François Boucher, Homme Assis
The exhibition, presented in the famous Ecole des Beaux-Arts, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, offers for the first time some thirty works from the collection of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture from 1664 until the suppression of the institution in 1793.
The works, all of which represent nude models, remind us of the importance of this practice, which has been widely used by artists past and present. In particular at the Beaux-Arts where the model school allows students to become familiar with the most complex poses and expressions. The exhibition thus takes an original angle: that of questioning the “school of the model”, his relationship with the artist, the evocation of the pose, the importance of the teacher…
The drawings, also called “academies”, reflect two key periods of this exercise. In the 17th century, teachers favored three poses: the model appears either seated, half stretched out on the ground, with his leg bent, or on a rock, and finally facing forward in a dynamic walking attitude. At XVIII, the pose freezes. The model, more massive, is standing up, leaning on a stick, or on a leg… Or lying down, head hidden. Most of them were former soldiers, all of them have been listed, some of them even enjoy a certain notoriety like the famous Deschamps, while others, who remained in service for a shorter period of time, are less known.
The exhibition presents about thirty academies drawn in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Nicolas Mignard, Charles de La Fosse, Jean-Baptiste Champaigne, Jean Jouvenet, Nicolas de Largillière, François Boucher …
The Academy laid bare, in the Jean Bonna drawing room
National Superior School of Fine Arts
Jean Bonna Drawing Room, Palais des études, glassed-in courtyard on the left
14, rue Bonaparte 75006 Paris – www.beauxartsparis.fr
Metro : Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Bus : 24, 27, 39, 63, 70, 86, 87, 95, 96
From Wednesday, October 21 to Friday, January 29, 2010
Free Entry
Noël COYPEL, Apollon assis, appuyé sur sa lyre (1664)
Nicolas-Pierre LOIR, Hercule vêtu de la peau du lion de Nemée, les deux bras levés (1666)
Jean-Baptiste ISABEY, Homme nu assis sur un rocher (1789)
Chloé de Trogoff
Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)
