The picture shown is named “Louis XIV receiving Prince de Condé at château de Versailles”. The artist was Jean-Léon Gérome, and the painting was finished in 1878, long, long after Louis XIV.
Gérome belonged to the category of the official painters of the French Third Republic like Rochegrosse, who were called ‘Peintres Pompiers’ for specializing in historical representations. In 1846 he entered the prestigious Prix de Rome, Prize of Rome, but failed in the final stage because his figure drawing was inadequate, yet he went on to become one of the world’s most famous living artists.
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Josef Ketzer
11/16/2022 06:25:15 am
The 19th century was the period when historical painting reached its climax, in the centuries before we found more individual portraits of the king, the pope, the warlord, the cardinal, etc. alone. In the 19th century, history too became more "scientific", and more related to the people and the nation, earlier it was more like a chronicle of the deeds of the mighty ones. I think these two phenonemons relate to each other...
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11/16/2022 02:27:50 pm
Josef is a tutor to me and many children. He points me in the direction of historical figures and makes very wise comments about history and the modern world. We share the same faith and a similar educational background, though we live on two different continents and our native languages are different, which shows the wide reach of Catholicism. He is much, much better at English than I am at German and is a faithful friend.
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