The tender question - two paintings by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1759-61

 

These two early compositions, La Simplicité and Jeune berger tenant une fleur, were originally in the collection of the marquise de Pompadour. In 1756 her brother, the marquis de Marigny, Director General of the King's Buildings, commissioned from Greuze two oval paintings destined for the apartment of the marquise at Versailles, leaving the choice of subject to the artist. Despite the importance of such a commission, Greuze did not exactly rush to finish the paintings; the first was completed only three years later, and the second four or five.

La Simplicité, 1759.

Jeune berger qui tente le sort pour savoir s'il est aimé de sa bergère, or Jeune berger tenant une fleur, circa 1760-61.

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They've long been separated, les très jeunes énamourés; the girl is in the collection of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, while the boy is held in that of the Petit Palais, Paris. But coincidentally, at the time of this writing, the two have been temporarily reunited in Paris for an exhibition of Greuze's work.

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Bedroom in two keys - a pair of contemporary interiors by Peter Brown

 

Bedroom, Night, circa 2025.

Summer, 9am, Bedroom, 2025.

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Bedroom, Night, circa 2025 - three details.

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Summer, 9am, Bedroom, 2025 - three details.

Apparently, this same bedroom can be played in other keys, as well.

Morning Light, Bedroom, 2021.

Bedroom, 7am, January 2022.

Grey Morning, The Bedroom, September 2025.

Ned, Asleep, Lockdown Morning, 2020. (I believe that Ned is the artist's son.)

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The British artist's Wikipedia entry is here.

His website is here. 

(I must admit that I actually have no great affection for any of his other work beyond these particular studies of his own bedroom - it's just his bedroom.)

Art and the outrageous pose - "Le Nu esthétique - L'Homme, la Femme, L'Enfant," French magazine, 1902-07

 

First issued in October of 1902, and sold by subscription, Le Nu esthétique - L'Homme, la Femme, L'Enfant : album de documents artistiques inédits d’après nature was the first "nude magazine." Published by Émile Bayard, "The Aesthetic Nude" was dedicated to William-Adolphe Bouguereau and contained a preface by Jean-Léon Gérôme, both highly respected academic painters of the period. 

For the next five years, Bayard published twenty-five separate fascicles - A discrete section of a book issued or published separately - containing a large selection of photographed nude studies of men, women, and children in various poses, alone or in groups. And the models were frequently given props to wield and gathered into fully composed decorative tableaux. Occasionally, photographic "special effects" were employed. 

The images strove to align with and exemplify academic principles, and models were photographed in poses that specifically recalled the long line of western art, from the Greeks and Romans all the way forward to the aforementioned contemporary academic artists, Bouguereau and Gérôme. 

Several publications quickly followed suit, though most frequently their poorly disguised raison d'etre was erotic rather than aesthetic. Insulted by comparisons with his far less noble competitors, as well as harried by the legal battles launched against the nude magazines by offended moral crusaders, Bayard chose to close down the publication in 1907.

(By far, the majority of the models pictured in the publication were female; I've focused here on the male. Also, I've removed any images of children that may have been included in the pages that I've chosen. I don't think any of them would actually be considered erotic in any way... but in this day and age...?!)

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There is a very interesting article in French - easily translatable to English on most browsers - about this publication.