19th Century Painting etc
Regnault was an academic painter. He was under the influence of theEuropean academies, which provided formal training for many artists. Butwhile it generally demonstrated a "highly finished style" as well as use ofhistorical and mythological subjects portrayed in a moralistic tone,(Artcyclopedia Web site) Salome meets only two parts of that definition.It is painted in a highly finished style, and Salome was an historicalfigure. But it seems to lack a moralistic tone. In fact, it strayssomewhat from the purely academic and the purely historical in that it alsoexemplifies the Orientalism that was then a part of popular culture.Arguably, the Orientalism has been influenced by the access to Japan thatwas quite recent when Regnault painted this portrait, and there was muchmore travel to the near and middle East, as well. All things exoticappealed to the public during that era, and painters were also likely to beinfluenced by popular taste, just as they in turn influenced it. Because Regnault was an academic painter, it is a departure that hewould depict a woman, even an historical figure, in such an aggressivepose, and with her hair untamed. In fact, the draping of her clothing is
(Pierre, 2003) Jeanne d'Arc (circa 1880), or Joan of Arc, by Jules Bastien-Lepage(1848-1884), was controversial when it was shown at the Paris Salon. (Joan of Arc Center Web site) For a realist painter, this must,in fact, have been a departure that those who followed art would certainlyhave noted and commented upon. A contemporary critic wrote that he paintedpeople "without the appearance of artifice, as they live; and withoutcomment, as far as is possible on the painter's part. Althoughfrom the placement of the 'spirits' behind her, it appears she is lookingtoward the heavens. Salome's full lips are full of invitation,as are her almost exposed breasts. The fabric is painted to look as insubstantial as amoth's wings. But both are powerful enough to bring the viewer's eye back to themain idea, conveyed by two women of very different backgrounds, intentionsand futures. The blouse is only slightly more substantial, but it isalmost off, after all, and it is silky and sensual in its own right. In fact, she looks astonishingly sane. "Thecritics, even his 'warmest admirers,' were puzzled by the suggestedluminous, supernatural vapor entangled in front of Jeanne s farmhousegiving rise to the three saints," wrote Patterson in a Joan of Arc Centerarticle. Her fact itself isall eyes and jaw line. There is enormous depth, from the darkof the wooded glade that seems to encircle the light playing on thecottage, where the saints appear, in the background. Her bare legs and feet, and heractions speak loudly of the difference between this middle-Eastern womanand the chaste, generally upper-class women who posed for their portraits,or whose ideal of beauty was painted into figures in narrative paintings bythe academic painters. The eyes are large and luminous, the eyes of asaint.
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Acceptance Essays
