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 |
