Overview and links to each of the articles in this series looking at shade and shadow in figurative and landscape paintings.
Friant
From trompe l’oeil for sculpture to children making rabbits on the wall, shadows have long been popular, and most recently have featured in Surrealist paintings too.
The story of Dibutades who painted the outline of her boyfriend’s shadow, leading to early struggles with the optics of cast shadows, their use as cues to depth and shape, and appearance in landscapes. Paintings of shadow play.
Paintings from Erik Henningsen, Léon Lhermitte, Émile Friant, and Jean-Eugène Buland in the 1890s, towards the end of Naturalist painting.
Starting from Manet’s notorious painting of a picnic in 1863, socialising at mealtime became a popular theme in paintings that weren’t in the least bit Impressionist.
From earliest ascents in hot air balloons from 1783 onwards, their role in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, to the first airships and Wright style aircraft.
Hercules wrestling with Achelous, Jacob wrestling with the Angel, the young Samson wrestling with a lion, and wrestlers from Courbet, Bazille and 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 Eclectic Light Company 