Jules-Joseph Lefebvre

Psyché by Jules-Joseph Lefebvre

Circa 1883

Childe Hassam 1859-1935 American The Bather Signed and dated “Childe Hassam” (lower right) Oil on canvas Considered by many to be America’s foremost Impressionist painter, Childe Hassam composed his tranquil and intimate oil on canvas The Bather in the early years of the 20th century. The creation of the artwork aligns with a period of Hassam’s career where the artist’s palette was transforming, matching ever closer with the pale and pastel hues of French Impressionists like Claude Monet. Even the subject — a nude woman — represents a greater alignment with the Impressionist project, as artists of the movement and their non-mythological and non-biblical nudes still generated cries of indecency. With Hassam’s signature brushwork and attention to color, The Bather serves as a dream-like vision, serene and sensuous, of a young woman bathing in a lush forest. While the artist's skill for landscape painting is on display, it is Hassam's command of form, light and color that brings this canvas to life. He creates a captivating composition, placing the nude subject in the bottom left of the canvas. The soft, undulating curves of the woman's body in contrapposto and the glow of her fair skin are balanced by the strong verticals and deep earth tones of the tall trees to her right. Hassam delicately frames the nude in the vivid blues of the distant water, building luminous color that further draws the viewer’s eye and results in a somewhat voyeuristic appeal — endowing his nude with both a natural innocence and an intentional sensuality. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Childe Hassam began his artistic career as a freelance illustrator, working for national publications such as Harper’s Weekly, Scribner’s Monthly, and The Century. His first solo exhibition of watercolors took place in Boston in 1883, and he quickly catapulted onto the international scene, winning a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889. The year before the present work was created, he received the Webb Prize from the Society of American Artists for another landscape painted at Gloucester. Hassam would receive numerous other awards throughout his career, most notably the Gold Medal for Distinguished Services to Fine Art from the American Dealers Association. A true master, Hassam depicted a way of life characteristic of both American and French society, and his work elucidates a critical chapter in American art history. Today, his work resides in the Oval Office of the White House and in numerous important museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, among others. This painting will be included in Stuart P. Feld's and Kathleen M. Burnside's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work. Circa 1905 Canvas: 24 1/2“ high x 20 18” wide Frame: 35 7/8“ high x 31 1/4” wide x 3 1/4“ deep Provenance: Private Collection of William Young...

The Education of Achilles by the Centaur Chiron Signed and dated "A.C. Chrétien 1861" (lower right) Oil on canvas A masterpiece of French N...

French Academic painter Guillaume Seignac was renowned for his masterful treatment of the idealized nude. His languishing female subjects based on Greco-Roman prototypes were and rem...

Signed “G-Seignac” (lower right) Oil on canvas French Academic painter Guillaume Seignac was renowned for his masterful treatment of the idealized nude. His languishing female subje...

Guillaume Seignac 1870-1924 | French Mutine Signed “G. Seignac” (lower right) Oil on canvas A mischievous maiden dominates this garden scene by French Academic artist Guillaume ...

French Academic painter Louis-Joseph Courtat displays his mastery of composition and the female form in this entrancing oil on canvas. Entitled Baigneuses, the work was painted for and exhibited at the 1885 Paris Salon, the foremost exhibition of painters in the Western world. Large in size, it captures two nude bathers within a tranquil beach scene. While the artist's skill for landscape painting is on display, it is his command of form, light and color that bring this canvas to life. The artist specialized in paintings that glorified the nude, and his skill is clear in the luminosity of his models' skin and the classical beauty of their form and proportions. With their soft, undulating curves and flowing hair, Courtat's models reflect the two key influences on the young painter, that of the great Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres as well as his teacher Alexandre Cabanel. Like these two greats who came before him, Courtat similarly follows in the artistic tradition of the female nude that is traceable to classical antiquity and the Italian Renaissance. Born in Paris in 1847, Courtat studied at the famed École des Beaux-Arts under Cabanel. He was one of the Academic master's first students at the school, where he began to teach in 1864. Displaying considerable skill at an early age, Courtat won the Prix de Rome around 1870, and subsequently studied in Rome for a number of years. He returned to Paris in 1873 to make his debut at the Salon, where he was met with immediate success, receiving a third class medal. He received medals again in 1874 and 1875, a remarkable achievement for a painter of his age. In addition to the monumental nudes...

PICOU Henri Pierre (1824-1895) Nymphs Dancing Oil on canvas signed and dated 1881 low left Old frame regilded with leaves Dim canvas : 62 X 82 cm Dim frame : 80 X 100 cm PICOU Henri Pierre (1824-1895) French Painter 19th century Born on February 27th, 1824 in Nantes - Died on July 17th, 1895 in Nantes Painter of History, allegorical subjects, genre paintings, Symbolist. Pupil of Paul Delaroche...

John Cobb knew he wanted to be an artist since he was 9. In 1976, he entered Rhode Island School of Design where his realist tendencies were ostracized. Using the money intended for ...

Fascinating mythological story of Diana and Actaeon can be found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Very important provenance from a royal collection. Fabulous finely carved gilt wood coeval frame . Giovanni Battista Viola...

Fascinating mythological story of Diana and Actaeon can be found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Very important provenance from a royal collection. Fabulous finely carved gilt wood coeval frame . Giovanni Battista Viola...

Fascinating mythological story of Diana and Actaeon can be found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Very important provenance from a royal collection. Fabulous finely carved gilt wood coeval frame . Giovanni Battista Viola...

Fascinating mythological story of Diana and Actaeon can be found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Very important provenance from a royal collection. Fabulous finely carved gilt wood coeval frame . Giovanni Battista Viola...