Posts for March, 2007

We are pleased to announce the 2007 ARC Scholarship Contest. We will award at least $10,000 in scholarships to winners with over $80,000 awarded to date. Entries will be accepted through May 31, 2007. To enter, download the PDF version or the Microsoft Word version of the application form. Applications must include five to ten sample works for judging, three letters of recommendation including one from the instructor with whom you are studying, a biography/CV, and a 250 word essay. For more information please contact Paul McCormack at pwmccormack@aol.com. Click here to see last year's winning entries.

Cody Swanson Eve Clay (66 x 30 inches) 2006 ARC Scholarship Contest First Place Winner

3/19/2007: 9 new works of art by the following artists were added to the ARC Museum: Mose Bianchi [1]; Carlo Brancaccio [1]; Pasquale Celommi [1]; Eugene Delacroix [1]; Henri Duvieux [1]; Egisto Lancerotto [2]; Giuseppe de Nittis [1]; Gustavo Simoni [1].

Egisto Lancerotto The Gift Oil on Canvas Private Collection

As one of the primary academic painters of the nineteenth century, Jules Breton evolved a painting style that combined a realist selection of thematic material with an interest in creating figural types that reflected the idealism of the classical traditions. His paintings were often regarded as containing poetic references and his compositions suggest a timeless world where the workers of the field symbolically were linked with literary elegies that evoked their best qualities. Although his works were out of favor for a long period of time, and his compositions were often used as convenient examples of so-called "bad-painting" by supporters of the modernist camp who panned any style whose goal was to portray the trials of the human condition instead of being dedicated to destroying the defining characteristics of great traditional art. Breton's celebration of human values of work, family, home and hearth did not fit into their nihilistic paradigm, despite his poignant and poetic themes painted with a compositional force and sophistication of technique that clearly places him amongst the greatest artists of his time. Breton's paintings have returned to public consciousness through recent exhibitions and an interest in collecting his works by private patrons and museums. He is an artist who has benefitted greatly from the long over due revisionist reappraisal of nineteenth century academic painting. Jules Breton was from a rural region in the north western part of France. He was born (May 1, 1827) and spent his youth in Courrières, a small village in the Pas-de-Calais; he died in Paris on July 5, 1906. His father, Marie-Louis Breton worked for a wealthy landowner whose land he supervised. After the death of his mother, when Jules was 4, he was brought up by his father. Others in the family, who lived in the same house, and had a deep influence on the young artist's upbringing, were his maternal grandmother and especially his uncle Boniface Breton. All instilled in the young man a respect for tradition, a love of the land and, especially, for his native region, which remained central to his art throughout his whole life providing the artist with many scenes for his Salon compositions. He received his first artistic training not far from Courrières at the College St. Bertin near St. Omer. Later (1842) he met the painter Félix de Vigne (1806-1862) who was impressed by his youthful talent and persuaded his family to let him study art. In 1843, Breton left for Ghent (Belgium) where he continued to study art at the Academy of Fine Arts with de Vigne, and an other teacher from the school, the painter Hendrik Van der Haert (1790-1846). Sometime later (1846), Breton moved to Antwerp where he took lessons with Baron Gustaf Wappers; he also spent much of his time copying the works of Flemish masters. Trained as an academic artist, Breton was well aware of other artistic tendencies such as the role of genre painting. In 1847, Breton finally left for Paris where he hoped to perfect his artistic training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Click here to read more...

Jules Breton The Song of the Lark Oil on Canvas 1887 The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA Jules Breton The Water Carrier,1881 (81.9 x 61.6 cm) Private Collection Jules Breton The Rest of the Haymakers Oil on Canvas 1872 Denison University, Granville, Ohio, USA

The Florence Academy of Art has announced that it will offering Summer Workshops in Florence and Molndal, Sweden.

Daniel Graves, founder and director of the Florence Academy of Art will have his first one-man exhibition at Eleanor Ettinger Gallery March 8, 2007 - April 1, 2007.

ARC is delighted to announce that is has received a grant of $10,000 from the Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund to be used for the 2007 ARC Scholarship Program. This grant will allow ARC to double the funds available for scholarships this year. We are proud to have been recognized by the Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund as it places us in great company. The Schapiro Fund has played a helping hand or a major role in making many cultural and artistic projects of merit possible. So from everyone at ARC and from all the students who will benefit from this grant, a hearty thanks to the Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund. We also want to thank Jacob Collins who suggested that ARC apply for the grant.

More details, including additional information about the Schapiro Fund, will be posted shortly.

2/19/2007: Added 25 works of art: Charles Baugniet [1]; Camille Felix Bellanger [1]; Jean Beraud [1]; Gaetano Chierici [1]; Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot [1]; Gustave Courbet [2]; Arthur John Elsley [1]; Paul Gustave Fischer [1]; Jean-Leon Gerome [1]; Leon-Augustin L'hermitte [3]; Hughes Merle [1]; David Emile Joseph de Noter [1]; Leon Bazile Perrault [1]; Kate Perugini [1]; Ulpiano Checa y Sanz [1]; Guillaume Seignac [1]; Raffaelo Sorbi [1]; James Alexander Walker [1]; Edwin Lord Weeks [2]; Henri Weigle [1]; Fausto Zonaro [1].

Guillaume Seignac Cupid and Psyche Oil on Canvas (80.6 x 100.3 cm) Private Collection

2/16/2007: 15 new artist letters (totaling 22 pages) Gustave Achille Guillaumet [2]; Jean Baptiste Antoine Guillemet [3]; Albert Herter [1]; Constant Mayer [1]; Luc-Olivier Merson [1]; John Everett Millais [1]; Francis Davis Millet [1]; Jean Ferdinand Monchablon [4]; Claude Monet [2]; Frederic Montenard [2]; Gustave Moreau [1]; Alphonse Maria Mucha [3].

2/16/2007: 32 new artist letters (totaling 56 pages) John White Alexander [1]; William Holbrook Beard [2]; John Collier [4]; Paul Michel Dupuy [2]; Luke Fildes [2]; Eugene Fromentin [3]; Frederick Goodall [2]; Francois-Marius Granet [1]; Sir Francis Grant [2]; Kate Greenaway [1]; Edward John Gregory [1]; Lucien Alphonse Gros [2]; Theodore Gudin [3]; Heywood Hardy [2]; Thomas Bush Hardy [3]; Henri-Joseph Harpignies [2]; Solomon Alexander Hart [3]; Benjamin Robert Haydon [1]; Ferdinand Heilbuth [1]; Jean-Jacques Henner [2]; Sir Hubert von Herkomer [2]; Albert Herter [1]; George Elgar Hicks [3]; Winslow Homer [2]; Friedrich August von Kaulbach [2]; Sir Gerald Kelly [2]; William Linton [1]; Thomas Lloyd [2]; Maxfield Parrish [1].

2/16/2007: Added Jose Alsina [1]; Francesco Ballesio [1]; H. G. Birchall [1]; Maurice Bompard [1]; Frederick Arthur Bridgman [3]; A Buzzi [1]; Felix Auguste Clement [1]; Rudolf Ernst [1]; F. A. Ferraresi [1]; Antonio Gargiullo [1]; Juan Gimenez-Martin [1]; Carl Haag [1]; Victor Pierre Huguet [2]; Paul Louis Emile Loiseau-Rousseau [1]; Maria Martinetti [1]; Otto Pilny [1]; Albert Gabriel Rigolot [1]; Paul Seiffert [1]; Guiseppe Signorini [2]; Stefano Ussi [1]; Eugenio Zampighi [1].