In peinture à l’essence, the drying oil binder is removed from oil paint, and the remaining pigment is diluted with turpentine. This creates a fragile paint layer that is ephemeral.
Toulouse-Lautrec
Degas’ Miss La La, a clown feeding a baby, cruelty to performers and animals, the misery of the Saltimbanques, and the melancholy of clowns.
From the Circus Maximus with its crowd of 150,000 to those walking the tightrope under the canvas of the Big Top.
The art of Thomas Eakins, Gustave Caillebotte, John Singer Sargent, Harriet Backer, Toulouse-Lautrec, Edvard Munch and others were enabled by Bonnat.
The bohemian quarter of Paris, painted by van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec (who lived there for 20 years), Renoir, Pierre Bonnard, and others.
Life behind the scenes of a circus was less than idyllic. Owners often cared little for performers, and animals were treated cruelly. Painted insights from Degas, Renoir, and others.
From the eighteenth century, organised circuses toured cities, and some were established to operate year-round. Here are paintings to make you gasp with wonder.
The teacher of Caillebotte, Eakins, Munch, John Singer Sargent, Toulouse-Lautrec and many other artists. But almost forgotten himself.
How a Polish pianist came to enable so much of the painting, music, and ballet of the first half of the 20th century – with her portraits by Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, and others.
Now seen as the odd man out of the Impressionists, at the time he had great influence. Here are samples of the work of those he influenced.
The Eclectic Light Company 