of committees. His political creed consisted in a persistent advocacy of a via media in all things, a middle course between popular privilege and royal prerogative, moderation in secular reform with toleration in religion. This policy he supported in two pamphlets published in 1585 and 1589. In both he pleaded for greater elasticity in matters of doctrine and of discipline.

In 1591, Bacon attached himself to the Earl of Essex who was at that lime the Queen's hot favourite. He became one of Essex's confidential advisers and early in 1593 he drew his brother, Antony, into Essex's service. However, in the parliament of 1593, when he sat for Middlesex, he seriously marred his prospects by his determined but untimely opposition to the Government's demand for a triple subsidy to help to meet the expenses of the Spanish War. This conduct turned the Queen against him and when the office of attorney-general fell vacant in 1594 she would not listen to Essex's enthusiastic advocacy of his claims. Instead she appointed Sir Edward Coke, whom Lord Burghley had supported. Even when, in the next year, Burghley joined Essex in recommending Bacon for the post of solicitor-general, the Queen still refused to appoint him, although she did make him one of her learned counsel.

Essex tried to make up for these disappointments by pressing upon Bacon the gift of a piece of land at Twickenham, valued at two thousand pounds. Essex and Bacon appear to have lived on terms of a close intimacy. Bacon sharing the social pleasures of Essex House, in furtherance of which he wrote the masque "The Conference of Pleasure" a line of work for which Bacon showed a distinct aptitude. His essay Of Masques and Triumphs shows how Bacon had studied even the art of providing entertainment.

Essex again recommended Bacon to the Queen, this lime for the Master of the Rolls, but again without success. It seems, indeed, that this persistent advocacy was more of a hindrance than a help. Moreover Bacon had now begun to feel doubts about his patron's courses. Essex had always been attracted to an active career and enamored of military renown. Also he was impetuous and easily provoked to rash actions when his counsels were resisted or rejected. In 1596, after the Cadiz expedition, he had become the idol of the military men and of the populace and Bacon saw clearly that for such a man to court such a reputation would surely alienate the Queen's affections and arouse her fears. Accordingly he wrote (in October, 1596) to Essex, urging him to seek the favor of the Queen alone, and to shun any appearance of popularity. His advice had little effect, for Essex was by then busily engaged in the preparations against invasion and afterwards, in 1597, with the Islands voyage. Bacon had by now increased his reputation by the publication of a volume containing his first Essays, together with the "Colors of Good and Evil" and the "Meditations Sacrae". He remained on friendly terms with Essex and in 1598 was writing advice to him about Irish problems.

In 1599 Essex, having failed to suppress Tyrone's rebellion in Ireland, incurred the Queen's wrath. Bacon, it seems, made some effort to mitigate her ire, but he also took a minor part, as one of her learned counsel, in accusing his patron at his informal trial before a body of privy Councillors in June 1600. Essex bore him no ill-will and shortly after his release was again on friendly terms with him. But soon afterwards Essex made an absurd attempt to instigate a revolt of the people against the Queen and even formed the desperate project of seizing the Queen's person. Essex was arrested and tried for treason. And, strange to say. Bacon played a prominent role in securing Essex's conviction. By thus biting the hand that had fed him, Bacon incurred much ill-feeling. As a result of his conviction, Essex was executed.

Whether picked by his conscience or stung by the taunts of the friends of Essex, Bacon published in 1604, an Apology for his action. He had also been responsible for drafting in 1601 the Official Declaration of the Practices and Treasons Attempted and Committed by Robert, Late Earl of Essex. Even so, his part in these actions and his efforts in the great monopolies debate of 1601 to guide the House of Commons into courses not offensive to the Queen did not win him any further advancement from Elizabeth.

The first edition of Bacon's "Essays" was published in 1597. The volume, dedicated to his brother Anthony, contained ten papers. The pregnancy of the thought and the pithiness of the style rendered the book well-nigh an epoch-making one. Its popularity was great, almost from the very day of issue.

In 1603, James I ascended to the English throne. Showing a flexible courtier's adaptability. Bacon tried to win the new sovereign's favor by every wile he could employ. With the help of his cousin, Robert Cecil, he managed to obtain Knighthood (in July 1603). In 1604 he was confirmed as learned counsel, and sat in the first parliament of the new reign as member for Ipswich, taking an active but not very successful part in the debates of its first session. He was also active as one of the commissioners for discussing a union with Scotland.

In the autumn of 1605 Bacon published his Advancement of Learning, dedicated to the King. This great philosophical treatise was afterwards translated and expanded by him into the Latin dissertation, De Augments Scientiarum. It is a noble review of the state of learning in his age, its defects, the emptiness of many of the studies chosen, and the means to be adopted to secure improvements. His essays Of Seeming Wise. Of Custom and Education, and Of Studies are all concerned with topics indicated in treatise.

In the summer of 1606, at the mature age of 45, Bacon got married. His wife. Alice Barnham, was the daughter of a London alderman. She brought him an adequate dowry, very acceptable to a man as deeply in debt as Bacon was. The ceremony was celebrated with great pomp. For fifteen years his married life remained smooth and happy, until after his downfall, when an estrangement took place between his wife and him, which was never healed.
In June 1607, Bacon at last obtained legal office and became Solicitor-General. For the next two or three years he was engaged in adjusting differences between the two great parties in the land—the High Anglicans and the Puritans. He urged toleration on both parties as well as upon the King. His political influence, however, remained negligible, a fact which he afterwards attributed to the power and jealousy of Cecil who was now Earl of Salisbury and the King's Chief Minister. But he had not forgotten his project of reorganizing the study of natural sciences. He had surveyed the ground in the Advancement of Learning; and some short pieces not published at the time were probably written during the following two or three years. Towards the end of 1607 he sent to his friends a small tract entitled Cogitata et Visa. In 1608 he wrote the panegyric In felicem memoriam Elizabethae and the learned and ingenious De sapientia veterum. He also completed what seems to have been the Redargutio philosophiarum, a treatise on the idols of the theater. In 1609 the Wisdom of the Ancients appeared, in which he explained the classic fables and mythology on allegorical principles; while new editions of his "Essays" were published in 1607 and 1612 with several additions.

Sir Robert Cecil. Bacon's cousin, who had recently been created Earl of Salisbury, died somewhat suddenly in 1612 and Bacon tried to obtain from the King the dead man's office. King James did not think it wise to grant the favor, feeling somewhat apprehensive as to what lengths Bacon's ideas on toleration might lead him. In his desire to secure the office of Master of the Wards, also. Bacon was destined to suffer disappointment. In 1613, however, the King consoled him with the long-cherished office of Attorney-General. The essay Of Great Place is undoubtedly written out of the fullness of his own weary experience especially the following sentence: "The rising unto place is laborious and by pains men come to greater pains; and it is sometimes base, and by indignities men come to dignities". But, apart from granting him this favour, the King paid little heed to Bacon's political advice as the King had fallen under the spell of Robert Carr (later Earl of Somerset) and the Howards. The Parliament of 1614, in which Bacon sat for Cambridge University, showed an equal distaste for Bacon's counsels.

In March 1617, Bacon was appointed Lord Keeper. It was largely to James's new favorite, George Villiers (later Duke of Buckingham), that Bacon owed this promotion and also his promotion to be Lord Chancellor in January 1618 and Baron Verulam in July of the same year. Yet Backingham's favors still did not bring Bacon any real political influence, and most of Bacon's time was still spent upon the judicial duties of his office.

Bacon displayed great energy as Chancellor and also took a prominent part in the prosecutions of Sir Waiter Raleigh (1618) and the Earl of Suffolk (1619). He had now a very large income and lived in style. On entering his sixtieth year in January 1620 he celebrated the occasion with great pomp. Ben Jonson attended the party and commemorated the scene in lines that were both flattering and felicitous. In October 1620 he published the Novum Organum (or. the New Instrument for the interpretation of Nature and the Discovery of Truth). This work elicited the warmest expressions of admiration from the ablest men of Europe. A further honor was conferred on him in January. 1621 when he was created Viscount St. Albans.

Bacon was now at the summit of his career. He had won honours, dignities, wealth and public esteem. But his sense of his glory must have been marred by a consciousness of a number of shameful acts of arbitrariness and tyranny which he had committed at the instigation of King James and the Duke of Buckingham. He consented to the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the greatest men of his times; he deserted his friend, Attorney-General Yelverton when the latter was put on trial for certain charges; he supported the Spanish alliance, against the sentiments of the nation and against his own policy; and so on. A passage in his essay Of Negotiating which shows his uneasiness at the degrading servility he had been displaying all his life, first towards the Cecils and then towards King James and the King's favourites.

Three days after Bacon had been created Viscount St. Albans, Parliament met (after having remained suspended since 1614) and soon the House of Commons began to air their accumulated grievances. His enemies seized the opportunity to bring charges of bribery and corruption against Bacon. Bacon tried to urge the King to resist these charges. He said to be King: "Those that will strike at your Chancellor, it is much to be feared will strike at your crown". But the King could do precious little. The evidence against Bacon was overwhelming. Finding his case hopeless Bacon made a confession of guilt and threw himself on the mercy of the House of Lords.

On May 3, 1621 the House of Lords after considerable discussion decided upon the sentence which was as follows:

(i) That he should pay a fineof forty thousand pounds;

(ii) That he should be imprisoned in the Tower during the King's pleasure;

(iii) That he should never again hold any public office; and

(iv) That he should never sit in parliament, or come within the verge of the court.

The sentence was, however, not fully carried out. He was released from the Tower after four days; his fine was remitted and the ban on his presence at the court was withdrawn, though the bar against his sitting in Parliament was not removed.

The remaining five years of his life were spent in work far more valuable to the world than anything he had accomplished in his high office. From the literary and philosophical point of view, this last period was, indeed, the most precious. Smitten by his disgrace he turned with much eagerness to intellectual pursuits that had been interrupted by his official duties. His new delight in his intellectual labors is finely reflected in the essay Of Nature in Men. His retirement from politics enabled him, indeed, to make his literary reputation more firm and enduring. He devoted himself with amazing energy to literature and science, and during this period produced his histories (History of Henry- VII, History of Great Britain, etc.), De Augment’s (the Latin translation with expansion of the Advancement of Learning), New Atlantis (unfinished). Not the least important work was the final revision of his "Essays" with a number of new papers, raising the total to fifty-eight. This was his last literary undertaking and was published a few months before his death.

An experiment which was an anticipation of the modem process of refrigeration caused his death. In March 1626, driving one day near High gate and deciding on impulse to discover whether snow would delay the process of putrefaction, he stopped his carriage, purchased a hen and with his own hands stuffed it with snow. As a result he caught a chill and was taken to the house of the Earl of Arundel, where on April 9th, 1626 he died of bronchitis.The Tower: A medieval fortress on the bank of the Thames, used in English history as State prison.

Sir Francis Bacon Photo Gallery:

The Dutch Painter Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema Biography And Painting Photo Gallery

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Alma-Tadema was a Netherlands painter & draftsman who born January 8 1836- died June 28 1912 He trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, Tadema go's to England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there.He is A classical-subject painter, Tadema became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figure.

His work fell into disrepute after his death, and only since the 1960s has it been reevaluated for its importance within nineteenth-century English art.

Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema

Biography:Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema was born as Laurens Alma Tadema on 8 January 1836, in the small village of Dronrijp, in Friesland in the north of the Netherlands.He was the sixth child of Pieter Jiltes Tadema.Lawrence Alma-Tadema was one of the most renowned painters of late nineteenth century Britain.

The Tadema family moved in 1838 to the near town of Leeuwarden, where Pieter’s position as a notary would be more lucrative.His father past when Laurens was four, leaving his mother with five children: Laurens, his sister, and three boys from his father’s first marriage. His mother had artistic leanings, and decided that drawing lessons should be incorporated into the children's education. Tadema received his first art training with a local drawing master hired to teach his older half-brothers.In 1851 at the age of fifteen he suffered a physical and mental breakdown. this illness given only a short time to live.

His famous works photo's under given below :

The Bangladeshi Artist "Shilpacharjya Zainul Abedin"

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Zainul Abedin (December 29, 1914 – May 28, 1976) was a Bangladesh painter. Like many of his contemporaries, His paintings on the Bengal famine of 1940s is probably his most characteristic work. In Bangladesh, he is referred with honor as Shilpacharya (Great Teacher of the Arts) in Bangladesh.

Early life and education :Zainul Abedin was born in Kishoreganj, East Bengal, on December 29, 1914. Much of his childhood was spent near the scenic banks of the Brahmaputra River. The Brahmaputra would later appear in many of his paintings and be a source of inspiration all throughout his career. In 1933, Abedin was admitted to Calcutta Government Art School in Kolkata. He joined the faculty of the same school after his education was completed. A series of watercolours that Zainul did as his tribute to the Brahmaputra River earned him the Governor's Gold Medal in an all-India exhibition in 1938. This award gave Abedin the confidence to create his own visual style.

Famine Paintings:The man-made Great Bengal Famine of 1943 moved Zainul deeply. He created his famine painting set, which, when exhibited in 1944, brought him even more critical acclaim. He was an influential member of the Calcutta Group of progressive artists.

His few Paintings are:

James Jacques Joseph Tissot The French Painter

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James Jacques Joseph Tissot (15 October 1836 - 8 August 1902) was
a French painter, who spent much of his career in Britain.

Biography:Tissot was born in Nantes, France. In about 1856, he began study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Hippolyte Flandrin and Lamothe, and became friendly with Edgar Degas and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Tissot exhibited in the Paris Salon for the first time in 1859, two portraits of women and three scenes in medieval dress from Faust. The latter show the influence of the Belgian painter Henri Leys (Jan August Hendrik Leys), whom he had met in Antwerp in 1859. In the mid-1860s, however, Tissot began to concentrate on depicting women, often although not always shown in modern dress. Like contemporaries such as Alfred Stevens and Claude Monet, Tissot also explored japonisme, including Japanese objects and costumes in his pictures. A portrait of Tissot by Degas from these years (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) shows him with a Japanese screen hanging on the wall.

Tissot fought in the Franco-Prussian War and then in defense of the Paris Commune. Either because of the political associations caused by the latter, or simply because of better opportunities, he left Paris for London in 1871. Having already worked as a caricaturist for Thomas Gibson Bowles, the owner of the magazine Vanity Fair, as well as exhibited at the Royal Academy, Tissot arrived with established social and artistic connections in London. He quickly developed his reputation as a painter of elegantly dressed women shown in scenes of fashionable life. In 1874, Degas asked him to join them in the first exhibition organized by the artists we call the Impressionists, but Tissot refused. He continued to be close to the artists however. Berthe Morisot visited him in London in 1874 and he traveled to Venice with Edouard Manet at about the same time. He also saw Whistler regularly. In 1875-6, Tissot met an Irish divorcee named Mrs. Kathleen Newton, who became the painter's companion and frequent model. She moved into Tissot's household in St. John's Wood, London, in 1876 and stayed there until her death in the late stages of consumption in 1882.

After Kathleen Newton's death, Tissot returned to Paris. A major exhibition of his work took place in 1885 at the Galerie Sedelmeyer, where he showed 15 large paintings in a series called La Femme à Paris. Unlike the genre scenes of fashionable women he painted in London, these paintings represent different types and classes of women, shown in their professional and social contexts. The works suggest the influence of Japanese prints in their use of unexpected angles and framing.

During the mid-1880s, Tissot experienced a religious revelation which led him to spend the rest of his life illustrating the Bible. He traveled to the Middle East in 1886, 1889, and 1896 to make studies of the landscape and people. His series of 365 gouache illustrations showing the life of Christ were shown to critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences in Paris (1894-5), London (1896) and New York (1898-9), before being bought by the Brooklyn Museum in 1900. They were published in a French edition in 1896–7 and in an English one in 1897-8. Tissot spent the last years of his life working on paintings of subjects from the Old Testament (Jewish Museum, New York).Although he never completed the series, he exhibited 80 of them in Paris in 1901 and engravings after them were published in 1904. Tissot died in Doubs, France in 1902, while living in the Château de Buillon, which he had inherited from his father in 1888.

His few works are given bellow:

THE "WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU"

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William-Adolphe Bouguereau :(November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter.William Bouguereau was a traditionalist whose realistic genre paintings and mythological themes were modern interpretations of Classical subjects with a heavy emphasis on the female

human body.

William Bourguereau

Life and career :William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born in La Rochelle, France on November 30, 1825, into a family of wine and olive oil merchants. He seemed destined to join the family business but for the intervention of his uncle Eugène, a Roman Catholic priest, who taught him classical and Biblical subjects, and arranged for Bouguereau to go to high school. Bouguereau showed artistic talent early on and his father was convinced by a client to send him to the École des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, where he won first prize in figure painting for a depiction of Saint Roch. To earn extra money, he designed labels for jams and preserves.

Through his uncle, Bouguereau was given a commission to paint portraits of parishioners, and when his aunt matched the sum he earned, Bouguereau went to Paris and became a student at the École des Beaux-Arts.To supplement his formal training in drawing, he attended anatomical dissections and studied historical costumes and archeology. He was admitted to the studio of François-Edouard Picot, where he studied painting in the academic style. Academic painting placed the highest status on historical and mythological subjects and Bouguereau won the coveted Prix de Rome in 1850, with his Zenobia Found by Shepherds on the Banks of the Araxes. His reward was a stay at the Villa Medici in Rome, Italy, where in addition to formal lessons he was able to study first-hand the Renaissance artists and their masterpieces.

Bouguereau, painting entirely within the traditional Academic style, exhibited at the annual exhibitions of the Paris Salon for his entire working life.

An early reviewer stated, “M. Bouguereau has a natural instinct and knowledge of contour. The eurythmie of the human body preoccupies him, and in recalling the happy results which, in this genre, the ancients and the artists of the sixteenth century arrived at, one can only congratulate M. Bouguereau in attempting to follow in their footsteps…Raphael was inspired by the ancients…and no one accused him of not being original.”

Raphael was a favorite of Bouguereau and he took this review as a high compliment. He had fulfilled one of the requirements of the Prix de Rome by completing an old-master copy of Raphael’s The Triumph of Galatea. In many of his works, he followed the same classical approach to composition, form, and subject matter.Bouguereau's graceful portraits of women were considered very charming, partly because he could beautify a sitter while also retaining her likeness.

In 1856, he married Marie-Nelly Monchablon and subsequently had five children. By the late 1850s, he had made strong connections with art dealers, particularly Paul Durand-Ruel (later the champion of the Impressionists), who helped clients buy paintings from artists who exhibited at the Salons.Thanks to Paul Durand-Ruel, Bouguereau met Hugues Merle, who later often was compared to Bouguereau. The Salons annually drew over 300,000 people, providing valuable exposure to exhibited artists.Bouguereau’s fame extended to England by the 1860s, and he bought a large house and studio in Montparnasse with his growing income.

Bouguereau was a staunch traditionalist whose realistic genre paintings and mythological themes were modern interpretations of Classical subjects—both pagan and Christian—with a heavy concentration on the female human body. The idealized world of his paintings, and his almost photo-realistic style, brought to life goddesses, nymphs, bathers, shepherdesses, and madonnas in a way that appealed to wealthy art patrons of the era. Some critics, however, preferred Jean-François Millet’s less-idealized depictions of hard-working farmers and laborers.

Bouguereau employed traditional methods of working up a painting, including detailed pencil studies and oil sketches, and his careful method resulted in a pleasing and accurate rendering of the human form. His painting of skin, hands, and feet was particularly admired. He also used some of the religious and erotic symbolism of the Old Masters, such as the “broken pitcher” which connoted lost innocence.

Bouguereau received many commissions to decorate private houses, public buildings, and churches. As was typical of such commissions, Bouguereau would sometimes paint in his own style, and at other times conform to an existing group style. Early on, Bouguereau was commissioned in all three venues, which added enormously to his prestige and fame. He also made reductions of his public paintings for sale to patrons, of which The Annunciation (1888) is an example.He was also a successful portrait painter and many of his paintings of wealthy patrons remain in private hands.

Bouguereau steadily gained the honors of the Academy, reaching Life Member in 1876, and Commander of the Legion of Honor and Grand Medal of Honor in 1885. He began to teach drawing at the Académie Julian in 1875, a co-ed art institution independent of the École des Beaux-Arts, with no entrance exams and with nominal fees.

In 1877, both his wife and infant son died. At a rather advanced age, Bouguereau was married for the second time in 1896, to fellow artist Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau, one of his pupils.He used his influence to open many French art institutions to women for the first time, including the Académie française.

Near the end of his life he described his love of his art: “Each day I go to my studio full of joy; in the evening when obliged to stop because of darkness I can scarcely wait for the next morning to come…if I cannot give myself to my dear painting I am miserable”. He painted eight hundred and twenty-six paintings.

In the spring of 1905, Bouguereau's house and studio in Paris were robbed. On August 19, 1905, Bouguereau died in La Rochelle at the age of 79 from heart disease.

Selected works:
   La Danse (1850)
    Alone in the World (Latest 1867)
    The Knitting Girl (1869)
    Nymphs and Satyr (1873)
    Cupidon (1875)
    The Birth of Venus (1879)
    Evening Mood (1882)
    The Nut Gatherers (1882)
    The Young Shepherdess (1885)
    Chapel of the Virgin, Saint-Vincent-de-Paul church, Paris (1885–89)
    Le Printemps (The Return of Spring) (1886)
    Premier Deuil (The First Mourning) (1888)
    The Shepherdess (1889)
    L'Amour et Psyché, enfants (1890)
    The Bohemian (1890)