Which French artist abandoned the law in favour of art, and specialised in painting ballet dancers, circus folk and race horses?
"movement and both portrayed the horse in many of their works. Equine sporting art was popular in the 19th century, notable artists of the period being Benjamin Marshall, James Ward, Henry Thomas Alken, James Pollard, John Frederick Herring Sr. and Heywood Hardy. Horse racing gradually became more established in France and Impressionist painter Edgar Degas painted many early racing scenes. Degas was one of the first horse painters to use photographic references. Eadweard Muybridge's photographic studies of animal motion had a huge influence on equine art as they allowed artists greater understanding of the horses gaits. Rosa Bonheur became famous"
"the resistless force of natural genius. He is also featured in the French thriller ""L'Antiquaire"", with some works credited to him—a painting of two Leopards, among others. Jacques-Laurent Agasse Jacques-Laurent Agasse (April 24, 1767 – December 27, 1849) was an animal and landscape painter from Switzerland. Born at Geneva, Agasse studied in the public art school of that city. Before he turned twenty he went to Paris to study in veterinary school to make himself fully acquainted with the anatomy of horses and other animals. He seems to have subsequently returned to Switzerland. The ""Tübinger Morgenblatt"" (1808, p. 876) says"
"""Rosette XIV""... Others are his own horses or horses belonging to acquaintances: ""Violette"", ""Jack"", ""Colibri"", ""Esmeralda"", ""Miss"", ""Prince"", ""Dolly"", ""Sydney"", ""sous-off"", ""Lady Hareford"", ""la ruade or poney Coco ruant"", ""cheval aux champs or Coquet au trot"", ""cheval sans terrasse or Sweetheart"". Gaston d'Illiers Gaston d'Illiers (1876–1932), born at Boulogne-sur-Seine, France, was a French animalier sculptor who specialised in horses. His bronze statuettes are very realistic. Gaston d'Illiers devoted all his life to his two passions: horses and sculpture. He was a very fine rider and showed a deep knowledge of horses. He decided to become a sculptor and took to"
"Carle Vernet Antoine Charles Horace Vernet aka. Carle Vernet (14 August 175817 November 1836) was a French painter, the youngest child of Claude Joseph Vernet, and the father of Horace Vernet. Vernet was born in Bordeaux. At the age of five, he showed an extraordinary passion for drawing horses, but went through the regular academical course as a pupil of his father and of Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié. Strangely, after winning the ""grand prix"" (1782), he seemed to lose interest in the profession, and his father had to recall him back from Rome to France to prevent him from entering a monastery."
"Antoine Guillemet Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Guillemet (June 30, 1843 in Chantilly (Oise) – May 19, 1918 in Mareuil-sur-Belle (Dordogne)) was a French renowned landscape painter and longtime Jury member of the Salon des Artistes Francais. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, and a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Antoine Guillemet born in Chantilly, in the Oise, he studied under Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Achille-François Oudinot (1820-1891), Charles-François Daubigny and Gustave Courbet. Guillemet showed an early interest in sailing, a pursuit which was actively discouraged by his parents. He briefly studied law, but this too"
"The Circus (Seurat) The Circus (French: ""Le Cirque"") is an oil on canvas painting by Georges Seurat. It was his last painting, made in a Neo-Impressionist style in 1890-91, and remained unfinished at his death in March 1891. The painting is located at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The painting was Seurat's third major work treating the theme of the circus, after his ""Parade (Circus sideshow)"" of 1887-88 and ""Le Chahut"" of 1889-90. It depicts a female performer standing on a horse at the Circus Fernando (renamed the Circus Médrano in 1890, after its most famous clown). The Circus Médrano"
"Gaston d'Illiers Gaston d'Illiers (1876–1932), born at Boulogne-sur-Seine, France, was a French animalier sculptor who specialised in horses. His bronze statuettes are very realistic. Gaston d'Illiers devoted all his life to his two passions: horses and sculpture. He was a very fine rider and showed a deep knowledge of horses. He decided to become a sculptor and took to modelling horses. His statues were very appreciated from the start. He showed his productions in specialised exhibitions like ""salon des artistes français"" from 1899 to his death. He gained quite a reputation among horse experts and art connoisseurs. For example during"
"Louis Valtat Louis Valtat (; 8 August 1869 – 2 January 1952) was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Fauves (""the wild beasts"", so named for their wild use of color), who first exhibited together in 1905 at the Salon d'Automne. He is noted as a key figure in the stylistic transition in painting from Monet to Matisse. Louis Valtat was born on 8 August 1869 in Dieppe, in the Normandy region of France, into a wealthy family of ship owners. Valtat spent many of his childhood years in Versailles, a suburb of Paris, where he attended secondary"
"of workers leaving the Lumière brothers' factory in Lyon. At the outset of the 20th century, Henri Matisse and several other artists, including the pre-cubists Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Jean Metzinger and Maurice de Vlaminck, revolutionized the Paris art world with ""wild"", multi-coloured, expressive landscapes and figure paintings that critics referred to as Fauvism. Henri Matisse's two versions of ""The Dance"" signified a key point in his career and in the development of modern painting. In late 19th- and early 20th-century Paris, wealth was growing rapidly, and it became increasingly concentrated. Paris from 1872 to 1927 was a"
"Camille Bombois Camille Bombois (February 3, 1883 – June 6, 1970) was a French naïve painter especially noted for paintings of circus scenes. Bombois was born in Venarey-les-Laumes in the Côte-d'Or, under humble circumstances. His childhood was spent living on a barge and attending a local school until the age of twelve, when he became a farm worker. During his free time he drew and competed in wrestling competitions at local fairs. He became a champion local wrestler before joining a traveling circus as a strongman and wrestler. In 1907, Bombois fulfilled his dream of moving to Paris, where he"
"on May 12, 1964 in La Boissiere in the village of Boussay. Jean Dufy Jean Dufy (March 12, 1888 – May 12, 1964) was a French painter of Parisian society, country scenes, circuses, horse races, stages, and orchestras. His work was featured in both gallery and museum exhibitions throughout his career. Jean Dufy was born in Le Havre, France on March 12, 1888 into a large family. His older brother was the well-known painter Raoul Dufy, who became a mentor throughout Jean’s career. Jean Dufy had received formal education at the École Primaire Supérieure du Havre. Upon completing his schooling"
"one of the greatest horses in racing history. Goetz and his wife also were major investors in art, acquiring a significant collection of impressionist and post-impressionist works. They owned paintings and sculptures by great artists such as Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Berthe Morisot, Édouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, Pierre Bonnard, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and Henri Fantin-Latour. In 1949, a controversy erupted over a Vincent van Gogh self-portrait called """"Study by Candlelight"""" that Goetz had purchased two years earlier. The painting was declared a fake by art expert Willem Sandberg and the artist's"
"18th-century French art 18th-century French art was dominated by the Baroque, Rocaille and neoclassical movements. In France, the death of Louis XIV in September 1715 led to a period of licentious freedom commonly called the Régence. The heir to Louis XIV, his great grandson Louis XV of France, was only 5 years old; for the next seven years France was ruled by the regent Philippe II of Orléans. Versailles was abandoned from 1715 to 1722. Painting turned toward ""fêtes galantes"", theater settings and the female nude. Painters from this period include Antoine Watteau, Nicolas Lancret and François Boucher. One of"
"domain of color (Seurat addresses both problems in ""Circus"" and ""Dancers""). Soon, the Cubists were to do so in both the domain of form and dynamics; Orphism would do so with color too. From 1883 until his death, Seurat exhibited his work at the Salon, the Salon des Indépendants, Les XX in Brussels, the eighth Impressionist exhibition, and various other exhibitions in France and abroad. Posthumous exhibitions: Georges Seurat Georges-Pierre Seurat (; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist painter and draftsman. He is noted for his innovative use of drawing media and for devising the"
"Edgar Degas Edgar Degas ( or ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917) was a French artist famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings. He is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. Regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist. He was a superb draftsman, and particularly masterly in depicting movement, as can be seen in his rendition of dancers, racecourse subjects and female nudes. His portraits are notable for their psychological complexity and"
"art. After the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture was reorganized in 1661 by Louis XIV whose aim was to control all the artistic activity in France, a controversy occurred among the members that dominated artistic attitudes for the rest of the century. This ""battle of styles"" was a conflict over whether Peter Paul Rubens or Nicolas Poussin was a suitable model to follow. Followers of Poussin, called ""poussinistes"", argued that line (disegno) should dominate art, because of its appeal to the intellect, while followers of Rubens, called ""rubenistes"", argued that color (colore) should dominate art, because of its"
"and his court. Louis XV, guided largely by Madame de Pompadour, was the most important art patron of the period. He commissioned François Boucher to paint pastoral scenes for his apartments in Versailles, and gave him the title of First Painter of the King in 1765. Other artists patronized by the King included Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Maurice Quentin de la Tour, Jean Marc Nattier, and the sculptor Edme Bouchardon. Bouchardon created the monumental statue of Louis XV on horseback which was the centerpiece of Place Louis XV until it was pulled down during the Revolution. The French philosophical movement later called"
"or music-hall, busily recording the acts, engaging the circus staff in conversation, and adding impressions to their journal. They steadfastly refused to sell their paintings, but presented some to favoured friends, such as journalists and circus historians, who were equally addicted to the world of circus. Before her death in 1949, Marthe Vesque elicited a promise from her sister to never dispose of their work. However, a few years before her own death, Juliette started donating it piecemeal to the ""Musée national des Arts et Traditions Populaires"", founded by the circus enthusiast, Georges-Henri Rivière. Juliette ceased her circus sketches after"
"""Off the Wall"" reproductions of the Walters' paintings are done on weather-resistant vinyl and include a description of the painting and a QR code for smart phones. Before the Race Before the Race (1882–84) is a painting by Impressionist painter, Edgar Degas, who began painting scenes with horses in the 1860s. Horse racing became a popular pastime in 19th century France under Louis-Philippe and Napoleon III. Degas began admiring horses while visiting friends in Normandy. Over the course of his career it is reported that he created 45 oils, 20 pastels, 250 drawings, and 17 sculptures related to horses. Degas"
"the aristocrats of the French court abandoned the grandeur of Versailles for the more intimate townhouses of Paris where, elegantly attired, they could play and flirt and put on scenes from the Italian commedia dell'arte. ""Fête galante"" paintings are an important part of the rococo period of art, which saw the focus of European arts move away from the hierarchical, standardized grandeur of the church and royal court and toward an appreciation for intimacy and personal pleasures. Nonetheless, the lush, outdoor settings of fête galante paintings were often mined from earlier paintings, especially from Venetian paintings of the 16th century"
"Jacques-Laurent Agasse Jacques-Laurent Agasse (April 24, 1767 – December 27, 1849) was an animal and landscape painter from Switzerland. Born at Geneva, Agasse studied in the public art school of that city. Before he turned twenty he went to Paris to study in veterinary school to make himself fully acquainted with the anatomy of horses and other animals. He seems to have subsequently returned to Switzerland. The ""Tübinger Morgenblatt"" (1808, p. 876) says that ""Agasse, the celebrated animal painter, now in England, owed his fortune to an accident. About eight years ago, he being then in Switzerland, a rich Englishman"
"notoriety as one of the Fauves (wild beasts). Many of his finest works were created in the decade or so after 1906, when he developed a rigorous style that emphasized flattened forms and decorative pattern. In 1917 he relocated to a suburb of Nice on the French Riviera, and the more relaxed style of his work during the 1920s gained him critical acclaim as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. After 1930, he adopted a bolder simplification of form. When ill health in his final years prevented him from painting, he created an important body of work"
"Jean-Antoine Watteau Jean-Antoine Watteau (; baptised October 10, 1684 – died July 18, 1721), better known as Antoine Watteau, was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement, as seen in the tradition of Correggio and Rubens. He revitalized the waning Baroque style, shifting it to the less severe, more naturalistic, less formally classical, Rococo. Watteau is credited with inventing the genre of ""fêtes galantes"", scenes of bucolic and idyllic charm, suffused with a theatrical air. Some of his best known subjects were drawn from the world of Italian comedy and ballet. Watteau"
"Animalier school Animalier school or animalier movement was a roughly late 18th century to late 19th century movement and school of art, which took as its subject in various figurative forms the animal kingdom or Kingdom Animalia. The movement predominantly centered around Paris, France, and Italy, with some offshoots in England, Germany, and North America. Some examples of animalier artists and their subjects are George Stubbs and Jules Moigniez (paintings and sculpture of horses), Antoine-Louis Barye (sculpture of bulls and humans), and Rembrandt Bugatti (felines, human figures, and zoo animals). Animals as a visual motif were used in ancient art"
"Léon Danchin Léon Danchin (21 June 1887 - 4 August 1938) was a French artist known for his drawings of animals, primarily sporting dogs. He was also a sculptor. Danchin was born in Lille (France) on 21 June 1887, the second of six children of Albert and Margaret Danchin. For centuries, the Danchin family lived in northern France, in Anchin in Hainaut, where the family name originated. In 1919, Danchin married Simone Meesemaecker. For ease of working, Danchin moved his family to Chantilly, close to Paris. His first works sold very well in France, and also in Belgium, the United"
"Seurat was essential for the development of modern art. At the beginning of the 20th century Henri Matisse and several other young artists including the pre-cubist Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy and Maurice de Vlaminck revolutionized the Paris art world with ""wild"", multi-colored, expressive landscapes and figure paintings that the critics called Fauvism. Henri Matisse's second version of ""The Dance"" signifies a key point in his career and in the development of modern painting. It reflects Matisse's incipient fascination with primitive art: the intense warm colors against the cool blue-green background and the rhythmical succession of dancing nudes convey"
"horse soldier. After serving in the military for two years, in 1912 the young artist moved to Paris and settle in Montmartre to participate in the Parisian art scene. ""There was no question of showing the watercolors and the paintings that I had put away in portfolios. I had painted flowers, circuses, seascapes, the family garden, still lifes... I painted with Marquet, Raoul, and Friesz, who were beginning their difficult experience in Paris. They were very kind to me, and I was included in their discussions about painting, where I listened open-mouthed but carefully to everything they said. My vocation"
"illustrate theories of space and time formulated by Einstein and ""multiple perspective"" developed independently by the Cubists, and most notably by Metzinger, as early as 1910. Au Vélodrome Au Vélodrome, also known as At the Cycle-Race Track and Le cycliste, is a painting by the French artist and theorist Jean Metzinger. The work illustrates the final meters of the Paris–Roubaix race, and portrays its 1912 winner Charles Crupelandt. Metzinger's painting is the first in Modernist art to represent a specific sporting event and its champion. ""Au Vélodrome"" remained in Metzinger's atelier until it was shipped to New York, where it"
"Bonheur was an acute observer of nature; his animals were not anthropomorphized, but modelled to catch movement or posture characteristic of the particular species. He achieved this most successfully with his sculptures of horses, which are usually depicted as relaxed rather than spirited, and which are among his most renowned works. Isidore Bonheur Isidore Jules Bonheur (Bordeaux 15 May 1827 – 10 November 1901 Paris), best known as one of the 19th century's most distinguished French animalier sculptors. Bonheur began his career as an artist working with his elder sister Rosa Bonheur in the studio of their father, drawing instructor"
"of the younger artists of the time, moving them to abandon formalism and to draw inspiration directly from nature. Natural scenes became the subjects of their paintings rather than mere backdrops to dramatic events. During the Revolutions of 1848 artists gathered at Barbizon to follow Constable's ideas, making nature the subject of their paintings. The French landscape became a major theme of the Barbizon painters. The leaders of the Barbizon school were Théodore Rousseau, Jean-François Millet, and Charles-François Daubigny; other members included Jules Dupré, Constant Troyon, Charles Jacque, Narcisse Virgilio Díaz, Pierre Emmanuel Damoye, Charles Olivier de Penne, Henri Harpignies,"
"Dance in the Country Dance in the Country (French: ""Danse à la campagne"") is an 1883 oil painting by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It is currently kept at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. This painting was commissioned in 1882 by the merchant Paul Durand-Ruel who wanted works on the theme of the ball. He bought it in 1886, exhibited it for the first time in April 1883, and kept it until Renoir's death in 1919. A complementary painting on the same theme, named ""Dance in the City"", was also painted by Renoir the same year. The painting, influenced by the"
"States, and England. Danchin later moved to Bergues, in the French Flanders, where he was able to hunt regularly. It was during this period that he drew many of the hunting scenes for which he is renowned. Today, Galerie Hautecœur in Paris manages the re-productions of Danchin's art. Léon Danchin Léon Danchin (21 June 1887 - 4 August 1938) was a French artist known for his drawings of animals, primarily sporting dogs. He was also a sculptor. Danchin was born in Lille (France) on 21 June 1887, the second of six children of Albert and Margaret Danchin. For centuries, the"
"of the painting. Doucet's students included: Henri Lucien Doucet Henri Lucien Doucet (23 August 1856 – 31 December 1895) was a French figure and portrait painter and pastellist, born in Paris. Doucet studied under Lefebvre and Boulanger, and in 1880 won the Prix de Rome. In 1888, he taught at Académie Julian His pictures are usually piquant, sparkling representations of modern life, eminently Parisian in style, but the audacious realism of his earlier work is not maintained in his later, which is somewhat characterless. His portraits in pastel are also notable. His most widely known picture is ""Après le bal"""