Wednesday, June 11, 2008

French For Despair


Beaux-Arts sculptures cause me mixed feelings. I appreciate the Classical ideals that served as inspiration for depicting the human form and the use of physical pose to convey a mental or emotional attitude.
A lot of it is too dramatic or sentimental to my taste. Cultivated positions can easily look contrived when the artist does not use the correct amount of restraint to keep it subtle. When done with skill, it leaves some outstanding works of art. One sculpture that stopped me in my tracks is the above, and below, titled Le Desespoir (I forgot the name of the artist). I wished I could have taken it home.




4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Chris,
Le Désespoir,
the sculpture is made by Jean-Joseph de Perraud somwhere arround 1869.
I believe you,
you wished to take it home.
I am shure you would have found a smaller reproduction at the
"Marché aux puces"
of this beautifull sculpture, described with the words, feeling, sentiment and allegory.

nelly said...

Hallo Chris,
Ik vermoed dat je wel veel inspiratie zal opgedaan hebben in Parijs.Werkelijk de foto's zijn de moeite waard,een reis waar je met genoegen zal naar terugkijken...
Liefs,
Nelly

Chris De Dier said...

Thank you, Wim, for providing the name of the sculptor.
I did not realize this sculpture was so popular that reproductions of it are so easy to find. They did not have it in the giftshop at the museum.

Chris De Dier said...

Hallo Nelly.
Je raad het wel. Het was zeker de moeite waard.