Posts tagged 19th century


Physical Details: Photographic print: 1 item : b&w ; 13 x 18 cm. on board 18 x 23 cm.
Creator: unidentified photographer
Description: Photograph [approx. 1897] shows [sculptors] Weinman and Keck among a group of artists and a model, possibly at the Art Students League, N.Y.
Identification on verso: (handwritten) Art School- 57th Street N.Y. City; A.A.W. and Charles Keck (without tie-front row)

from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art

Physical Details: Photographic print: 1 item : b&w ; 13 x 18 cm. on board 18 x 23 cm.

Creator: unidentified photographer

Description: Photograph [approx. 1897] shows [sculptors] Weinman and Keck among a group of artists and a model, possibly at the Art Students League, N.Y.

Identification on verso: (handwritten) Art School- 57th Street N.Y. City; A.A.W. and Charles Keck (without tie-front row)

from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art

Franck-François-Genès Chauvassaignes, Seated Nude in Studio, 1856–59

Franck-François-Genès Chauvassaignes, Seated Nude in Studio, 1856–59

Albert Marquet, Fauve Nude, 1898

Albert Marquet, Fauve Nude, 1898

artistandstudio:

French school In the artist’s studio. 19th century

artistandstudio:

French school In the artist’s studio. 19th century

Olga Boznańska, In atelier, 1890

Olga Boznańska, In atelier, 1890

Anders Zorn, Augustus Saint Gaudens II (Saint Gaudens and his model), 1897

Anders Zorn, Augustus Saint Gaudens II (Saint Gaudens and his model), 1897

Robert Thew, engraving of Hiram Powers’s 1844 sculpture The Greek Slave on display at the Dusseldorf Gallery in New York City, 1858

Robert Thew, engraving of Hiram Powers’s 1844 sculpture The Greek Slave on display at the Dusseldorf Gallery in New York City, 1858

Edwin Longsden Long, The Artist’s Model, 1890

Edwin Longsden Long, The Artist’s Model, 1890

necspenecmetu:

Ary Johannes Lamme, The Studio of Ary Scheffer, 1851

necspenecmetu:

Ary Johannes Lamme, The Studio of Ary Scheffer, 1851

She sat with great intensity, giving the whole of her mind to it, and was capable of remaining for an hour almost as motionless as if she were before a photographer’s lens. I could see she had been photographed often, but somehow the very habit that made her good for that purpose unfitted her for mine. At first I was extremely pleased with her lady-like air, and it was a satisfaction, on coming to follow her lines, to see how good they were and how far they could lead the pencil. But after a few times I began to find her too insurmountably stiff; do what I would with it my drawing looked like a photograph or a copy of a photograph. Her figure had no variety of expression—she herself had no sense of variety. You may say that this was my business, was only a question of placing her. I placed her in every conceivable position, but she managed to obliterate their differences. She was always a lady certainly, and into the bargain was always the same lady. She was the real thing, but always the same thing.
Henry James, “The Real Thing,” 1892
surrealappeal:

Eva Gonzales, Le Chignon, ca. 1870.

surrealappeal:

Eva Gonzales, Le Chignon, ca. 1870.

Boris Kustodiev, Statement of the model in the studio of Ilya Repin Academy of Arts, 1899

Boris Kustodiev, Statement of the model in the studio of Ilya Repin Academy of Arts, 1899

from William Hazlitt’s “On Sitting For One’s Picture,” 1823

from William Hazlitt’s “On Sitting For One’s Picture,” 1823

Pierre Jules Jollivet, The Artist’s Studio, 1867

Pierre Jules Jollivet, The Artist’s Studio, 1867

Thomas Eakins, Study of a Seated Nude Woman Wearing a Mask, 1863-66
According to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Eakins most likely made this study during an evening life drawing class at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Official Academy policy prohibited models from posing nude before mixed-sex classes, as did nearly all American art schools at that time. In order to disguise her identity, therefore, a model might turn her back to the students—or cover her face with a mask.

Thomas Eakins, Study of a Seated Nude Woman Wearing a Mask, 1863-66

According to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Eakins most likely made this study during an evening life drawing class at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Official Academy policy prohibited models from posing nude before mixed-sex classes, as did nearly all American art schools at that time. In order to disguise her identity, therefore, a model might turn her back to the students—or cover her face with a mask.