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The painter's studio

a modest studio with crumbling plaster walls,
a wooden easel,
a young artist, brushes in hand, muffled in a long winter coat and wearing a hat
....
the painter has stepped back to confront his seemingly gigantic canvas ...
it’s impossible to gauge the actual scale of the painting he is working on –
is it imposingly large, or is that just a visual trick?
This ambiguous sense of scale underlines just how daunting making a painting can be,
and how an artist can feel so small before his artwork ...
is, in fact, Rembrandt or a fictive archetype ?
Rembrandt
The Artist in his Studio
Le Peintre dans son atelier
1626
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

a 'kunstkamer', or art room ...
Flemish, German and Italian paintings, classical statues
and
in the left foreground a story from classical antiquity …
Apelles painting the portrait of Campaspe,
one of Alexander the Great's most beautiful mistresses.
The painter fell madly in love with her.
Alexander, as a mark of his appreciation of the painter's work,
presented his lover to Apelles as a gift. (Alexander chose art above nature?)
Willem van Haecht
Appelles painting Campaspe
Apelle peignant Campaspe
1630
Mauritshuis, The Hague

a studio in an old, dark building,
a modest landscape for on the easel,
two apprentices
and
an painter whose artistic ambitions are not high
Van Ostade is here poking gentle fun at his own specialization.
He did not portray his own studio,
but invented the workshop of an ordinary painter
who could have painted all of his (Van Ostade’s) peasant scenes.
Adriaen van Ostade
The Painter’s Studio
L'atelier du peintre
1647-1650
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

from behind a curtain that has been pulled to one side ...
an artist paints a woman in his studio, near a window,
with a large map of the Netherlands in the background.
…
Is this simply a portrayal of an artist in his studio,
or is the work concealing a message of greater significance?
The painting is usually seen as an allegory of painting.
Unfortunately, we cannot be certain
what Vermeer wanted to convey with this work.
Johannes Vermeer
The Art of Painting, or The Allegory of Painting, or Painter in his Studio
L'Art de la peinture ou L'Atelier ou L'Allégorie de la peinture
1666-1668
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

A self-portrait with her sister, Marie-Elisabeth, who was also a painter.
Lemoine’s facility in still life and portraiture, categories in which women most often trained,
are readily visible, while a history painting—the highest category in the academic system
and usually considered in this period as ill-suited to women—is underway on the easel.
The work is a tribute to Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.
Marie Victorie Lemoine
Intérieur de l'atelier d'une femme
The Interior of an Atelier of a Woman
1789
New York, Metropolitan museum of Art

one of the most remarkable images of women’s art education in early modern Europe …
…
Labille-Guiard depicted herself in impractically elegant clothing.
Primarily a portraitist, Labille-Guiard had especially faithful patrons in Louis XV’s daughters,
known as Mesdames de France.
The students Marie Gabrielle Capet and Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemont
are less formally dressed,
in the background are statues of a vestal virgin and a bust of the artist's father.
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard
Self-Portrait with Two Pupils
Autoportrait avec deux élèves
1785
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

the studio as a place of pure concentration ...
Friedrich sought seclusion, so that he could pursue his work undisturbed.
Kersting depicts painting as a contemplative and reflective process,
it is not what Frederick paints that is important, but the reverent meditation
with which he paints.
…
the painter is far more removed from the outside world,
has his back to the window,
the rotation of the easel, which hides the painting from the viewer
Georg Friedrich Kersting
Caspar David Friedrich in his Studio
Caspar David Friedrich dans son atelier
1812
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

An artist's studio as a crowded, social space,
where work was more likely to be interrupted by loungers and visitors,
fencing matches and dog fights, than by melancholy soul-searching.
Yet in fact this is an image of frustration.
...
two young men fight one another with swords by a white horse,
a pair of boxers,
a young man holding a rifle
a couple of pupils are actually engaged in painting at easels,
a painter talking with three young men who are watching,
and accompanied by a drummer,
an angry white dog,
a small pet monkey
and
a large oil painting on the back wall …
Horace Vernet
The Artist’s Studio
L'atelier de l'artiste ou Un atelier d'artiste
1820
Private collection

a true outdoor studio ...
the forest of Fontainebleau:
trees, rocks
painters:
teachers and students,
easels, canvases, paint boxes, stools called "inchards",
and
almost absolutely essential, umbrellas
... After them, from 1840, photographers arrived.
Jules Coignet
Les Peintres sur le motif dans la forêt de Fontainebleau
Painters on the Motif in the Forest of Fontainebleau
or The Artists in the Fontainebleau Forest
1825
Musée départemental de l'École de Barbizon

Courbet's Allegorical Atelier …
an studio, a place where, according to the artist,
"It's the whole world coming to me to be painted,
on the right, all the shareholders, by that I mean friends, fellow workers, art lovers.
On the left is the other world of everyday life, the masses, wretchedness, poverty,
wealth, the exploited and the exploiters, people who make a living from death".
…
And in the middle of all this stands Courbet himself, flanked by benevolent figures:
a female muse, naked like the Truth, a child and a cat.
In the center, the painter presents himself as a mediator.
Courbet thus affirms the artist's role in society in an enormous scene on the scale
of a history painting.
Gustave Courbet
L'Atelier du peintre. Allégorie réelle déterminant une phase de sept années
de ma vie artistique et morale.
The Painter's Studio: A real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral life
1855
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

the artist painting Heavenly and Earthly Love …
on the easel Temptation of Christ,
under the large glass roof, the old plaster casts that serve as a model,
his daughter
and
in the background the plaster cast of his mother, Cornélia Lamme
Ary Johannes Lamme
Ary Scheffer au travail ou Le grand atelier d’Ary Scheffer, Rue Chaptal 16, Paris
Ary Scheffer at Work in the Large Studio at his House, Rue Chaptal in Paris 16
1851
Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht

in a small Swedish studio ...
The king sits at his easel, behind him Queen Lovisa
and at the window Princess Lovisa.
Despite somewhat arrogant manners, Charles XV combined
a certain gift for political vision, poetry and painting.
Pierre Tetar van Elven
Karl XV of Sweden and Norway in his studio, 3 people
Charles XV de Suède et de Norvège dans son atelier, 3 personnes
1862
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

an artist’s atelier …
the Transfiguration, Sistine Madonna, Tempi Madonna, Madonna of the Goldfinch,
antique sculptures including the Discus Thrower and Leda with the Swan
… this can only be the atelier of Italian painter Raphael.
…
The master himself is somewhat distracted, turning away from his painting
towards the young woman on his lap.
Raphael was indeed rumored to have occasionally found difficulty
in concentrating on his work, unable to stop thinking about his lover.
Only when she was present in his studio could he devote attention to his painting.
Vincenzo Abbati
Raphael and his muse in the atelier
Raphael et sa muse dans atelier
1863
Private Collection

Les Batignolles was the district where Manet
and many of the future Impressionists lived ...
Fantin-Latour has gathered around Manet a number of young artists.
from left to right:
Otto Schölderer a German painter
Manet sitting at his easel
Auguste Renoir, wearing a hat
Zacharie Astruc, a sculptor and journalist
Emile Zola, the spokesman of the new style of painting
Edmond Maître, a civil servant at the Town Hall
Frédéric Bazille, who was killed a few months later during the 1870 war,
at the age of twenty-six
and
Claude Monet.
few details, few decorative elements, only two accessories:
statuette of Minerva bears witness to the respect due to the antique tradition;
the Japanese style stoneware jar evokes the admiration
of this entire generation of artists for Japanese art.
Henri Fantin-Latour
Un atelier aux Batignolles
A Studio in the Batignolles Quarter
1870
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

in the studio in the rue de la Condamine ...
Bazille, a palette in his hand,
Manet, wearing a hat, is looking at the canvas placed on the easel.
Edmond Maître, a friend of Bazille, is seated at the piano. Above him, a still life by Monet
is a reminder that Bazille helped him financially by buying his work.
The three characters on the left are more difficult to identify – possibly Monet, Renoir
or even Zacharie Astruc or Zola
Bazille's death in combat some months later, during the Franco-Prussian war,
made this work a moving testament.
Frédéric Bazille
L'Atelier de la rue Condamine ou L'Atelier de Bazille
The Studio on the Rue La Condamine or Bazille’s Studio
1870
Musée d’Orsay, Paris

once again, an art world is filled with life ...
this time by
a large dog that, in its pursuit of the cat, lifts up the painter and his stool
and pushes them through the picture.
The wit of the depiction is revealed in the fact that
the artist's head lands in the mouth of the painted hippopotamus
and the African in the painting, gives the impression that he would save the painter
by pushing the spear.
Josef Franz Danhauser
Funny scene in the artist’s studio
Scène comique dans un atelier
1828
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

an intense blue water, and a bold horizon-less composition ...
Manet set up his easel in the open air to paint Claude Monet in his floating studio.
Édouard Manet
Claude Monet peignant dans son atelier
Claude Monet Painting in his Studio
1874
Neue Pinakothek, Munich

“ Monet's studio “ …
The figure in the boat is the artist, Claude Monet,
who outfitted this floating studio with all his supplies so that he could paint
Claude Monet
Le bateau atelier
The Studio Boat
1876
The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia and Merion

an cramped and untidy hotel room as a studio …
the Italian artist Ambrogio Raffele, deep in contemplation,
a bucolic landscape
and
straw hat and shirt are tossed carelessly across the rumpled white linens
and
the pictorial challenge of painting white on white
(The London Times wrote admiringly, "Surely, never were tumbled white sheets
so painted before.")
John Singer Sargent
An Artist in His Studio
Un artiste dans son atelier
1904
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston

three female figures visit the studio of the deceased artist …
Dominating the scene is the semi-nude and dolefully pensive Death, holding a scythe.
The wreath of dry laurel leaves suggests the figure may be treated as a personification
of Glory.
The feet of the dead man are being kissed by a woman in a folk costume and straw crown,
symbolizing Art.
The woman, concealed among painting stretchers, is consumed by grief.
She alone seems to be of the mortal world.
Jacek Malczewski
The Artist’s Death
La mort de l'artiste
1909
Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Warsaw

The window in the artist's studio is bath a crossing point and a metaphor for painting …
…
The painter represents himself from behind, beside a window overlooking the Quai Saint Michel,
before him is seated Lorette, Henri Matisse’s favourite model.
A silent conversation is taking place in an unstable space.
Matisse questions the role of the model and that of the painter for it is the artist who seems
to be the naked subject of the painting here, rather than Lorette, dressed in a green Gandoura.
Henri Matisse
Le peintre dans son atelier
The Painter and His Model
1916 -1917
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

the beauty, perfection and harmony of the Italian Renaissance ...
the idealized vision of Botticelli's studio …
The Florentine painter Sandro Botticelli works in his studio and looks with shyness and adoration at the newly arrived
Simonetta Vespucci, a young woman, nicknamed the beautiful Simonetta, considered one of the most beautiful women of her time
and for whom Botticelli felt absolute devotion, to the point that he asked to be buried at the foot of her tomb.
The lady is presented by the Medici brothers.

…
Sandro Botticelli stands at the left, in front of an exquisite tondo
which he is working on.
Bowing to him at the center is Giuliano de’ Medici, who is accompanied
by Simonetta Vespucci, wearing the green dress.
Behind her is Lorenzo de’ Medici, also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent,
and behind him are Giovanna Tornabuoni and her attendants.
The view through the window is of the Palazzo Vecchio in the centre of Florence.
Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale
Botticelli’s studio: The first visit of Simonetta presented
by Giulio and Lorenzo de Medici
L'atelier de Botticelli: La première visite de Simonetta présentée
par Giulio et Lorenzo de Medici
1922
Collection particulière

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The painter's studio
L'atelier du peintre
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