Coming soon - Get a detailed view of why an account is flagged as spam!
view details

This post has been de-listed

It is no longer included in search results and normal feeds (front page, hot posts, subreddit posts, etc). It remains visible only via the author's post history.

25
Costume Ball at the Teuileries Palace by Jean-Baptiste Capreaux (1867) which depicts a party held by Emperor of the French Napoleon III
Post Body

More than 7 million visitors came to see the Exposition universelle, and for the occasion Paris glittered like a diamond tiara. The sovereigns and elite of the whole world flocked to the festivities organised by the imperial regime. The celebrations were incessant. The journalist Henri Rochefort noted with irony that: Paris, which people have described as the head of France, has become today no more than its legs. Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, a sculptor close to the imperial family, went to many of the balls and official receptions as an observer of this glitzy demi-monde. And he painted for himself a series of small paintings in which he revealed himself to be just as virtuosic a painter as a sculptor. He himself said of painting: “I love this art passionately, I can express myself better than through my beloved sculpture”. Carpeaux painted several versions of the imperial couple at the grand balls at the Tuileries Palace: the entry of the Empress Eugénie on the arm of the Tsar Alexander II and, as here, that of Napoleon III accompanying an unknown beauty, whom legend had it was the Comtesse de Castiglione, the most famous of the emperor's mistresses. The fact is, however, that in 1867 this relationship had long been over, thus the identification of the lady remains uncertain. Never exhibited during Carpeaux's lifetime, these small painted studies are remarkably (and eerily) evocative of the superficial glamour of the epoch.Whilst the composition of the painting is completely classical, the execution of the work is very free and sketchlike. The figures in the foreground are merely silhouettes, done with rapid brush strokes; the figure of the emperor however is immediately recogniseable. The rest of the ensemble is done with brisk strokes, brilliantly rendering the effervescence of the crowd. The scene is bathed in a beautiful golden light and gives off a great sense of energy. The immediacy of the vision, the sparkling touch, and the unfinished quality of the work are all precursors of impressionism and reveal Carpeaux as a painter of remarkable modernity. 🎨 🕺

Image
Author
User Suspended
Account Strength
0%
Suspended 10 months ago
Account Age
2 years
Verified Email
Yes
Verified Flair
No
Total Karma
114
Link Karma
8,847
Comment Karma
246
Profile updated: 6 days ago
Posts updated: 1 year ago
Bourbonist

Subreddit

Post Details

We try to extract some basic information from the post title. This is not always successful or accurate, please use your best judgement and compare these values to the post title and body for confirmation.
Posted
1 year ago