Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
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Period: Late 19th Century
"A Quiet Afternoon, " Enoch Wood Perry, Genre Scene Mother and Child at Fireplace
By Enoch Wood Perry Jr.
Located in New York, NY
Enoch Wood Perry, Jr. (1831 - 1915)
A Quiet Afternoon, 1876
Oil on canvas
15 1/4 x 21 inches
Signed and dated lower right
Born in 1831 in Boston, Enoch Wood Perry, Jr, is internatio...
Category
Hudson River School Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Still Life - Oil Painting by Edward Ladell - 1870 ca.
Located in Roma, IT
Still Life is a superb original oil painting on panel, realized around 1870 by the British artist Edward Ladell (1821-1886), the best known English still-life artist.
The artwork r...
Category
Modern Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
SIGNED VICTORIAN ENGLISH OIL PAINTING - CHILDREN PLAYING WATERMILL STREAM DUCKS
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: English School, late 19th century, signed lower corner.
Title: The Watermill.
Medium: oil painting, on canvas.
Size: frame: 21 x 27 inches
painting: ...
Category
Victorian Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Study of a Woman artist painting by her easel in a landscape
Located in Woodbury, CT
Well painted and very decorative oil on panel
Painted on a mahogany panel and monogrammed L.B
Well framed in a new English handmade gold leaf frame.
The...
Category
Victorian Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Wood Panel, Oil
Lady in a red dress with a kitten
Located in Gent, VOV
Signature lower right: J. Bail
Relined and some restorations
Joseph-Claude Bail was born during a period of intense disagreement in the Parisian art world. For several years the Salon juries had rejected many progressive artists works; printmaking was making a charge at establishing itself as a true art form; the Barbizon group of painters challenged the tradition of historical landscapes with their views of the modern countryside, and Realism was decades old and had brought forth such combative figures as Gustave Courbet. Yet not all artists can be said to belong to this modern view of the nineteenth century. Numerous artists found prestige and public acclaim both at the Salons and with the public with works that relied on past styles and traditions influenced by the “Little Masters” from seventeenth-century Holland and traditions from eighteenth-century France. Joseph Bail...
Category
French School Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
English Civil War Period Street View under Moonlight Huge Oil Painting on Canvas
By Frank Hider
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
The English Civil War
by Frank Hider (British, 1861-1933)
signed oil painting on canvas, framed
frame: 30 x 48.5 inches
provenance: private collection, En...
Category
Victorian Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
"The Letter, " Frederick Boston, Woman Reading, American Impressionism Figurative
By Frederick James Boston
Located in New York, NY
Frederick James Boston (1855 - 1932)
The Letter
Oil on canvas
20 x 16 inches
Signed lower left
The first instructor of art at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Frederick ...
Category
American Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Swiss Landscape, original oil on canvas, c1870, Austrian realist painter
Located in Nutfield, Surrey
This beautiful oil on canvas painting of a Swiss Landscape is circa 1870 and is by the artist Eduard Boehm (1830 - 1890).
Austrian landscape pain...
Category
Realist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Hunting in Fontainebleau, Georges Stein, Paris 1870 – 1955, French Painter
Located in Bruges, BE
Hunting in Fontainebleau, France
Stein Georges
Paris 1870 – 1955
French Painter
Signature: Signed bottom left and placed Fontainebleau
Medium: Oil on c...
Category
Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Paysan dans un verger - Impressionist Oil, Spring Landscape by Henri Le Sidaner
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed and dated oil on panel figure in landscape by sought after impressionist painter Henri Le Sidaner. The work depicts a farmer walking beneath blossom trees in an orchard in spr...
Category
Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
19th Century Oil Painting Two Girls Playing
Located in San Francisco, CA
19th Century Oil Painting Two Girls Playing
Original oil on canvas housed in a custom made oak frame.
Canvas dimensions 16" wide x 10" high. The frame measures 24" wide x 18" high....
Category
Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
L'embarquement de boeufs - Impressionist Oil, Cattle by Jean Francois Raffaelli
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Wonderful signed oil on panel cattle and figures in landscape by French impressionist painter Jean-Francois Raffaelli. The work depicts oxen being loaded onto ships in Honfleur, France en route to England.
Signature:
Signed lower right
Dimensions:
Framed: 18"x16"
Unframed: 9"x8"
Provenance:
Exhibition Jean Francois Raffaélli held at Galerie Simonson, 19 Rue Caumartin Paris - October 1929 (number 44)
Jean-François Raffaëlli's father was a failed Italian businessman and Raffaëlli himself was, among other things, a church chorister, actor and theatre singer. He then studied under Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He travelled to Italy, Spain and Algeria and on his return to France settled in Asnières.
In 1876, on a trip to Brittany, he first saw the potential of realist subject matter, if treated seriously. He became involved in meetings of artists at the Café Guerbois, where the Impressionist painters used to gather. As a result, Degas, contrary to the advice of the group, introduced Raffaëlli to the Impressionist exhibitions - according to one uncertain source as early as the very first exhibition, at the home of Nadar, and certainly to those of 1880 and 1881.
In 1904, Raffaëlli founded the Society for Original Colour Engraving. He first exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1870 and continued to exhibit there until he joined the Salon des Artistes Français in 1881, where he earned a commendation in 1885, was made Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1889 and in the same year was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle. In 1906 he was made Officier of the Légion d'Honneur. He was also a member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 1884, a private exhibition of his work cemented his reputation.
He contributed to several newspapers such as The Black Cat (Le Chat Noir) in 1885 and The French Mail (Le Courrier Français) in 1886 and 1887. He published a collection entitled Parisian Characters, which captured his favourite themes of the street, the neighbourhood and local people going about their lives. In 1880 he participated, with Forain, on the illustration of Joris Karl Huysmans' Parisian Sketches (Croquis Parisiens). He also illustrated Huysman's Works. As well as working as an illustrator, he also made etchings and coloured dry-points.
His early attempts at painting were genre scenes, but once he was settled in Asnières he started to paint picturesque views of Parisian suburbs. From 1879 onwards, his subject matter drew on the lives of local people. These popular themes, which he treated with humanity and a social conscience, brought him to the attention of the social realist writers of the time such as Émile Zola. In addition to his realist style, Raffaëlli's dark palette, which ran contrary to the Impressionist aesthethic, helped to explain the opposition of those painters to his participation in their exhibitions. More concerned with drawing than colour, he used black and white for most of his paintings. Towards the end of his life, he lightened his palette, but without adopting any other principles of the Impressionist technique.
After painting several portraits, including Edmond de Goncourt and Georges Clémenceau, he returned to genre painting, particularly scenes of bourgeois life. Later in his career, he painted mainly Breton-inspired sailors and views of Venice. His views of the Paris slums and the fortifications, sites which have almost completely disappeared, went some way towards establishing a genre in themselves and perpetuated the memory of the area: The Slums, Rag-and-Bone Man, Vagabond, Sandpit, In St-Denis, Area of Fortifications. His realistic and witty portrayal of typical Parisian townscapes accounts for his enduring appeal.
Born in Paris, he was of Tuscan descent through his paternal grandparents. He showed an interest in music and theatre before becoming a painter in 1870. One of his landscape paintings was accepted for exhibition at the Salon in that same year. In October 1871 he began three months of study under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris; he had no other formal training.
Raffaëlli produced primarily costume pictures until 1876, when he began to depict the people of his time—particularly peasants, workers, and ragpickers seen in the suburbs of Paris—in a realistic style. His new work was championed by influential critics such as J.-K. Huysmans, as well as by Edgar Degas.
The ragpicker became for Raffaëlli a symbol of the alienation of the individual in modern society. Art historian Barbara S. Fields has written of Raffaëlli's interest in the positivist philosophy of Hippolyte-Adolphe Taine, which led him to articulate a theory of realism that he christened caractérisme. He hoped to set himself apart from those unthinking, so-called realist artists whose art provided the viewer with only a literal depiction of nature. His careful observation of man in his milieu paralleled the anti-aesthetic, anti-romantic approach of the literary Naturalists, such as Zola and Huysmans.
Degas invited Raffaëlli to participate in the Impressionist exhibitions of 1880 and 1881, an action that bitterly divided the group; not only was Raffaëlli not an Impressionist, but he threatened to dominate the 1880 exhibition with his outsized display of 37 works. Monet, resentful of Degas's insistence on expanding the Impressionist exhibitions by including several realists, chose not to exhibit, complaining, "The little chapel has become a commonplace school which opens its doors to the first dauber to come along."An example of Raffaëlli's work from this period is Les buveurs d'absinthe (1881, in the California Palace of Legion of Honor Art Museum in San Francisco). Originally titled Les déclassés, the painting was widely praised at the 1881 exhibit.
After winning the Légion d'honneur in 1889, Raffaëlli shifted his attention from the suburbs of Paris to city itself, and the street scenes that resulted were well received by the public and the critics. He made a number of sculptures, but these are known today only through photographs.[2] His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1912 Summer Olympics. In the later years of his life, he concentrated on color printmaking. Raffaëlli died in Paris on February 11, 1924
Museum and Gallery Holdings:
Béziers: Peasants Going to Town
Bordeaux: Bohemians at a Café
Boston: Notre-Dame; Return from the Market
Brussels: Chevet of Notre-Dame; pastel
Bucharest (Muz. National de Arta al României): Market at Antibes; Pied-à-terre
Copenhagen: Fishermen on the Beach
Douai: Return from the Market; Blacksmiths
Liège: Absinthe Drinker...
Category
Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
French 19th century Victorian Shipping scene at Sunset
By N. Pauman
Located in Woodbury, CT
Wonderful late 19th-century oil on panel of wood depicting shipping at a sunset. Pauman was from either Belgium or France and his works are held in private collections in both countr...
Category
Victorian Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Wood Panel
Sheep at the sheepfold
Located in PARIS, FR
Félix Saturnin BRISSOT de WARVILLE
(Véron, 1818 – Versailles, 1892)
Sheep at the sheepfold
Oil on panel
Signed lower left
28 x 36 cm
Félix Saturnin Brissot de Warville was born in the Yonne, at Véron near Sens, on May 7, 1818.
He is the grandson of Jacques Pierre...
Category
Barbizon School Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Oil Painting of Welsh Hamlet with Snowdon in the distance by 19th Century Artist
Located in Preston, GB
Original Oil Painting of Welsh Hamlet with Snowdon in the distance by 19th Century Artist, Robert Gallon (British, 1845–1925)
Art measures 18 x 12 inches
Frame measures 24 x 18 inc...
Category
Realist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Cotton Canvas, Oil
A painting of Sappho by Ettore Forti
Located in London, GB
A painting of Sappho by Ettore Forti
Italian, c.1900
Frame: Height 85cm, width 38cm, depth 2.5cm
Canvas: Height 73cm, with 26.5cm, depth 2.5cm
This excellent portrait painting depic...
Category
Old Masters Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
“Sunset on the River”
Located in Southampton, NY
Beautifully painted sunset on the river with a single figure in a punt and cattle crossing by the American artist, George Riecke. Most likely a New Orlea...
Category
Academic Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Dans le parc en automne, Paris (In the Park in Autumn, Paris)
Located in New Orleans, LA
This thoroughly modern Parisian scene was composed by the celebrated French painter Jean François Raffaëlli. The delicate oil captures a familiar subject from late 19th-century life in the city: a busy avenue at the edge of a park on a cool autumn day. Exploring the climate of the city, Raffaëlli's mature works capture the energy of the grand parks and boulevards of the new Paris that emerged at the turn of the century. His legacy documents the realities of urban life during his age, all chronicled in his distinctive brushwork and sophisticated palette.
While Raffaëlli was never fully accepted as a member of the Impressionist group, his works display a similar affinity for capturing the transient moments of modern life. His figures exude a sense of being suspended in time, as though they are part of some subtle narrative that is both restless and harmonious. Perhaps more aligned with Naturalism than Impressionism, the visual effect of Raffaëlli's composition is one of carefully composed spontaneity that makes manifest the joie de vivre of the age.
Raffaëlli was not the only artist of his era to devote his canvases to the urban landscape. Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Gustave Caillebotte and others composed significant works on the subject of the urban milieu. On the whole, it was an entirely new kind of painting, and it was largely influenced by the work of social engineer Baron Haussmann beginning in the 1850s. At the request of Emperor Napoleon III, Haussmann designed and carried out a large-scale urban renewal program, erecting landmarks and tree-lined thoroughfares throughout the city to create a unified and socially-centered urban aesthetic. The city became a glittering stage for modern advancements and bourgeois pleasure, which paved the way for a new kind of subject that was eagerly adopted by the Impressionists and artistic avant-garde.
Born in Paris in 1850, Raffaëlli first studied theater and music before turning to painting in 1870. That same year, he submitted a landscape painting to the Salon and was accepted. Aside from just three months studying with the Academic great Jean-Léon Gérôme, Raffaëlli was self-trained, developing his own unique style that brought together Realism, Naturalism and Impressionism. While he managed to exhibit works at both the Salon and the Impressionist exhibitions...
Category
Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Late 19th Century Scottish Figural Landscape, "The Ingathering, Rowan Tree Hill"
Located in Soquel, CA
A sweeping skyline sets a gentle tone for this late 19th century Scottish pastoral scene titled on verso "The Ingathering, Rowan-Tree Hill, Kilmalcol...
Category
Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Late 19th Century Tonalist Landscape -- Afternoon by the Pond
Located in Soquel, CA
Gorgeous tonalist oil painting woman walking in field by pond with home in background by Willis Seaver Adams (American, 1844-1921), circa 1880. Trees and an amazing sky in the background add depth and interest to this beautiful piece. Signed "W. S. Adams" lower right corner. Condition: Previous restoration includes relining of canvas. Frame is vintage gilt molded and wood frame and shows previous repair of molding losses. Image size: 20"H x 24"W.
Willis Seaver Adams was known for his landscapes of the Connecticut River Valley. A relative recluse for much of his artistic life, his loneliness can be seen in much of his works. Oil miniatures were the focus for almost all of his later works. He is credited with over 425 oils, watercolors, and drawings.
Willis Seaver was born in 1844 on a farm in Suffield, near the Connecticut River. He intermittently attended the Suffield Academy, and always wanted to be a painter. A wealthy doctor became his patron, and financed his studies in 1868 at the Royal Academy in Antwerp. When the doctor passed away, Adams returned home and struggled to make a living painting. After working for a photographer for three years, he opened his own studio.
Adams helped organize Clevelands first watercolor exhibit in 1876. Soon thereafter, he completed a portrait of Rutherford B. Hayes, then governor of Ohio, prior to his becoming President of the United States. This portrait enhanced Adams notoriety.
In 1878, Adams traveled to Italy where he opened a studio in Venice, and became friendly with neighbor James Whistler. Prior to returning to Springfield, Adams lived in Florence, Italy for three years. He returned to became an instructor for the Springfield Art Association, and began to exhibit his works at the galleries of James D. Gill. His first one-man exhibit was held there in 1894. Other successful exhibitions took place in Chicago, New York, and Boston. Although his works garnered respectable prices and reflected his success, Adams felt he was due more recognition.
In 1906, he moved to Greenfield, Massachusetts and converted a barn into a studio. There, he fell into relative obscurity, accompanied mainly by his dog, Collie. In 1921, Adams passed away.
Examples of Willis Adams works can be seen at the Kent Memorial Library, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Suffield Academy. Several Suffield residents are thought to own Adams paintings.
Category
Tonalist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Linen
French impressionist landscape, Barbizon forest, Paris with river and cows
Located in Woodbury, CT
19th century English impressionist scene of the Barbizon forest, near Paris France, with a river, cows, and trees.
Boyle was a pioneering 19th-century British artist inspired by E...
Category
Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Maurice Lobre (1862 -1951) The snack
By Maurice Lobre
Located in BELEYMAS, FR
Maurice LOBRE
(Bordeaux 1862 - Paris 1951)
Le goûter
Huile sur toile
H. 87 cm ; L. 91,5 cm
Format peint d’origine, H. 101 cm ; L. 96 cm, disposé sur un châssis plus petit par l’artiste lui-même.
Signée et datée 1888 en bas à droite
Provenance : Collection privée, Lyon
Exposition : 1889, Salon des Artistes Français, n°1719 « Intérieur », (ou 1720 nommé également « Intérieur »)
Œuvres en rapport : Le Cabinet de toilette de Jacques-Emile Blanche, (titre erroné) H. 80 cm ; L. 85 cm, HST, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, pendant de notre toile.
Maurice Lobre a-t-il connu Marcel Proust ? On ne peut encore l'affirmer, bien qu'il ait eu de nombreux amis en commun avec l'écrivain. Mais sa peinture intimiste pourrait illustrer certaines pages de Du côté de chez Swann. Trois citations dues à des proches de Proust, l'une de l'écrivain Léon Daudet, la seconde du peintre Jacques-Emile Blanche, la dernière du poète mondain Robert de Montesquiou, donnent un aperçu de ce que fut la renommée de Maurice Lobre en son temps :
"Il en va autrement de Lobre, le Vermeer français, le peintre exquis des intérieurs et des palais de Versailles, des reflets sur les meubles rares, de la lumière prisonnière des miroirs, des laques et des cuivres polis. Lobre est joyeux comme un coup de vent, qui fait envoler les préjugés et les poncifs, éloquent, passionné, ivre de la couleur et des formes, charmant et conquérant de toutes les matières. Il se promène ici-bas ainsi que dans un musée en plein-air, s'amuse de tout, rejette et maudit le laid et le vil, accueille et bénit le beau et le bien…"
Léon Daudet
L'Entre-deux-guerres. Souvenirs des milieux littéraires, politiques, artistiques et médicaux de 1880 à 1905.
"Voici le patient, appliqué, sage M. Lobre. Il est difficile de mettre plus d'honnêteté à peindre des intérieurs sans figures. Je préfère ses petits salons de Versailles à ses cathédrales… Nous lui devons des petits bijoux d'émotion et de large fini."
Jacques-Emile Blanche
"Il a recueilli sur des toiles le visage du vieux Versailles (…). Il a peuplé de visions impalpables des chambres " où il s'est passé quelque chose ", et il en a saturé l'atmosphère de particules historiques. Donner une telle impression avec certitude, avec vérité, c'est plus difficile que de faire évoluer des personnages costumés, dans ce qu'on appelle bêtement "une reconstitution historique"."
Comte Robert de Montesquiou
Maurice Lobre commence sa carrière au Salon de 1882 où il expose deux portraits, dont celui de son camarade de l'atelier Carolus-Duran, le peintre espagnol Ramon Casas...
Category
French School Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Antique 19th century English Impressionist classical landscape with figures
Located in Woodbury, CT
Outstanding English Impressionist landscape with figures strolling under trees with the sea beyond.
Joseph Vickers de Ville was a son of the farmers Joseph and Mary Deville. He was...
Category
Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Wood Panel, Oil
Antique English Harvest landscape with corn stacks, dog and view of the sea
Located in Woodbury, CT
Outstanding English Victorian 19th century Harvest landscape.
Thomas Simon Dingle was the son of Thomas Dingle (1818-1904), known as a London landscape painter, but who, according t...
Category
Victorian Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Wood Panel
L’embarquement by Gaston La Touche
By Gaston La Touche
Located in New Orleans, LA
Gaston La Touche
1854 - 1913 French
L’embarquement
The Embarkment
Signed "Gaston La Touche" (lower right)
Oil on panel
A fashionable group of merrymakers boards a rowboat at sundown in this oil on panel by renowned French painter Gaston La Touche. Softly lit and lushly detailed, the work represents the artist’s talent for capturing the gaiety of the Belle Époque. With its luminous coloring and feathery brushwork, this oil evokes the style and joie de vivre of the era rendered in La Touche’s distinctive, mature style.
Fresh and airy, the work is a beautiful example of the artist’s skill at capturing the subtle qualities of light and color. Set against the plein air backdrop of a wooded pond awash in the soft glow of the golden hour, the scene reflects the influence of the Impressionists. The subject also recalls works by Manet, Monet and Renoir, who delighted in depictions of modern leisure among the expanding middle class. The scene is an informal one, and its unconventional cropping suggests that the viewer is invited to take a seat in the boat and join the group on their outing. Such relaxed, inviting scenes were remarkably popular among contemporary, modern audiences. However, La Touche's style is singular, possessing an element of fantasy and romance that set him apart from the Impressionists.
Gaston La Touche was born in St. Cloud, outside of Paris, in 1854, and he showed a keen interest in art from a young age. At ten years old, he began taking private art instruction, which lasted until 1870, when his family was forced to flee to Normandy amid the Franco-Prussian War. This was the only formal art training La Touche would ever receive. Despite his lack of Academy training, he made his debut at the Paris Salon of 1875 with a sculptural medallion and etchings, and he exhibited his first painting at the Salon of 1881. Although he began his career painting dark-toned realist compositions, by 1890, his style had shifted to what would become his signature — a lighter, brighter, idealistic society world.
The artist was associated with practically all of the most influential artists and thinkers of late 19th century France, including Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Émile Zola, who frequently met at the legendary Cafe de la Nouvelle Athenes to share their thoughts on modern society. In 1900, he was named a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur and an Officer in 1909. Additionally, he was well-decorated at the grand...
Category
Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
Mother & Daughter Walking Coastal Pathway, Antique English Oil Painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: British School, late 19th/ early 20th century
Title: Mother & Daughter walking along the coastal path, with the sea beside them.
Medium: oil painting on canvas, f...
Category
Victorian Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Old Men with Kittens - Impressionist Oil, Figures in Interior by J F Raffaelli
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
A wonderful oil on panel by French impressionist painter Jean-Francois Raffaelli depicting two old men seated in an interior. One is reading his paper as the other naps and there are several kittens on the floor. Painted in the artist's distinctive style. The work is accompanied by a certificate from Brame & Lorenceau and is included in the catalogue raisonne of the painter.
Signature:
Signed lower left
Dimensions:
Framed: 9.5"x8"
Unframed: 5.5"x4"
Provenance:
Private collection - United States
Original artists label verso
Jean-François Raffaëlli's father was a failed Italian businessman and Raffaëlli himself was, among other things, a church chorister, actor and theatre singer. He then studied under Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He travelled to Italy, Spain and Algeria and on his return to France settled in Asnières.
In 1876, on a trip to Brittany, he first saw the potential of realist subject matter, if treated seriously. He became involved in meetings of artists at the Café Guerbois, where the Impressionist painters used to gather. As a result, Degas, contrary to the advice of the group, introduced Raffaëlli to the Impressionist exhibitions - according to one uncertain source as early as the very first exhibition, at the home of Nadar, and certainly to those of 1880 and 1881.
In 1904, Raffaëlli founded the Society for Original Colour Engraving. He first exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1870 and continued to exhibit there until he joined the Salon des Artistes Français in 1881, where he earned a commendation in 1885, was made Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1889 and in the same year was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle. In 1906 he was made Officier of the Légion d'Honneur. He was also a member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 1884, a private exhibition of his work cemented his reputation.
He contributed to several newspapers such as The Black Cat (Le Chat Noir) in 1885 and The French Mail (Le Courrier Français) in 1886 and 1887. He published a collection entitled Parisian Characters, which captured his favourite themes of the street, the neighbourhood and local people going about their lives. In 1880 he participated, with Forain, on the illustration of Joris Karl Huysmans' Parisian Sketches (Croquis Parisiens). He also illustrated Huysman's Works. As well as working as an illustrator, he also made etchings and coloured dry-points.
His early attempts at painting were genre scenes, but once he was settled in Asnières he started to paint picturesque views of Parisian suburbs. From 1879 onwards, his subject matter drew on the lives of local people. These popular themes, which he treated with humanity and a social conscience, brought him to the attention of the social realist writers of the time such as Émile Zola. In addition to his realist style, Raffaëlli's dark palette, which ran contrary to the Impressionist aesthethic, helped to explain the opposition of those painters to his participation in their exhibitions. More concerned with drawing than colour, he used black and white for most of his paintings. Towards the end of his life, he lightened his palette, but without adopting any other principles of the Impressionist technique.
After painting several portraits, including Edmond de Goncourt and Georges Clémenceau, he returned to genre painting, particularly scenes of bourgeois life. Later in his career, he painted mainly Breton-inspired sailors and views of Venice. His views of the Paris slums and the fortifications, sites which have almost completely disappeared, went some way towards establishing a genre in themselves and perpetuated the memory of the area: The Slums, Rag-and-Bone Man, Vagabond, Sandpit, In St-Denis, Area of Fortifications. His realistic and witty portrayal of typical Parisian townscapes accounts for his enduring appeal.
Born in Paris, he was of Tuscan descent through his paternal grandparents. He showed an interest in music and theatre before becoming a painter in 1870. One of his landscape paintings was accepted for exhibition at the Salon in that same year. In October 1871 he began three months of study under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris; he had no other formal training.
Raffaëlli produced primarily costume pictures until 1876, when he began to depict the people of his time—particularly peasants, workers, and ragpickers seen in the suburbs of Paris—in a realistic style. His new work was championed by influential critics such as J.-K. Huysmans, as well as by Edgar Degas.
The ragpicker became for Raffaëlli a symbol of the alienation of the individual in modern society. Art historian Barbara S. Fields has written of Raffaëlli's interest in the positivist philosophy of Hippolyte-Adolphe Taine, which led him to articulate a theory of realism that he christened caractérisme. He hoped to set himself apart from those unthinking, so-called realist artists whose art provided the viewer with only a literal depiction of nature. His careful observation of man in his milieu paralleled the anti-aesthetic, anti-romantic approach of the literary Naturalists, such as Zola and Huysmans.
Degas invited Raffaëlli to participate in the Impressionist exhibitions of 1880 and 1881, an action that bitterly divided the group; not only was Raffaëlli not an Impressionist, but he threatened to dominate the 1880 exhibition with his outsized display of 37 works. Monet, resentful of Degas's insistence on expanding the Impressionist exhibitions by including several realists, chose not to exhibit, complaining, "The little chapel has become a commonplace school which opens its doors to the first dauber to come along."An example of Raffaëlli's work from this period is Les buveurs d'absinthe (1881, in the California Palace of Legion of Honor Art Museum in San Francisco). Originally titled Les déclassés, the painting was widely praised at the 1881 exhibit.
After winning the Légion d'honneur in 1889, Raffaëlli shifted his attention from the suburbs of Paris to city itself, and the street scenes that resulted were well received by the public and the critics. He made a number of sculptures, but these are known today only through photographs.[2] His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1912 Summer Olympics. In the later years of his life, he concentrated on color printmaking. Raffaëlli died in Paris on February 11, 1924
Museum and Gallery Holdings:
Béziers: Peasants Going to Town
Bordeaux: Bohemians at a Café
Boston: Notre-Dame; Return from the Market
Brussels: Chevet of Notre-Dame; pastel
Bucharest (Muz. National de Arta al României): Market at Antibes; Pied-à-terre
Copenhagen: Fishermen on the Beach
Douai: Return from the Market; Blacksmiths
Liège: Absinthe Drinker...
Category
Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
Evening - Post Impressionist Divisionist Oil Figures in Landscape - Henri Martin
By Henri Martin
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Stunning divisionist oil on panel circa 1895 by sought after French post impressionist painter Henri Martin. The work depicts a worker in a field re...
Category
Post-Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Harbour view. Oil on canvas. Signed.
Located in Paris, FR
Charles John de Lacy (1856 – 13 December 1929) was one of the foremost British marine artists of his period. He was especially known for his warship imagery an...
Category
Realist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Portrait de Madame Martin - Post Impressionist Divisionist Oil by Henri Martin
By Henri Martin
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Beautiful signed and dated divisionist oil on canvas portrait by sought after French post impressionist painter Henri Martin. The depicts a side view the artist's wife who is wearing...
Category
Post-Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
"Partida de Tresillo", Late 19th Century Oil on Canvas by José Jiménez Aranda
Located in Madrid, ES
JOSÉ JIMÉNEZ ARANDA
Spanish, 1837 - 1903
PARTIDA DE TRESILLO
signed, located & dated “J. Aranda / Madrid. 1893.” (lower right)
oil on canvas
31-1/2 x 39-1/3 inches (80 x 100 cm)
framed: 40-1/3 x 48 inches (102.5 x 122 cm.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- This picture being mentioned and illustrated in “LA ILUSTRACION ESPAÑOLA Y AMERICANA”, Madrid, September 15, 1895
- José Jiménez Aranda, 1837-1903: Centro Cultural El Monte, Seville, October 2005, illustrated p. 102
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, USA
José Jiménez Aranda (7 February 1837 – 6 May 1903) was a Spanish painter and brother of the painters Luis Jiménez...
Category
Realist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Orientale
Located in New York, NY
Signed, lower right: Fantin
Provenance:
Gustave Tempelaere (1840–1904), Paris; possibly by descent to his son:
Julien Tempelaere (1876–1961) and with F. & J. Tempelaere, Paris, prob...
Category
Romantic Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Paper, Oil
Still Life with Mythological Motifs - Oil Painting - Late 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Still Life with Mythological Motivs is an original artowork realized by European Master in the Late 19th Century.
Mixed colored oil on Canvas
Includes a coeval wooden frame.
Category
Modern Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
"Before the Walls of Jerusalem", 19th Century Oil on Canvas by José Villegas
Located in Madrid, ES
JOSÉ VILLEGAS CORDERO
Spanish, 1844 - 1921
BEFORE THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM
signed "Villegas" (lower left)
oil on canvas
12-1/4 x 17-1/4 inches (31.1 x 43.7 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Private Collector, Seville, Spain
José Villegas Cordero (Seville, August 26, 1844-Madrid, November 9, 1921) was a Spanish painter. He directed the Prado Museum between 1901 and 1918.
He was the brother of the painter Ricardo Villegas Cordero. He began his apprenticeship very young with José María Romero, with whom he remained for two years until entering the School of Fine Arts in Seville, where he was under the tutelage of Eduardo Cano.
In 1860, when he was only 16 years old, he sold his work Little Philosophy for 2,000 reais at the Seville Exhibition. In 1867 he traveled to Madrid, where he entered Federico Madrazo's studio. There he established friendship with painters Eduardo Rosales and Fortuny.
He went regularly to the Prado where he copied Velázquez, from whom he acquired spontaneity and the use of color for his technique.
Finally, and out of admiration for Fortuny's orientalist painting, he returned to Seville and organized an excursion to Morocco.
At the end of 1868 he decided to travel to Rome accompanied by the painters Rafael Peralta and Luis Jiménez Aranda...
Category
Realist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Sand Barge by Jozef Israëls - Landscape painting, Dutch artist, Hague School
Located in London, GB
The Sand Barge by Jozef Israëls
Oil on wood panel.
18 x 40 cm (7 1/16 x 15 3/4 in).
Signed
Artist biography
Dutch-Jewish artist Jozef Israëls was born ...
Category
Barbizon School Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Wood, Oil
Large "View of The Doge's Palace Venice", 19th C. Oil on Canvas by Karl Kaufmann
Located in Madrid, ES
KARL KAUFMANN
Austrian, 1843 - 1901
VIEW OF VENICE OF THE DOGE'S PALACE, VENICE
signed & dated "K. Kaufmann 1894" (lower right)
oil on canvas
38-3/4 x 56-1/8 inches (98 x 142 cm.)
fr...
Category
Naturalistic Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Still Life with Violin, Music Sheets and Brushes - Oil Painting By A.Lang
Located in Roma, IT
Still Life with Violin is an original modern artwork realized in the late 19th Century by Albert Lang.
Mixed colored oil on canvas.
Includes frame: 88 x ...
Category
Modern Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Mixed Media
Familly in a Square - Original Oil on Canvas, Signed
Located in Paris, FR
Henri EVENEPOEL (1872-1899)
Familly in a Square, c. 1895
Oil on Canvas
Signed bottom left
On canvas 51 x 37 cm (c. 20 x 15 in)
In a golden wood frame 68 x 54 cm (c. 27 x 21 in)
Rar...
Category
Modern Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Enfants et les oies - Realist Oil, Figures & Geese in Landscape by Paul Druard
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
A beautiful and charming oil on panel circa 1890 by French realist painter Paul Druard. The work is a depiction of farm life. A mother is seated on the grass with a daughter seated t...
Category
Realist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
"Village au bord de riviere" , France, Oil 36 x 26 cm circa 1880 Free shipping
By Paul Lecomte
Located in Torino, IT
Impressionism, France,river, 19th,green,Offer Free Shipping, Landscape Paintings
Paul LECOMTE (Paris, 1842 – 1920)
Paul Lecomte, painter and watercolourist, is considered one of the last exponents of the École de Barbizon. Pupil of Emile Lambinet...
Category
Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Chinese Ancestor Portrait
Located in Chicago, IL
This intricately detailed composition is a late-Qing dynasty ancestor portrait depicting several generations of a family's male ancestry. Or...
Category
Qing Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Fabric, Silk, Paint, Pigment
J J A Lecomte du Nouÿ (1842-1923) A shoulder and back study, oil painting
Located in Paris, FR
Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ (1842-1923)
A shoulder and back study, oil study
oil on canvas
34 x 19.5 cm
In good condition, a few small inpainti...
Category
Romantic Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
19th century antique English fishing boats by the White Cliffs of Dover
By J.H.Watson
Located in Woodbury, CT
A very pretty late 19th-century English marine scene of fishing boats beached after being out to sea and bringing in their catch for the day.
This was a subject that was very popul...
Category
Victorian Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Attilio Manganaro (c.1865-c.1890) - Portrait of Gabriele d’Annunzio in 1887
Located in BELEYMAS, FR
Attilio MANGANARO
(c.1865 – c.1890)
Portrait of Gabriele d'Annunzio in 1887
Oil on canvas
H. 52 cm; L. 42 cm
Signed and dated lower right 1887
On the...
Category
Italian School Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Ancient View of the Bay of Naples - Oil Painting - 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
View over the Bay of Naples is an orginal old master artwork realized by Master of Northern Europe School of the second half of 19th Century.
Mixed colored oil on canvas.
Relined....
Category
Modern Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
19th century English Boats on a river with sailing, rowing and a paddle boat
Located in Woodbury, CT
Very pretty English 19th century River landscape with sailboats, a Paddle Steamer, and a crew rowing.
Possibly a view on the Thames in London, this piece ...
Category
Victorian Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
"A Street in Granada", 19th Century Oil on Canvas by Manuel García y Rodríguez
Located in Madrid, ES
MANUEL GARCÍA Y RODRÍGUEZ
Spanish, 1863 - 1925
A STREET IN GRANADA, 1890
signed, located & dated "Garcia y Rodriguez / Granada 90" (lower left)
oil ...
Category
Realist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Antique American Oil Painting Portrait Young Woman Necklace Period Frame Rare
Located in Buffalo, NY
A beautiful and rare antique American portrait of a young woman in a stunning period frame, likely original to the piece.
Unsigned but beaut...
Category
American Realist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Oil Painting Pair by Alessandro Sani "Flirtation"
Located in Mere, GB
Oil Painting Pair by Alessandro Sani "Flirtation" 1856 - 1927. Italian painter of domestic and historical scenes and professor of Art. Based in Flore...
Category
Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Chez le Satrape de Susiane
Located in Paris, FR
Georges Rochegrosse,
1859-1938, French
Chez le Satrape de Susiane, 1891
Oil on canvas
Signed lower right
Canvas : 17 3/4" high x 22" wide
Frame: 26 3/4" high x 31 1/2" wide
Ge...
Category
Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Young French Girl with Strawberries
Located in Greenwich, CT
A distinctive and impressive French Genre painting, this painting is of exceptional quality and presence. The frame as well is period and This e...
Category
French School Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
"Venetian Canal" Late 19th Century Oil on Canvas by Spanish Artist Antonio Reyna
Located in Madrid, ES
ANTONIO REYNA MANESCAU
Spanish, 1859 - 1937
VENETIAN CANAL
signed & located "A. Reyna, Venezia" (lower left)
oil on canvas
11-1/2 x 19-3/4 inche...
Category
Realist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Fetching Water by the River /// British Impressionism Yeend King Oil Painting
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Henry John Yeend King (English, 1855-1924)
Title: "Fetching Water by the River"
*Signed by King lower left
Circa: 1890
Medium: Original Oil Painting on Canvas
Framing: Frame...
Category
Post-Impressionist Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Paint, Oil, Gesso
J J A Lecomte du Nouÿ (1842-1923) An oriental street, oil sketch
Located in Paris, FR
Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ (1842-1923)
An oriental street
oil on canvas
11.5 x 14 cm
no signature
In good condition, canvas without stretcher,...
Category
Romantic Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
Late 19th Century genre portrait oil painting of a boy holding a lantern
Located in Moreton-In-Marsh, Gloucestershire
Charles Spencelayh
British, (1865-1958)
The Lantern
Oil on canvas, signed
Image size: 13.5 inches x 9.75 inches
Size including frame: 20.25 inches ...
Category
Victorian Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
19th century oval oil portrait of a young girl with Red and White dress
By David Simonson
Located in Woodbury, CT
Wonderful and very pretty 19th century European portrait of a young girl.
This painting came from a collection of portraits all of young girls and all painted by David Simonson, wh...
Category
Victorian Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Letter
Located in New Orleans, LA
A red-robed cardinal chuckles at the letter in his hand in this oil on canvas by the Italian painter Andrea Landini. The vibrantly hued piece illustrates the artist’s genius at rendering charming narratives in remarkable detail. Entitled The Letter, the work is a superb example of Landini's technical virtuosity — from the finely carved and upholstered chair to the neoclassical painting in the background, every detail is meticulously depicted.
Such works satirizing the clergy would have been severely censured just a generation earlier. Yet, by the time Landini picked up the brush, the European public had grown discontent with the hypocrisy of the clergy, many of whom enjoyed lavish lifestyles. Cardinal paintings such as this became highly popular during the period, and Landini emerged alongside Georges Croegaert, Marcel Brunery and Jehan Georges Vibert as the leading painters of the genre.
Born in Florence in 1847, Andrea Landini trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, first under the animal painter Riccardo Pasquini and later with religious painter Antonio Ciseri...
Category
Other Art Style Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Oil Sketch for the Painting "Gustavus II Adolphus before the Battle of Lützen"
Located in Stockholm, SE
This is an oil sketch for the famous painting "Gustavus II Adolphus before the Battle of Lützen" today in the Göteborgs Konstmuseum's collection.
There is something special with an ...
Category
Late 19th Century Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil