Category: French
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A Guide to Cubism
How to recognize and understand Cubism. Learn about the key artists, underlying ideas, and background.
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A Guide to Post-Impressionist Painting
The Post-Impressionist movement started in Paris around 1880. Post-Impressionism can be seen in painting and other two-dimensional art forms like drawings and prints. Artists such as Cezanne, van Gogh, Matisse, and Gauguin were its stars.
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A Guide to Impressionist Painting
Impressionism is one of the most famous and well-loved styles in western art history. It’s well known for haystacks and waterlilies by Monet, dancers by Degas, and beautiful women by Renoir. Learn about Impressionism’s main ideas and controversial origins.
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More Gargoyles and Grotesques of Reims Cathedral
This gargoyle on Reims Cathedral seems to have had a head transplant some time since the Middle Ages! The concept is actually not that unusual, since centuries of running water often erode functioning gargoyles over time. It’s difficult to tell from this photo if the replacement was done in metal or a differently-colored stone. Either way, the end result…
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of Chartres Cathedral
This grotesque is on the west portal of Chartres Cathedral – among the grandest and most famous of all French Gothic churches. While its close cousin in Paris is famous for its gargoyles, Chartres is celebrated for its beautiful stained glass and profuse sculptural decoration. Much of this sculptural work is clustered around its nine arched doors (portals);…
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Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun at the Met
My experience at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s major 2016 exhibition of works by Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun. Vigée Le Brun French Neoclassical and Rococo portrait painter and one of the first women to succeed as a professional portrait painter on a grand scale.
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of Bethlehem Chapel, Saint-Jean-de-Boiseau, France
The Bethlehem Chapel is a little medieval French church that was restored in a very unusual manner. In the 1990s, a movement began to repair the decaying chapel, which had once played host to a series of now-lost grotesques on the building’s four pinnacles. The architect and stone carver, supported by the town’s youth, decided to…
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More Gargoyle and Grotesques of Notre Dame de Paris
Today’s grotesque is a true classic. The gargoyles of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris are neither the oldest nor the most interesting of their kind, but they have certainly become the most famous. The interior and exterior of this church, which was a major milestone in the history of Gothic architecture, were both rather creatively restored by Gothic Revival proponent…
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of Chateau de Pierrefonds, France
A crocodile gargoyle on the Chateau de Pierrefonds in France.
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Nativity by Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (December 25th)
The Christmas Day edition of an art history Advent calendar features a Nativity painting by French artist Jean Baptiste Marie Pierre.
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A Winter’s Walk by Jacques-Joseph Tissot (December 14th)
A fashionable portrait of a woman taking a walk on a winter’s day, by French realism Jacques-joseph Tissot. Part of a fine art Advent calendar.
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The Roman de the Rose – Day 15
Read about the illustrations in a medieval French romance poem that was the subject of so many illuminated manuscripts.
