An Algerian Mother and Child (1880)

Guillaume-Charles Brun: An Algerian Mother and Child

Émile Munier (1880)

 Émile Munier: A Bowl of Milk

  

Émile Munier: May I Have One Too?

The Sons of Clovis II (1880)

Evariste Luminais: The Sons of Clovis II

This demonstration of parental discipline of the Merovingian period remains shocking more than a century after its completion. It says much for the grotesquery of nineteenth-century Salon painting, of which it is so spectacular an example, that The Sons of Clovis II is still a collection favourite. Alarmed by her sons' rebellion against their absent father, King Clovis, their mother - the regent Sainte Bathilde - has their tendons cut before sending them, immobilised, downstream on a barge to their fate. Though Luminais foreshadows the salvation of the malefactors in the distant shape of a Benedictine monastery, he is clearly more concerned with their present gruesome predicament. His great success with this painting in the Paris Salon of 1880 was not repeated, its cadaverous sensationalism proving a hard act to follow. [Art Gallery NSW]

River Landscape (1880)

Charles Euphrasie Kuwasseg: A Capriccio River Landscape

The Defense of Rorke's Drift (1880)

Alphonse de Neuville: The Defense of Rorke's Drift

The so-called Zulu War came at the moment of greatest British imperial presence in South Africa. Though understood differently today, in 1879 - the year of the event depicted in de Neuville's famous canvas - the violent exchange was seen in terms of Britain's rightful defense of its own colonial prestige. Rorke's Drift was a small outpost on the banks of the Buffalo River in Natal Province. A large Zulu force, having slaughtered around 900 troops and native levies at nearby Isandlhwana, set upon the eighty soldiers of the Warwickshire Regiment stationed at Rorke's Drift. The defenders managed to hold off their attackers, usually characterized as an undisciplined horde, in a bloody hand-to-hand battle of Boys' Own proportions. The subsequent awarding of eleven Victoria Crosses confirmed the heroic dimension of the skirmish, though it hardly explains the interest of a Parisian Salon painter in this quintessentially English subject. De Neuville based his pre-cinematic version of events on military reports and survivors' accounts.  [Art Gallery NSW]

The Good Samaritan (1880)

Aimé-Nicolas Morot: The Good Samaritan

Born into a modest, actively Republican family, Aimé Morot pursued an exemplary career after receiving an academic training in the studio of Alexandre Cabanel. Winner of the Prix de Rome in 1873, he used his stay at the Medici Villa as an opportunity to explore the Roman countryside on horseback.

On his return from his period of residency in Rome, the young Morot drew inspiration from the Gospel according to Luke to paint his Good Samaritan. The painting was exhibited in Paris at the Salon des Artistes Français, where he was awarded the medal of honor by his peers.

Heavily influenced by Spanish art of the 17th century, Morot treated the parable of the Samaritan helping the wounded man with grave realism. His vigorous style found favor with contemporary critics who paid tribute to the virtuosity of this fine painting. Marie Bashkirtseff wrote enthusiastically in her diary: “This is the painting which has given me the most complete pleasure in my entire life. Nothing jars, everything is simple, true and good”.

Painted initially in a large format, the work was reduced on all four sides by the painter in order to refocus the composition on the two men depicted life-size. An enthusiast of animal subjects, Morot adds a moving dimension to the figure of the donkey laboring under its burden. [Petit Palais]

One Morning Outside the Door of the Louvre (1880)

Edouard Debat-Ponsan: One Morning Outside the Door of the Louvre

Édouard Debat-Ponsan, born in 1847, was an Academic artist, a student (or victim) of Alexander Cabanal. Much of his work is trite Academicism, mythology, nudity for the sake of nudity, and portraits in the category of what modern-day journalism refers to as "puff pieces." Yet in amongst the melange of mediocrity are some surprising hits. His One Morning Outside the Door of the Louvre from 1880 is one such work. It's not history glorified but history stripped naked, cutting to the core of man's inhumanity to man. Debat-Ponsan may actually have been drawing a not-so-subtle reference to the then more recent (1871) Paris Commune and the bloodbath resulting from that. History painting is at its best when it deals, even obliquely, with recent events. [Art Now and Then]