Louvre, 3

Fortified by five lectures covering French painting from the Le Nains, through LeSeur, Latour, LeBrun, Boucher, Chardin, Vernet, Watteau, Fragonard, Hubert Robert, Elisabeth Vigee-Le Brun, and on to David, Ingres, Delacroix, and Millet...we tackled the second floor of the Sully and on into Richelieu wing. Mostly 17th and 18th century French painting, just getting into the 19th, not what everyone who comes to the Louvre comes to see. But it's stuff we've grown into. The two dozen pix below represent just specimens of given painters or schools. 

There were rather quite a few Le Seurs--a whole room maybe--
pretty much all with the same frame (we'd just passed through
the frame display rooms) 

Georges LaTour, Saint Joseph the Carpenter,
1652

Francois Boucher, Diana Leaving Her Bath, 1742; 

Jean-Simeon Chardin, The Young Draftrsman,
1732; sorry, we got a bit out of order here... 

George LaTour, The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds, 1652;
muy famoso

Louis Le Nain, The Peasants' Meal, 1632; things got even worse
before they got better

In London, we "discovered" Joseph Vernet, an 18th century
landscape artist somewhat midway between Claude and Turner;
here his View of Naples with Vesuvius, 1742

And his Night: A Seaport in Moonlight, 1771, commissioned
by Madame Du Barry, FYI

Hyacinth Ridaud, Portrait of Madame Rigaud in two Different
Poses, 1695; two-fer

I've included Watteau's Pierrot many times before; one of my
favorites; here is his equally famous Pilgrimage to the Isle of
Cythera; known, as is Pierrot, for its note of melancholy

Fragonard's dramatic Inspiration, 1769

And his Fantasy, also 1769

Hubert Robert specialized in paintings of Roman ruins, including
this Pont du Gard, 1787, one of a series of Franco/Roman "monuments",
done for Fontainbleau...Arles, Nimes, and Orange...all in the same room
in the Louvre now

If nothing else, Robert lived in interesting times: he rose to a
high position both in the art world and with Louis XVI; then
suffered through the Revolution, imprisoned ten months, missed
his appointment with Monsieur Guillotin only through an
error (there were two Hubert Roberts, apparently), was released
after Robespierre's death, then became one of the committee of
five that converted the Louvre to the national museum it is today;
here, one of his paintings of the grand gallery

He also did fantasy/ruin paintings: here, his fantasy of what
the grand gallery would look like as a ruin...

Hubert Robert portrait by none other than Elisabeth-
Louise Vigee-Le Brun, another of our London 
"discoveries"

Self-portrait of Le Brun with her daughter, Julie,
1786

Vigee-Le Brun, Portrait of Madame Mole-Reymond,
1786

Francois Gerard, Psyche's Receiving Cupid's First
Kiss, 1798

Hippolyte Flandrin, Nude Youth Sitting by the Sea, 1835

Theodore Gericault, study for The Raft of Medusa, 1818; a ship-wreck
scene; we'll see the bigger version next week 

Delacroix's portrait of Chopin, 1838...looking like
a man indeed dying of consumption

Charles Gleyre, Lost Illusions, 1843

Anne-Xavier Le Prince, Susten Pass, Switzerland, 1825

Jean-Francois Millett, The Hay Trussers, 1850; Van Gogh's one-time
idol