beside the easel

The Diet, late 1800's Jehan Georges Vibert was an Academic painter from France born in Paris on September 30, 1840. A contemporary of Jean-Léon Gérôme , Vibert would also find himself at the École des Beaux-Arts where he studied under François-Édouard Picot, who also taught artists such as Cabanel and Bouguereau. Where the breadth of Gérôme's interests and subject matter crossed into many different areas, Vibert had a seemingly insatiable appetite for sarcasm and wit, especially in his anticlerical work. Had he widened his oeuvre we may have seen an incredible eye on humanity, yet ironically within his narrow range he still managed to create insightful and stunningly vivid works that challenge our everyday notions on religion and society. And he did it often with subtle humour, a rare thing in art. In The Diet above, Vibert shows a cleric eating milk and biscuits in what is clearly someone who needs to drop a few pounds. Look at the attention to drapery here. Vibert mad...

Carnival procession in the 17th century, 1887 Yesterday was the birthday of French painter, sculptor and illustrator Adrien Moreau . A contemporary of Émile Friant, Moreau's oeuvre is more dramatic and focuses more on grand scenes than portraiture. He is a storyteller in the purest sense of the word, in a similar vein to Friant but with more attention to atmosphere and surrounding details. Moreau is actually another master of color, but in a style totally different than Tiepolo that uses contrast to lead the eye around the painting. In The Carnival Procession above, Moreau uses very warm light against the almost theatrical architecture behind the main figures. Shiny golden costumes separate most of the figures from the observers, while the body language and bold color itself act as a design element to lead the eye to the main two characters: the devil and the mandolin player, effectively dividing the entourage in half so that we look both in front of and behind them. The larg...