The Young Bather (1866)

Gustave Courbet: The Young Bather

The traditional theme of women bathing attracted Courbet’s attention repeatedly in the 1860s. This scene revisits a motif that excited a furor of controversy when the artist first broached it a decade earlier: a realistically fleshy nude enjoying herself at a woodland spring. But by the time the present work was exhibited, viewers were more accepting of Courbet’s approach. One writer praised this "beautiful girl" as "health itself, with an ample and plump silhouette … one couldn’t be more independent or more true." [Metropolitan Museum of Art]

The Summoning of Neptune (1866)

 

Jean-Jules Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ: The Summoning of Neptune

The painter Lecomte du Nouÿ primarily painted Orientalist and historical (mainly Classical Greco-Roman) scenes. His style was strongly influenced by Gleyre and Gérôme.

Gustave Courbet (1866)

Gustave Courbet: Landscape of the Ornans Region

  

Gustave Courbet: The Stream at Brème

The Reluctant Bride (1866)

Auguste Toulmouche: The Reluctant Bride

A favorite painting of mine for the human drama depicted. I find most of Toulmouche's works to be on the vapid side - mostly showing elegantly ladies at leisure. This one, however, tells a story - an old story, to be sure, and one told by many artists in many lands. To me, this bride doesn't just look reluctant - she looks downright angry about her situation and the inescapability of it.

Caesar and Cleopatra (1866)

Jean-Léon Gérôme: Caesar and Cleopatra

The work was originally commissioned by the courtesan La Païva but she was unhappy with the finished painting and returned it to Gérôme. It was exhibited at the Salon of 1866 and the Royal Academy of Arts in 1871.

Gérôme's painting is one of the earliest modern depictions of Cleopatra emerging from a carpet in the presence of Caesar, a minor historical inaccuracy that arose out of the translation of a scene from Plutarch's Life of Caesar and the semantic change of the word "carpet" over time. [Wikipedia]

Daphnis and Chloë (1866)

Jehan-Georges Vibert: Daphnis and Chloë

Still Life (1866)

Henri Fantin-Latour: Still Life