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Thomas Couture
"Knowing how to paint and to use one's colors rightly has not any connection with originality. This originality consists in properly expressing your own impressions." -- Thomas Couture
1815-1879
Education - École des Beaux-Arts
Thomas
Couture's work varies from
sensual mythological themes
that are often distinguished
by sophisticated brushwork,
to self-consciously romantic
themes of mysterious
unrequited love. He was
known as the quintessential
"artiste" and encouraged the
elegant tastes and decadent
diversions of his wealthy
patrons.
Description of the
Academic Classicism Painting
style
Followers of this
movement were influenced
by the high standards of
the French Académie des
Beaux-Arts, which
practiced under the
movements of
Neoclassicism
and
Romanticism.
Academic Classicism
attempted to merge both
techniques to create the
perfect style. It is
characterized by
adhering to a strict
manner of painting,
following narrow
compositional rules and
delicacy of color.
The atmospheric effects are
sumptuously luminescent.
According to art historian,
Walter Pater
"To
produce such effects at
all requires all the
resources of painting,
with its power of
indirect expression, of
subordinate but
significant detail, its
atmosphere, its
foregrounds and
backgrounds."
Subject matter often used in Rococo art such historical and genre pictures was fashionable once again. This style favored interpretations of Greek, Roman and Renaissance themes. Imagery often centered around Biblical stories, Arthurian legends and mythology. According to Solomon Gessner, the great German painter and art historian, "By studying the works of Greek sculptors the painter can attain the sublimest conceptions of beauty, and learn what must be added to nature in order to give to the imitation dignity and propriety.
About the Painter
A True Master of Academic Classicism, Thomas Couture
, had an extraordinary way of revealing a subjects sensual, "natural" qualities and yet, at the same time, create in the viewer an almost theatrical feeling of high drama. Historical accuracy, blithe elegance, and an ethereal atmosphere characterize his brilliant painting style.
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Principle Painters of Academic Classicism Movement
Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, 1817-1900
Adolphe-William Bouguereau1825-1905
Charles Emile August Carolus-Duran, 1837-1917
Leon Francois Comerre, 1850-1916
Pierre-Auguste Cot 1837-1883
Thomas Couture, 1815-1879
Paul Delaroche 1797-1856
Eugene Fromentin, 1820-1876
Jean Leon Gerome, 1824-1904
Jean-Paul Laurens1838-1921
Adolphe Alexandre Lesrel, 1839-1929
Luc Olivier Merson, 1846-1920
Hans Makart, 1840 - 1884
Giulio Rosati, 1858-1917
Franz Xavier Winterhalter, 1805-1873
William Clarke Wontner, 1857-1930
Fritz Zuber-Buhler, 1822-1896
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