Thursday, October 13, 2022

Neoclassical Drawings at the Louvre by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Study for Portrait of the Empress Joséphine
ca. 1805
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Portrait of the newborn King of Rome
ca. 1811
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Triumph of Bonaparte as First Consul
ca. 1801
drawing
(print study)
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Fortune
ca. 1780-1800
drawing
(design for ornamental relief)
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Allegorical Figure of Painting
ca. 1800-1805
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Allegorical Figure of Philosophy
ca. 1798-1801
drawing
(cartoon for wall painting)
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Genius of Philosophy
ca. 1798-1801
drawing
(cartoon for wall painting)
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Study for Genius of Liberty
ca. 1791
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Figure Studies for The Dream of Happiness
ca. 1819
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Académie
ca. 1805
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Two Warriors
ca. 1789-1801
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Sleeping Venus
ca. 1806
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Venus and Adonis
ca. 1812
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Académie
ca. 1780-90
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Self Portrait
ca. 1788-90
drawing
Musée du Louvre

"Born the tenth son of a stonecutter in Burgundy, Pierre Prudon altered both halves of his name and became Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, as if to relate himself to Peter Paul Rubens and to evoke landed gentry.  He began studying painting in Dijon at age sixteen.  He arrived in Paris in 1780, but his experience in Italy from 1784 to 1787, when he absorbed the softness and sensuality of Correggio's works and Leonardo da Vinci's sfumato, gave his art its distinctive style.  Upon his return to Paris, Prud'hon enthusiastically supported the French Revolution.  In 1801 Napoleon favored him with commissions for portraits, ceiling decorations, and allegorical paintings. "Prud'hon's true genius lay in allegory; this is his empire and his true domain," Eugène Delacroix later wrote.  . . .  Prud'hon's artistic style contrasted starkly with the dominant version of Neoclassicism under Jacques-Louis David.  Prud'hon's paintings were based on classical texts and ancient prototypes, but his dreaminess and melancholy were more akin to Romanticism.  His drawings, often black chalk on blue paper, were widely admired."

– from biographical notes at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles