Cours de Dessin:   "Between 1865 and 1871,  'The Drawing Course' (Cours de Dessin) by Charles Bargue and Jean-Léon Gérôme was issued as 170 lithographs, each a separate folio sheet. The course was published during the last great flowering of figure painting in Western Art which ended with World War I. the plates are meant to be preparatory practice to working in 1) plaster casts of antiques, 2) instructive old master drawings, and 3) the nude.

The course starts on an elementary level while gradually increasing the difficulty if technical performance and subject matter. The drawings and technique are 'academic', that is, a humanism based on ancient examples. The result is a mixed style of academic strictness and careful observation that can at best be called 'Academic Realism'. Learning this style is useful to modern artists wishing to work in serious representational styles; they learn the best of both classicism and realism and can choose which they wish to follow, or a personal mixture of the two."

From: The Harlem Studio of Art .  Andrea J. Smith, Director.

Adrian Gottlieb
GottliebStudios.com/Classical_Glossary

HOME