Showing posts with label Versailles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Versailles. Show all posts

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Eugène Atget at Versailles - Early Twentieth Century

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Coin du Parc
1902
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Vase par Cornu
1902
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Vase par Cornu
1903
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Vase (detail)
ca. 1906-1907
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Le Rhone
1901
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Fontaine du Point du Jour
(Limier abattant un Cerf)
1903
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Fontaine du Point du Jour
(Tigre terrassant un Ours)
1903
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Fontaine de Diane
ca. 1901
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

During the Service

How strange my lack of faith must seem to you.
I see the way your god provides a cradle for your grief;
how lovely to be certain that the ancient story's true.

You sang the hymns as if each word were new –
At last, you sang, at last in Your / Eternal arms I'll find relief
(how strange my lack of faith must seem to you) –

while I kept drifting, lost in the refrains and in the blue
fragility the tinted glass provided us to bow beneath
(how lovely to be certain that the ancient story's true).

Beneath the moderated sky we rose and sang and cried on cue;
familiar words were read to keep our sorrow brief
(how sad my lack of faith must seem to you);

the book upon the altar and the hymnals in each pew
held pages edged in fine gold leaf –
how lovely seeing that the ancient story's true –

and I was wondering just what it cost to see this vaulting through:
the ceilings, windows, ornaments; the engineering of belief . . .

But let my lack of faith seem strange to you!
You're lovely certain that the ancient story's true.

– Carrie Grabo (2001)

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe
1904
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe
1904
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe
1903
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Bassin du Midi
1901
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Abduction of Proserpine by Pluto
1904
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Eugène Atget
Versailles - Abduction of Proserpine by Pluto (Base)
1904
albumen print
Art Institute of Chicago

Friday, May 10, 2019

Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) - Paris and Versailles

Charles Le Brun
The Family of Darius before Alexander
1660
oil on canvas
Château de Versailles

"An artistic prodigy, Charles Le Brun entered the service of King Louis XIV in 1647.  In 1660 he painted The Family of Darius before Alexander, which was hung in the Mars Room at Versailles a few years later and where it remains today.  It earned Le Brun his reputation as a French painter of genius and his promotion in 1664 to the position of First Painter to the King.  He thereafter received an increasing number of commissions and ever greater honour.  At Versailles he was able to give free rein to his skills, and he created fine decorations at a quick clip.  Le Brun also designed most of the statues in the park of Versailles.  He was a founding member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648, and in 1663 became Manager of the Gobelins Manufactory.  As such, he oversaw the creation of royal furniture, upholstery, and tapestries.  As Director and theorist of the Academy, he believed that painting should arouse the intellect rather than draw the eye.  His paintings closely followed Baroque colouring, as well as Classical drawing techniques."

– from curator's notes at the Château de Versailles

Charles Le Brun
 Entry of Alexander into Babylon
ca. 1664
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Charles Le Brun
Mucius Scaevola before Lars Porsena 
before 1690
oil on canvas
Musée des Ursulines de Mâcon

Charles Le Brun
Deification of Aeneas
ca. 1642-44
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal

Charles Le Brun
Study for Caryatid
before 1690
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Charles Le Brun
Study for Architectural Figure
before 1690
drawing
Victoria & Albert Museum

Charles Le Brun
Apollo Bathing, attended by the Nymphs of Thetis
before 1690
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Charles Le Brun
Study for Alexander
ca. 1660-61
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Charles Le Brun
Studies of a Man clinging to a Rock
before 1690
drawing
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento

Charles Le Brun
Daedalus and Icarus
ca. 1664-65
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Charles Le Brun
Descent from the Cross
ca. 1645-50
oil on canvas
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Charles Le Brun
Penitent Magdalen
1655
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Charles Le Brun
Wedding of Moses and Sephora
1687
oil on canvas
Palazzo dei Musei, Modena

Charles Le Brun
Venus clipping Cupid's Wings
ca. 1655
oil on canvas
Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico