Hercules wrestling with Achelous, Jacob wrestling with the Angel, the young Samson wrestling with a lion, and wrestlers from Courbet, Bazille and Friant.
Friant
Parrots as extras in myths, witnessing Eve taking the apple from the serpent, and as companions to a succession of beautiful women.
Mr Punch and his wife Judy, and the crocodile as acted by puppets and itinerant players, and circus clowns. Paintings by Cézanne, Renoir and others.
The evils of absinthe in paintings by Degas, Raffaëlli, Jean Béraud, and other booze like Bocks by Manet and Friant, with artists also drinking heavily.
The humble vegetable that enabled Europe’s population boom in the 19th century. When diseased by blight, it resulted in more than a million deaths.
Sargent’s hospital tent, Arab camps, Shoshone below Lander’s Peak, Sami in Lapland, clubs on Derby Day, the Big Top, and on holiday.
From Hannibal crossing the Alps with his war elephants, through the temptation of St Anthony, to the circus and an imaginary India.
From the Circus Maximus with its crowd of 150,000 to those walking the tightrope under the canvas of the Big Top.
What time of day is it? How cast shadows can help or confound, a painting showing Donati’s comet that can be timed precisely, and difficulties with indoor paintings.
Bastien-Lepage, Regnault, Pelez, Debat-Ponsan, Buland, Dagnan-Bouveret, Gervex, and Friant: best in their class, and highly successful pupils.
The Eclectic Light Company 