Émile Lévy: An Academician

Émile Lévy - Mme Emile Lévy, née Céline Joséphine Bidard de La Noë - 1883 - Private Collection (click photo for larger image)French Academic Painter Émile Lévy (1826-1890) studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris under Abel Depujol and François Edouard Picot. In 1854 he was given the Grand Prix de Rome award and exhibited several times at the salons and the expositions, after 1859.  His work contains portraits and historical scenes under the influence of the Academism. He also created some poster designs.

Academic Art is the painting and sculpture produced under the influence of the Academies in Europe and especially France, where many artists received their formal training. It is characterized by its highly polished style, its use of mythological or historical subject matter, and its moralistic tone. Neoclassical Art was also closely associated with the French Academy and the 19th century Salons at which art was submitted for display and prizes were awarded. 

French Impressionism was the avant-garde movement that challenged Academic Art, and is now widely regarded as the first movement of modern art. As such, in the realm of art history, Impressionism very much overshadows Academic Art. However, it is important to remember that many highly talented and highly skilled artists were part of the academic tradition.

Lord Frederic Leighton and Victorian Classicism

Lord Frederic Leighton - Cimabue’s Celebrated Madonna - 1853-1855 - The National Gallery, London (click photo for larger image)Victorian Classicism was a British form of historical painting inspired by the art and architecture of Classical Greece and Rome. In the 19th century, an increasing number of Western Europeans made the Grand Tour to Mediterranean lands. There was a great popular interest in the region's lost civilizations and exotic cultures, and this fascination fueled the rise of Classicism in Britain, and Orientalism. Orientalism, which was primarily centered in continental Europe, refers to the imitation or depiction of aspects in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and East Asian cultures.

The Classicists were closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, and artists in each movement were influenced by both styles, to some degree. Both movements were highly romantic and were inspired by similar historical and mythological themes. The key distinction is that the Classicists epitomized the rigid academic standards of painting, while the Pre-Raphaelites were initially formed as a rebellion against those same standards.

English painter and sculptor Lord Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) was one of the leading Classicists, and in his lifetime was considered by many to be among the finest painter of his generation. Leighton was a great admirer of Italian Renaissance painting (which hearkened back to the classical era) and showed, for his time, an advanced appreciation of the early Italian painters, including Cimabue and Giotto (both discussed elsewhere on What About Art?). He drew heavily on 15th- and 16th-century sources when working on Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna (featured here). Ironically, the altarpiece shown by Leighton (now in the Uffizi) is today recognized to have be done by the artist Duccio (also discussed on What About Art?), not Cimabue.

Theodore Rousseau: A Barbizon Master

Theodore Rousseau - The Forest in Winter at Sunset - ca. 1846-67 - Oil on canvas - 64 x 102 3/8 in. (162.6 x 260 cm) - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (click photo for larger image)The Barbizon School was a group of landscape artists working in the area of the French town of Barbizon, south of Paris. They rejected the Academic tradition, abandoning theory in an attempt to achieve a truer representation of life in the countryside. They are considered part of the French Realist movement.

The Barbizon School artists are often considered to have sown the seeds of Modernism with their individualism, and they were the forerunners of the Impressionists, who took a similar philosophical approach to their art. Theodore Rousseau (1812-1867) is the best-known member of the group.

The work featured here is unrivaled for its scale and ambition. This monumental forest scene was begun early in Rousseau's career and remained unfinished at the time of his death. According to one account, Rousseau’s intention was to recreate the effect of a sunset he had seen in a section of Fontainebleau forest, in December 1845. “The tangled web of trees, denuded of foliage and suffused with deep color, conveys a sense of awe before nature that is amplified by the presence of two stooped peasants at the center.”

Classicism: Art Inspired by History and Tradition

Lord Frederic Leighton - Cimabue’s Celebrated Madonna - 1853-55 - Oil on canvas - 222 cm × 521 cm (87 in × 205 in) - National Gallery, London (click photo for larger image)Victorian Classicism was a British form of historical painting that developed during hte mid-to-late nineteenth century. It was largely inspired by the art and architecture of Classical Greece and Rome.

In the 1800s, an increasing number of Western Europeans made the "Grand Tour" to the Mediterranean. There was a great popular interest in the region's lost civilizations and exotic cultures, and this interest fueled the rise of Classicism in Britain.

The Classicists were closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, and many artists of the day were influenced by both styles, to some degree. Both movements were highly romantic and both were inspired by similar historical and mythological themes. A key distinction, however, is that the Classicists epitomized the rigid Academic standards of painting, while the Pre-Raphaelites were initially formed as a rebellion against those same standards.

English painter and sculptor Lord Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) was one of the major Classicists—a painter who enjoyed immense prestige during his life. After an education in many European cities, he went to Rome in 1852, where his social talents won him the friendship of a number of celebrated artists. His painting featured here, Cimabue’s Madonna, was exhibited at the Royal Academy’s exhibition in 1855, and was purchased by Queen Victoria. It marked the entry into England a new cosmopolitan and academic manner. The grandeur of scale and forms of classical Greek and High Renaissance extraction were used to embody subject matter of an anecdotal and superficial nature. Leighton came to London in 1858 to enjoy this triumph but did not settle there until 1860.

In 1869 he was made a member of the Royal Academy and became the academy’s president in 1878, During that same year he was knighted. In 1886 he was made a baronet, and, on the day before he died, he became a baron, being the first English painter to be so honored. Since he never married, the titles became extinct upon his death.

Madame X: A Scandal

John Singer Sargent - Madame Pierre Gautreau (Madame X) - 1884 - Oil on canvas 82 1/2 x 43 1/4 in - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (click photo for larger image)“Madame X” or “Portrait of Madame X” by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) is the informal title of this portrait of a young socialite named Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, wife of Pierre Gautreau. Virginie (1859–1915) was of European Creole ancestry (born in New Orleans), and taken at the age of eight by her widowed mother to France in 1867, following the American Civil War. She was educated in Paris and married Pierre Gautreau, a wealthy businessman. She became a Parisian socialite, known for her beauty. She occasionally posed as a model for notable artists. This portrait created a social scandal when shown at the Paris Salon. Such a high-class woman would not usually be a model—and particularly if she was married. The scandal caused Pierre Gautreau to retire for some time from society. Initially, one of the straps on Virginie’s gown was off her arm. It was so shocking, however, that Sargent changed it.