1855
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
A Painter is a 1855 unspecified by Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a man in old-fashioned clothes painting a tiny picture of a nymph and a satyr. Meissonier loved dressing people up like it was 1750—even though he painted this in 1855. The artist’s frilly cuffs and powdered wig feel like a costume party. It’s a quiet joke: the painter is lost in his work, but the whole scene is make-believe. Look up more paintings of artists at work from the subject: france, 19th century, mod euro.
Meissonier often depicted artists and musicians of the 1600s and 1700s engaged in their work. This artist is busy painting a small canvas depicting a nymph and satyr. The artist’s 18th-century costume—nearly 100 years out of date at the time of the painting’s creation—transforms the scene into a charming historical fiction. Meissonier exhibited the painting at the Paris Salon of 1857.
The fashionable attire worn by the subject of this painting is from the previous century. In order to ensure authenticity in his paintings, Meissionier collected accessories from local costume markets to assemble a “work library.”
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier was a French academic painter and sculptor. He became famous for his depictions of Napoleon and his military sieges and manoeuvres in paintings acclaimed both for the artist's mastery of…
See the richer artist page
