Painting #127 - Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism in France

Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825, French)

The Death of Socrates
- Jacques-Louis David
- oil on canvas (130 × 196 cm) 1787
- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) 

Socrates on the bed is going to die by drinking poison hemlock, as sentenced. His student Plato is sitting at the foot of the bed.

Oath of the Horatii
- Jacques-Louis David
- oil on canvas (330 × 425 cm) 1784
- Louvre (Paris) 

“In a dispute between two warring cities Rome and Alba Longa, three brothers from a Roman family, the Horatii, agree to end the war by fighting three brothers from a family of Alba Longa, the Curiatii.
        “The three Horatii brothers, all willing to die for Rome, are shown saluting their father who holds their swords out for them. Of the three Horatii brothers, only one shall survive the confrontation and kill the three Curiatii brothers.
        “In the bottom right corner, David also represents a woman crying whilst sat down. She is a sister of the Horatii brothers, but is also married to one of the Curiatii fighters; she weeps in the realisation that, in any case, she will lose someone she loves.”

The Intervention of the Sabine Women
- Jacques-Louis David
- oil on canvas (385 × 522 cm) 1799
- Louvre (Paris) 

The Sabines fought to rescue their women taken by the Romans two years ago. Some Sabines women came with their new-born Roman babies in attempt to stop the combat.

David had a large number of pupils, making him the strongest influence in French art of the early 19th century (Neoclassical).

"On 13 July 1793, journalist Jean-Paul Marat was assassinated by Charlotte Corday, while taking a medicinal bath for his debilitating skin condition."  Painter David went onsite to paint the dead Marat.

The Death of Marat
- Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825, French)
- oil on canvas (165 × 128 cm) 1793
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium 

“In his death, Marat became an icon to the Jacobins as a revolutionary martyr. For this assassination, Corday (1768-93) was executed four days later.”

However, “under the Second Empire (regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870), Marat was seen as a revolutionary monster (causing too many to the guillotines during the Reign of Terror), and assassin Corday as a heroine of France.”

Serving Napoleon, David developed his Empire Style:

Napoleon Crossing the Alps
- Jacques-Louis David
- oil on canvas (261 × 221 cm) 1801
- Château de Malmaison (Paris) 

 The Coronation of Napoleon
- Jacques-Louis David
- oil on canvas (621 × 979 cm) 1805-07
- Louvre (Paris) 

Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries
- Jacques-Louis David 
- oil on canvas (204 × 125 cm)
- National Gallery of Art (Washington) 

* When Napoleon fell and the monarchy (Louis XVIII, younger brother of Louis XVI) was restored, David went into exile in Belgium.
* The infant son of the beheaded monarch, Louis XVII by title, died of malnutrition and maltreatment during captivity by the sans-culottes.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867, French)

Portrait of Monsieur Bertin
- Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
- oil on canvas (116 x 95 cm) 1832
- Louvre (Paris) 

Portrait of French journalist Louis-François Bertin (1766-1814)

[1] Princesse Albert de Broglie / oil canvas (121 x 91 cm) 1853 / Metro Museum of Art (NYC)
[2] Baronne de Rothschild / oil canvas (142 x 101 cm) 1848 / Rothschild Collection (Paris)
[3] Comtesse d'Haussonville / oil (132 x 92 cm) 1845 / The Frick Collection (NYC)

Grande Odalisque
- Ingres
- oil on canvas (91 × 163 cm) 1814
- Louvre (Paris) 

The subject's elongated proportions are reminiscent of 16th-century Mannerist painters.

Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII
- Ingres
- oil on canvas (240 x 178 cm) 1854
- Louvre (Paris) 

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842, French)

aka Madame Le Brun

Portrait of Countess Golovina
- Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun
- oil on canvas (83 x 67 cm) c.1797-1800
- Barber Institute of Fine Arts (Birmingham) 

Madame du Barry
- Madame Le Brun
- oil on canvas (115 x 90 cm) 1782
- National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.)

The last maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV of France, she was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution on accusations of treason.

Contemporary Arts

1764 Eight-year-old Mozart wrote his Symphony No.1

1792 Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy.

1804 The Society of Painters in Water Colours (present-day The Royal Watercolour Society.)

1813 Jane Austin wrote Pride and Prejudice.

2005 film adaptation  

1818 Museo del Prado (Madrid) was founded, as a museum of paintings and sculpture.

1825 The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City.

1836-37 Charles Dickens serially published The Pickwick Papers, his first novel.

Mr. Pickwick as illustrated by 'Kyd'(1889)
1952 film adaptation 

1862 Victor Hugo published his French historical novel Les Misérables .

2012 film
of a musical adaptation

1667 The Salon, at the Grand Salon of the Louvre, hosted the first official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts (Paris).

(L) Charles X Distributing Awards to Artists 

Exhibiting at the Salon of 1824 at the Louvre January 15th 1825
- François Joseph Heim (1787–1865, French)
- oil on canvas (173 x 256 cm) 1827
- Louvre Museum (Paris) 

 

(R) Formally dressed patrons at the Salon in 1890 

Flâneur 

The Salon des Refusés
"exhibition of rejects"
- The Palais de l'Industrie
- Photo by Édouard Baldus 

... is generally an exhibition of works rejected by the jury of the official Paris Salon. 

Women's March on Versailles

A contemporary illustration of
the Women's March on Versailles,
 5 October 1789 

Portrait of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778, Genevan)
- Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704–1788, French) 
- pastel on paper (45 x 35.5 cm) 3Q 18th century
- Musée Antoine-Lécuyer (Saint-Quentin, France) 

 His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and .....

Source: Wikipedia