#École des Beaux-Arts

[uwmspeccoll]

Decorative Sunday with Henry P. Kirby

These charming sketches are the work of New York architect Henry P. Kirby (1853 - 1915). Architectural Compositions contains fifty loose plates printed on Whatman paper and housed in a portfolio. It was published in Boston in 1892 by Bates, Kimball & Guild, publishers of one of the United State’s leading architectural journals of that time, The Architectural Review (Boston), not to be confused with the longer running Architectural Review still in publication out of London. 

Kirby would have been working as a draftsman for George B. Post at the time of publication, for whom he later worked as lead designer before striking out on his own. Some of the subject matter also evokes Kirby’s time in France, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts after training with his father, also an architect. Per the subtitle, some of the sketches were “made in connection with actual projects,” while many were “the result of study during leisure moments.” I found Kirby’s eye for the human elements in his sketches particularly endearing, from the foreground figures to details on the buildings themselves, like open widows and overgrown foliage, or what looks like a duvet cover hanging out to dry (first image above). 

For any music buffs reading, the final sketch includes some bars of "Très-jolie" from the opéra comique smash hit La Fille de Madame Angot. 

Our copy of Architectural Compositions was gifted to UWM by Gustav A. Elgeti in 1966. 

Find more Decorative Sunday posts here.

-Olivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[diemelusine]

September Evening (1891) by Maurice Denis. Musée d'Orsay.

[meta-holott]

1975 Paris, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, atelier Guignebert

[alisfelia]

academic art

Academic art, a style prevalent in the 19th century, adhered to traditional techniques and subject matter, often depicting historical, mythological, or biblical themes. It emphasized realism, precise draftsmanship, and idealized forms, aiming to elevate the viewer's moral and intellectual sensibilities. Led by institutions like the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, academic art set strict standards, which some saw as stifling creativity. Yet, its influence persisted, shaping the development of art education and laying the groundwork for later movements to rebel against its conventions.

flaming june by frederic leighton

[frenchcurious]

source Moto Vitelloni - Wheels n' wings

[cheminer-poesie-cressant]

source : @cheminer-poesie-cressant

.

Impuissant et résigné nous disons "tout s'accélère".

En réalité nous profitons de plus en plus de la vie

car le passage du temps sous nos yeux a de moins en moins de secret.

Nous en connaissons l'ouverture et nous en connaissons la fin.

Nous le ressentons jusque dans nos veines.

Et nous approchons chaque jour davantage la vérité, le cœur de la vie.

.

(Dans la portée des ombres, extrait)

© Pierre Cressant

(mercredi 5 octobre 2005)

[lemuseum]

[pier-carlo-universe]

Mostra "Emanuele Luzzati tra Fiaba e Fantasia" a Cherasco: Un Omaggio all'Arte dell'Immaginazione

Un viaggio attraverso le opere di Emanuele Luzzati, tra scenografie teatrali, illustrazioni e reinterpretazioni oniriche, per celebrare la creatività di un artista poliedrico

Un viaggio attraverso le opere di Emanuele Luzzati, tra scenografie teatrali, illustrazioni e reinterpretazioni oniriche, per celebrare la creatività di un artista poliedrico La città di Cherasco ospita la mostra “Emanuele Luzzati tra Fiaba e Fantasia” presso il Palazzo Salmatoris, aperta al pubblico dal 1° novembre 2024 al 23 febbraio 2025. Questa esposizione, a ingresso gratuito, è un omaggio…

[science70]

Originally appeared as a poster produced by the Atelier Populaire at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris during May 1968 riots.

1973

[musographes]

Illustrations et dessins satiriques #74

La vie d’étudiant dans un atelier parisien, illustration de Samuel Begg pour The Illustrated London News, 23 décembre 1886.

LÉGENDE (de g. à d.) : - duel du bleu de Prusse contre la lacque bordeaux (NDLR : allusion à la guerre perdue contre la Prusse) ; - Français et Anglais : God Save The Queen contre la Marseillaise ; - types d’étudiants ; - pour ses péchés; - un mauvais quart d’heure ; - types de modèles ; -  dans les nues ! ; - visite du professeur : tout n’est que silence (NDLR : on l’on voit un modèle nu bien jeune).

[kitsunetsuki]

Deborah Turbeville - Romeo Gigli, Mirabella Magazine, École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1989, from Deborah Turbeville: The Fashion Pictures (2011)

[myownprivate]

Francesco Salviati, Tre nudi maschili, 1527 ca., Parigi, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts.

[meta-holott]

1975 Paris, ecole des Beaux-Arts

[eddy25960]

Magnifico disegno di Francesco Salviati, Tre nudi maschili, 1527 ca., Parigi, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts..

[hard--headed--woman]

I know I spent two days without posting any lesbian pride post lol but I swear I'm gonna post two posts per day in the following days to make up for it. I am again going to talk about an artist, but from a different period this time.

Rosa Bohneur !

(I love her name by the way... Bohneur means happiness in french and that's such a pretty name to have)

Marie-Rosalie Bonheur, known as Rosa Bonheur, was born in 1822 in Bordeaux and died in 1899 in Thomery. She was a French painter and sculptor specialising in representations of animals.

She has kind of an interesting family story (mother adopted by a rich guy who found out later who was her real father, siblings all artists, father who met a lot of interesting people, links with many famous people...) but it would be too long to talk about it and I want to focus on Rosa herself. Do check it up if you're interested!

During her youth, Rosa Bonheur had a reputation for being a tomboy, a reputation that followed her throughout her life and which she made no attempt to deny, wearing her hair short and later smoking cigarettes and cigars. Her emancipated lifestyle never caused a scandal, even though she lived in an era that was very concerned with convention. Like all women of her time, Rosa Bonheur had to apply to the Prefecture of Paris for a cross-dressing permit, renewable every six months, in order to wear trousers, in particular to attend livestock fairs, travel or ride horses.

Here's one of her permits, from 1857 :

And though many historians tried to deny the fact that she was a lesbian, she always refused to marry a man, has only ever had relationships with women and literally wrote that she never felt any sort of love, attraction or tenderness for men, "besides a frank and good friendship for those who had all my esteem". After the death of the woman she loved, she also wrote "If I'd been a man, I'd have married her, and they wouldn't have made up all those silly stories..." You got it : even if she didn't shout it from the rooftops, Rosa was very probaby a homosexual woman.

Rosa Bohneur grew up in a fairly wealthy family, thanks to the financial support of her mother's adoptive father. But when her mother's father died, the family was left without any such support, and fell into dire poverty. When Rosa was 11, her mother died, which deeply traumatised her. She kept a lifelong admiration for her mother.

In 1836, at the age of 14, she met Nathalie Micas, who became her lover. Only Nathalie's death 53 years later separated them.

Her father remarried in 1842 to Marguerite Peyrol, with whom he had a last son, Germain, who would also become a painter. Rosa Bonheur did not get on well with her stepmother and when her father died in 1849, she left the family home to live with the Micas.

After her mother's death, Rosa Bonheur went to primary schools, was apprenticed as a dressmaker and then went to boarding school. Eventually her father took her into his workshop, where her artistic talents were revealed. He was her one and only teacher. Gradually, she developed a passion for animal art, which became her speciality.

She exhibited for the first time, at the age of 19, at the Salon of 1841. She won a 3rd class medal at the Salon of 1845, and a 1st class medal (gold) at the Salon of 1848. This award enabled her, at the age of 26, to obtain a commission from the State to produce an agrarian painting (paid 3,000 francs). The painting resulting from this state commission, "Labourage nivernais" was supposed to go to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. But it was so successful at the 1849 Salon that the Beaux-Arts department decided to keep it in Paris, at the Musée du Luxembourg. After Rosa Bonheur's death, the work went to the Louvre, before being transferred to the Musée d'Orsay in 1986.

When her father died in March 1849, Rosa Bonheur replaced him as director of the École impériale gratuite de dessin pour demoiselles (or École gratuite de dessin pour jeunes filles). She remained in this position until 1860: ‘Follow my advice and I'll turn you into Leonardo da Vinci in skirts’, she often told her pupils.

In 1860, she moved to a huge house in By, where she had a huge workshop built, and ample space for her animals. One of her relatives wrote: “She had a complete menagerie in her house: a lion and a lioness, a deer, a wild sheep, a gazelle, horses, etc. One of her pets was a young lion she let run around. My mind was freer when this leonine animal died".

In June 1864, Rosa was visited by Empress Eugenie, who invited her to lunch at the Château de Fontainebleau with her husband. The following year, Eugenie returned to see her, to present her with the Legion d'honneur herself. Rosa is the ninth woman and the first artist to receive this distinction. About this, The Empress said :

“At last, you've been knighted. I am delighted to be the godmother of the first woman artist to receive this high distinction. I wanted the last act of my regency to be devoted to showing that, in my eyes, genius has no sex."

She was also the first woman to be made an officer in this order, in April 1894 (first female officer of the Legion d'honneur).

Rosa traveled extensively with her lover Nathalie, herself a painter and mechanical enthusiast (she invented and patented a railway braking system), and painted many pictures inspired by her travels.

In 1889, Nathalie died after some 50 years together. It was then that Rosa expressed her regret at not having been able to marry her.

After Nathalie's death, Rosa met Anna Klumpe, a talented American painter. The two women moved in together some time later.

Rosa Bohneur died of pulmonary congestion in 1899, without having completed her last painting, “La foulaison du blé en Camargue”, a monumental canvas she had planned to exhibit at the 1900 Universal Exhibition.

She is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery, alongside Nathalie, her parents and Anna (who died years after her). She left her entire fortune to Anna, who, in 1908, published a biography of Rosa Bonheur and created a Rosa-Bonheur prize at the Société des artistes français. The Société des Artistes français posthumously awarded her the Medal of Honor shortly after her death.

Rosa could have had military honors at her funeral, but she specified in her will that she did not wish this.

There's a lot of interesting things to say about Rosa, her art and her history, so I suggest you do some research on her! She was a very talented and strong-willed woman who had a huge impact on French art and left a considerable cultural legacy.

Here are some of her paintings :

I personally love them ! I am not a painting expert, I just find them sooo pretty.

See you tomorrow :)

[artmialma]

Pierre Brissaud (1885 –1964) French

1924

French Art Deco illustrator, painter, and engraver whose father was Docteur Edouard Brissaud, a student of Docteur Charcot. He was born in Paris and trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and Atelier Fernand Cormon in Montmartre, Paris