Founded around 1666, the Prix de Rome was an annual contest for narrative painting. First prize was study at the French Academy in Rome.
Category Archive: Life
What could a jury possibly find bad or objectionable about Whistler’s finest painting? And after that mistake, how could a second jury get it so wrong too?
A wedding and two major commissions: a series of large wall paintings on the Life of the Virgin, and his first 9 cartoons for tapestries, on the theme of hunting.
Between 1884 and his death in 1890, he painted a great many still lifes, some of which are not only among his most famous, but the most popular in Western art.
Pupil of Richard Wilson, one of the fathers of British landscape painting, he accompanied Captain Cook on his second exploratory voyage to the Pacific.
Arrivals at the inn bring an unexpected turn of events: first four horsemen and a lady who end the deception of Princess Micomicona, then a man and a woman from Algiers.
Three paintings within 5 years, usually claimed to be responses to the Dreyfus Affair. But one was much more about modern art and photography.
From Apelles, in around 330 BCE, the personification of Truth has had particular importance to painters, in the faithfulness and accuracy of their work. Here she is.
Two portraits which were refused by their clients. One brought the painter’s revenge, the other almost proved the death of the artist.
After a 4-year apprenticeship, Goya struggled to get further training. He spent two years in Rome, but on his return won his first major commission, for a huge fresco.
