full louvre fever

While the cruelties of the French Revolution were taking place, and the young Republic was fighting for survival, the National Convention did not forget its museum. On August 10, 1793, the Grand Galerie was opened, and not only were masterpieces of the old Louvre collection shown but also “new precious spoils taken from our tyrants, or from other enemies of our country.”

---Mademoiselle Rivière was 15 when Ingres painted her. The portrait was shown at the Salon of 1806 along with his pictures of her parents and Napoleon. By the end of the year she was dead.---Read More:http://hoocher.com/Ingres/Jean_Auguste_Dominique_Ingres.htm

Throughout France churches were emptied of works of art, such as Jan Van Eyck’s Madonna of Chancellor Rolin. The residences of noblemen were ransacked: two of Michelangelo’s sculptures of slaves, for example, were found in the Paris townhouse of the Duc de Richelieu. Some of these works were placed in storage, some went to provincial museums, but the majority of famous masterpieces eventually came to the exhibition rooms of the Louvre.

---Fragonard's scenes of frivolity and gallantry are considered the embodiment of the Rococo spirit. This picture was exhibited in 1765 shortly after his return from Rome, and is characteristic of a whole series of works noted for their delicate coloring and spontaneous brushwork. These virtues ensure that even his most erotic subjects are never vulgar, and this painting, considered one of finest, has an irresistible verve and joyfulness. After 1767 he stopped exhibiting publicly and almost all his later work was done for private patrons.---Read More:http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/art/anc_frag_bathers.html

Of course, as Napoleon advanced through Italy, the museum’s collection of both antique and Renaissance art was expanded almost exponentially with this high-end booty of war, the spoils of conquest and the rape of a culture. Not surprisingly, very littel of this artistic loot was ever returned. Napoleon revived his grand ambitions, only stopped by Waterloo and the collapse of empire. But the Louvre soldiered on, though in 1830 and 1848, the Tuileries were pillaged and the Louvre invaded and momentarily threatened with destruction. The new Louvre of Napoleon III was one of the extraordinary architectural achievements of the 19th century, its richness and gusto make it one of the great works of romantic architecture, a testament not to slavish eclecticism but prodigious originality. However, the regime of Napoleon III, like its predecessors, also disappeared in violence n 1870…

---In this famous painting, Manet showed a different aspect of realism from that envisaged by Courbet, his intention being to translate an Old Master theme, the reclining nude of Giorgione and Titian, into contemporary terms. It is possible also to find a strong reminiscence of the classicism of Ingres in the beautiful precision with which the figure is drawn, though if he taught to placate public and critical opinion by these references to tradition, the storm of anger the work provoked at the Salon of 1865 was sufficient disillusionment. There is a subtlety of modelling in the figure and a delicacy of distinction between the light flesh tones and the white draperies of the couch that his assailants were incapable of seeing. The sharpness of contrast also between model and foreground items and dark background, which added a modern vivacity to the Venetian-type subject, was regarded with obtuse suspicion as an intended parody. ---Read More:http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/manet/olympia/

Of the almost 250,000 works of art housed in the Louvre, none lend it more color, grace, and impact than the paintings of women, chiefly Frenchwomen by Frenchmen. There is a world of difference between the classically poised portraits of an Ingres, the playful exuberance of a Fragonard, the scandalous boldness of a Manet. And lets not avoid the psychological insight of a Degas and Renoir’s sheer delight in atmosphere and light. They are all so different, only held together and comprehensible within the context of a Gallic warmth of feeling.

---"The Swing" painted by Pierre Auguste Renoir is a beautiful painting. This is a lovely piece of art because of the graceful and smooth lines. It looks as if the woman is going to jump on the swing. Her dress has the prettiest shades of blue and purple. They look so soft. Another reason it’s beautiful is that he used cool colors. In this painting he uses very much white and blue. The light is mostly at the bottom and the center of the painting. The dark is mostly at the top. The woman is the focal point of the picture, but the man is important too. In this painting he uses emotionalism. This painting, painted in 1876 is definitely a masterpiece. --- Read More:http://www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/sunda/art/renoir.htm

…The Paris designed streets of Haussmann were for the express purpose of controlling the populace. To avoid the barricades appearing in twisted medieval streets where guns and cannon could not be brought against them and the populace could rise up with the figure of Liberty at their head, as in the Delacroix painting. But during the Commune of 1871, the short lived insurgent government mistakenly thought by Marx as as the first design of proletarian rule; the people again stormed out of ancient hovels and attacked the home of the sovereign. On the night of May 23-24 the Tuileries was torched.

---Since the characters are known, this picture could be considered as an example of Degas's portraiture or, alternatively, as a characteristic glimpse of the Parisian café. The woman is the actress Ellen Andrée, the man Marcellin Desboutin, painter, engraver and, at the same time, celebrated Bohemian character. The café where they are taking their refreshment is the Café de la Nouvelle-Athènes. Desboutin --- a popular figure --- seems to have led the move of those concerned with the arts from their previous rendez-vous, the Café Guerbois, to the Nouvelle-Athènes. It was frequented by Manet and Degas, by some critics and literary men as well as painters and had an interested observer from across the Channel in the young George Moore. The painting shows Degas's favourite device of placing the figures off-centre with a large intervening area of space in the foreground.--- Read More:http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/degas/absinthe/

If the architectural loss was great, though not as great as fervent French antiquarians maintained, the liberation of urban space was a significant gain. As the ruins were demolished, the tremendous vista opened, giving the denter of the

y its exhilarating sense of civilized freedom, surrounded, but not confined to the past.

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