Academic Art

The Five Senses is an academic painting by famous Austrian artist Hans Makart which we painted between 1872 and 1879. It is located in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna, Austria. Analysis of Makart’s The Five Senses The five senses are here shown to be exampled by five nude female figures who, from left to […]

The Wailing Wall is an 1880 religious painting by leading French Academic artist Jéan-Léon Gérôme. Analysis of The Wailing Wall Jean-Léon Gérôme painted The Wailing Wall, part of an ancient wall that enclosed the Temple Mount, a site in Jerusalem sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims in 1880. In this picture, a Jewish man stands

Pleistocene Fauna of Asia is a painting by natural history sculptor and painter Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, commissioned in 1876. Analysis of Pleistocene Fauna of Asia Hawkins was a Victorian painter of and lecturer on zoological topics and subjects which caused a public sensation. Here is a vast landscape, set perhaps just before the last Ice

Escaping Criticism is an 1874 painting in the Trompe l’oeil (trick the eye) style by renowned Spanish artist Pere Borrell del Caso. Analysis of Escaping Criticism Pere Borrell del Caso was especially famous for his trompe l’oeil works such as the one, titled Escaping Criticism which is certainly his most famous work and one of

Jean-Léon Gérôme’s 1855 painting Recreation in a Russian Camp depicts a moment of respite for Russian soldiers as they enjoy the playing of music. The foreground group encircles the players as an audience as they would encircle the enemy in a combat operation. Overhead birds fly in formation against a placid sky and seem to

Nymphs and Satyr was painted in 1873 by William-Adolphe Bouguereau whose Neoclassical academic works mark the end period of the power of the Academy in France. Nymphs and Satyr Analysis This was painted a year before the first Impressionist exhibition and shows the maidens’ frolics with the satyr, a figure from Greek mythology, in his

Encampment near Constantinople is an 1856 history painting by French Academic artist Jean-Léon Gérôme. Analysis of Encampment near Constantinople In 1856 Jean-Léon Gérôme travelled on a Grand Tour of the Near East and the Encampment near Constantinople is the result of a plein-air (painting produced outside at the scene) oil sketch. We see in the

The Age of Augustus, The Birth of Christ is an 1854 religious painting by leading French Academic artist Jean-Léon Gérôme. It is located in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, United States. Analysis of The Age of Augustus, The Birth of Christ This is a vast and hugely populated history painting he finished in 1854, Jean-Léon

The Slave Market is an 1866 history painting by French Academic artist Jean-Léon Gérôme. Analysis of The Slave Market The Slave Market by academic artist Jean-Léon Gérôme shows a female chattel slave being inspected for health by a prospective buyer, possibly in North Africa or the Middle East. The woman’s passivity is signaled by the

The Birth of Venus is a mythological academic painting by Hungarian artist Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl. Analysis of Hirémy-Hirschl’s The Birth of Venus The Birth of Venus by Adolph Hirémy-Hirschl depicts a scene from Roman mythology where Venus was borne to the shore by the foam of the sea to become the goddess of love. Here we

The Annunciation by African-American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner depicts the Virgin Mary at the moment of her encounter with the angel Gabriel. She sits with hands clasped in adoration of the angel’s brilliant shaft of light on the left. Tanner visited Palestine to research the architecture and light of this work, which he painted in

Fish catch and Dawes Point, Sydney Harbour is a still life painting of a fishing bounty, which is thought to be the first oil painting created in Australia, in 1813. English-born John Lewin came to Australia in 1800 to paint the flora and fauna of the new colony. This picture depicts several varieties of fish

Egyptian Chess Players is an 1879 Orientalist painting by Dutch / English Academic artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Analysis of Egyptian Chess Players Egyptian Chess Players indulges the European taste for the exotic during the nineteenth century, Lawrence Alma-Tadema specialized in painting scenes rich with the colors of the East. This 1879 Orientalist picture is no different:

The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon has as its inspiration the biblical story of the queen’s visit to the Israelite King Solomon’s court. The purpose of the visit was to prove or test the legendary wisdom of the king through the queen’s posing of several riddles to him. Englishman Edward Poynter’s

In Roman Woman Sleeping, Felix Auguste Clement paints a full-length nude woman sleeping on her bed. The classicising landscape in the background contrasts with the realism with which the woman is painted, while at the same time showing her as a similar artefact for visual consumption. Clement painted this in 1859 in the middle of

Equality Before Death is an 1848 French academic painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau which was his first submission to the Parisian Salon. It is located in the Musee d’Orsay, Paris. Analysis of Bouguereau’s Equality Before Death This painting was William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s first submission to the Paris Salon. It has a classical frieze-like structure, as the angel

The Vision of Endymion by English artist Edward John Poynter was painted in 1902 and its subject is taken from Greek mythology. Here, the young shepherd is in eternal sleep during which Selene, the moon goddess, visits him every night. Selene, here wrapped in a veil, approaches Endymion in his dream in a landscape that

French mural painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes shows in On the Edge of the Sea from 1879 evidence of his academic study of the female nude in his painting of the girls in various poses. His restricted palette of colouring here and the simple arrangement of figures, rock and sea could show the inspiration of

This is a Portrait of William Ellis Gosling, a member of the Royal Academy painted in 1800 by Sir William Beechey. The young boy, painted in Neoclassical style is beating a drum looking dynamically out to his left during what was known as the breeching ritual, a small party where where a young boy of

Massage at the Hammam, by French painter Edouard Debat-Ponsan (1847-1913) in 1883, was inspired by the artist’s trip to Istanbul two years earlier. His work is generally academic in style and in this picture he pays rigorous attention to the details of the anatomy of the reclining woman receiving the massage in the bathhouse, as