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Pierre-Victor Ledure, Mantle Clock with the Figure of Perseus, Early 19th Century Gilt Bronze
Born in Paris in 1783, Pierre-Victor Ledure became an apprentice of the famous bronzier André-Antoine Ravrio, who became one of his best friends. Ledure came to be one of the leading bronziers in the early 19th century, with an extensive and influential clientèle. Several important collections contain his work, like the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.
Oil Paintings by Jean Metzinger
Jean Metzinger (1883-1956), was a French artist, painter, theorist, writer and poet. His early works, from 1902 to 1904, were influenced by the Neo-Impressionism of Georges Seurat and Henri Edmond Cross. Between 1904 and 1907 Metzinger worked in the Divisionist and Fauve styles.
From 1908 Metzinger was directly involved with Cubism; both as a leading artist and principle theorist. Metzinger, following Picasso and Braque, was chronologically the third Cubist painter. He was a founding member of the Section d’Or group of artists, and together with Albert Gleizes, wrote the first major treatise on Cubism in 1912.
Wood Sculptures by Thierry Martenon, France
Gustave Courbet, “The Desperate Man”, 1844-45, Self-Portrait, Oil on Canvas, Private Collection
Gustave Courbet, a French Realist painter, strived to be independent from the public’s taste and constantly challenged convention by his emphatically realistic renderings of scenes from the daily life. Courbet was not depicting beauty using graceful poses and impressive colors; he was depicting truth. This uncompromising artistic sincerity made him stand out from all other artists working at that time in Paris and often forced him to exhibit his work independently from the Salon.
“The Desperate Man” is among the earliest works by the artist that he completed in 1845. With his eyes wide-open, Courbet is staring straight at you and tearing his hair. Popular at the time, the Romantic approach to portraiture was concerned with expressing emotional and psychological states of the individual. However, Courbet is seldom recognized as being connected to the themes and ideologies of the Romantics, who enjoyed the apex of their success around the time of Courbet’s birth in 1819.
Courbet found his career in a transitional period that saw Romanticism coming to a close and subsequently, the birth of realism and modernism in European visual culture. “The Desperate Man’ was produced at the apex of the artist’s melancholy and Romantic disillusionment. It proved to be a key work in his life, and it remained in his studio until his death in 1877.
Paintings by Eric Massart, France
Eric Massart is a 45 year old artist who lives in Alès, a small town near Nîmes in southern France. He has a workshop and show room there for his colorful art, that includes works in many materials, not only paintings but also ceramics and furniture.
Oil Paintings by Odilon Redon
Born in France in 1840, Odilon Redon was a painter and graphic artist, one of the outstanding figures of Symbolism. He had a retiring life, first in his native Bordeaux, then from 1870 in Paris. Until he was in his fifties Redon worked almost exclusively in black and white, producing charcoal drawings and lithographs. Influenced by the writings of Edgar Allen Poe, Redon developed a highly distinctive repertoire of weird subjects such as strange amoeboid creatures, insects, and plants with human heads.
Odilon Redon remained virtually unknown to the public until the publication of J.K. Huysmans’s celebrated novel “A Rebours” in 1884. The book’s hero, a disenchanted aristocrat who lives in a private world of perverse delights, collects Redon’s drawings. With the mention of Redon’s name in this classic expression of decadence, Redon too became associated with the French Decadent Movement which was flourishing in France and starting to spread throughout Europe.
George Desvallières, Pastels on Paper
Born in 1861 in Paris, George Desvallières studied at the Académie Julian with historical painter and teacher Tony Robert-Fleury and studied with Jules Valadon at the École des Beaux-Arts. His early paintings consisted of mainly portrait work.
Desvallières had a privileged relationship with Gustave Moreau, a renowned professor and one of the major figures in Symbolist painting which was steeped in mysticism. Moreau had a major influence on Desvallières’s early artwork, turning him toward an interest in mythology and religion. After a trip to Italy in 1890, his style started combining dark subjects and strong color with religious drama.
Desvallières worked with painters Maurice Denis and Albert Besnard to decorate French art and music patron Jacques Rouché’s private mansion. He also worked on a number of public and private decorative programs related to World War I: among those were windows for a church in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and for the Douaumont Ossuary, a memorial site for the skeletal remains of the soldiers who died at the Battle of Verdun in World War I.
Desvallières illustrated a number of books and plays, including “Rolla” by French dramatist Alfred de Musset and “La Princesse Lointaine” by French poet and dramatist Edmond Rostand. Collections of Desvallières’s work can be found at the Louvre in Paris and the Muséed’Orsay.
Top Image: “Joueurs de Balles”, Pastel, 1894
Bottom Image: “Tireurs a l’arc”, Pastel, 1895
Laura Bevon, “Werewolf Attack”, 2010, Digital Art Illustration
Laura Bevon is a freelance illustrator and concept artist from Lyon, France.