Paintings : 166
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PaintingThe light infantrymen of Vincennes or This is what is what they call “vagrancy”
The Belgian painter Alfred Stevens was born in Brussels in 1823 and moved to Paris in the 1840s. His early works, such as portraits of soldiers or social scenes, were part of a pictorial trend that emerged in both France and Belgium at that time, that of social-realism. It is in this context that he presented […]
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Painting[Paul “Nadar” and two members of the Japanese embassy 1862]
Franco-Japanese relations After being closed to European power for several centuries, Japan in the 1850s faced extreme pressure to open her ports to foreign shipping. A first treaty with the US in March/May 1854 (Convention of Kanagawa) was followed swiftly by treaties with European powers, namely Britain (the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty of October 1854), Russia […]
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Painting“Scherzo di Follia” (a photographic portrait of the Countess of Castiglione)
This portrait of the Countess of Castiglione has become emblematic of the history of photographic art and more specifically of self-portraiture. The personality of its subject, “la Castiglione”, has contributed to its fascination, which has not diminished over the years, continuing to inspire a multitude of questions and hypotheses as to the reasons for the […]
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PaintingPainting by Steuben [the life of Napoleon in eight hats]
Inscribed on the back of the painting : donné par M. Steuben/à Mad. Amable/Tastu/ le 14 février 1826. [Given by M.[onsieur] Steuben/ to Mad.[ame] Amable Tastu/ on 14 February 1826] The artist Charles de Steuben, a pupil during the Empire period of David’s (let us not forget, that Jacques-Louis was once member of the Jacobin […]
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PaintingTwo views of the Palais des Tuileries, 1855-1858
These two photographs taken by Édouard Baldus are interesting for three reasons. First, they are visual evidence for buildings that are long gone; second, they show the last phase of work on the Louvre; and third, they reveal the advances in photographic technique used by the photographer. As for the joining of the […]
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PaintingPortrait of Queen Victoria and Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom
This portrait by an unknown artist represents Queen Victoria (1819-1901) with the youngest of her nine children, Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (1857-1944). Judging from the height and maturity of the young princess, the work can probably be dated to the later 1860s. Since the death of her husband the Prince Consort, Albert of […]
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PaintingPortrait of Jerome Bonaparte on the bridge of a ship
This portrait of Jerome Bonaparte (1784-1860), Napoleon’s younger brother, depicts a scene from his early adult life (from 1800 to 1806) spent in the French navy. It was painted by the prolific Flemish portraitist François-Joseph Kinson (1771–1839) (or Kinsoen with the original Flemish spelling) who would later be chosen as Jerome’s official painter when the latter […]
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PaintingPortrait of Germaine Necker, Baronne de Staël-Holstein, dite “Madame de Staël” (1766-1817)
This picture of Germaine de Staël was painted by Marie Éléonore Godefroid (1778-1849), a pupil of the famous court portrait painter during the Empire and the Restoration, Baron Gérard. Godefroid became Gérard’s assistant from 1795, and from the 1800s she presented her own paintings, often portraits of the offspring of well-known figures (the children of […]
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PaintingNapoleon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte, Prince Napoleon
A portrait, a reflection of the soul When Hippolyte Flandrin painted this portrait in 1860, Napoleon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte (9 September 1822 – 17 March 1891), better known as Jerome-Napoleon, was 40 years old. Reality is not embellished. The painter has put the subject in a minimalist setting against a plain, dark background. Jerome-Napoleon, […]
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PaintingGeneral view of the theatres of the Boulevard du Temple before the creation of the Boulevard du Prince Eugène
This painting by Martial Potémont (1828-1883) represents the vision of the Boulevard du Temple at the beginning of 1862, just before the start of demolition work to make way for the creation of the Boulevard du Prince Eugene, named after Napoleon III’s uncle, Eugene de Beauharnais. And it was an important moment in the urban […]