The Birth of Venus, Alexandre Cabanel




The Birth of Venus



Charles Landelle is a souvenir of the artist's tour of Algeria, of which Tiemcen is the chief town of the Department of Oran, the most western of the three administrative divisions of the colony. The admixture of the French with the Arab population has produced some curious modifications of the native costume, a hint of which may be found in the dress both of the woman and sleeping girl.

Jules Louis Machard was born at Sampans, in the Jura, in 1839, was a pupil of Picot and Signal, and in 1865 captured the Prix de Rome. He is a painter of portraits, history, classical, and fanciful subjects, of which latter his "Soap Bubbles" is an excellent example. He has been a Member of the Legion of Honor since 1878.

Unquestionably the most famous of the late Alexandre Cabanel's pictures is his "Birth of Venus." The original painting is in the collection of the Luxembourg, but engravings, photographs, and other reproductions have made it familiar to the world world as one of the foremost classics of modern art. Under a sky rosy with dawn, Venus Astarte wakes to life on the waves of which she is born. The picture is not only of a matchelss grace of composition, but in its soft, delicate color and tender modeling the crowning masterpiece of the artist's productions. It was first exhibited at the Salon of 1875, where it made the sensation of the year.

In "An Odalisque" N. Sichel again reveals the felicity and variety of his talent in creating beautiful female types. The face is thoroughly characteristic and the attitude and drapery graceful and picturesque. Konrad Delitz, the painter of "The Spirit of the Alps," has taken a Tyrolean legend for his subject. This

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