Yesterday, I spent a great deal of the day at the easel. I love paintings of interiors, and have wanted to attempt to paint the large living room, or 'le grande salon' that was part of Napoleon's apartment in the Louvre.
I love the excess of ornament, and wanted to try to capture it with a minimum of real painted detail. I also love the golds and reds, which I was not sure I could capture, but I am pretty happy with the color. I'm not sure that the painting is done-for-good, but it is done-for-now, at any rate. I will let it dry, then will reassess.
It is 11x14" in oil on canvas. It will be a hard one to frame, as all the gold will probably be a challenge! But I did enjoy the attempt, at any rate!
6 comments:
That is absolutely fabulous. I love it. You nailed it.
Thanks, Michele. I am starting to be happy with it, too. It may just be left as is.
I usually hate all that excess of ornament (I hated Versailles), but I like your painting, as you've simplified it into something majestic.
Funny, Jan. Versailles was also not my favorite place. I liked the Louvre apartment that this room was a part of much better. Perhaps because there was not so much of it, and fewer people.
This pointing was a challenge for me, though, to give the appearance of excess detil with relatively few actual painted details.
All your work about the trip to France has inspired me to go the Napoleon exhibition that is currently on at the national gallery in Melbourne. I thought I would be really sorry to have missed it if I kept putting it off. There was some really ornate and over-the-top stuff there but there was also some beautiful work, of all sorts. So thanks for the push!
Glad I could push you, Mary! I hope you enjoyed the exhibit. All things Napoleon-ic that I saw in Paris were pretty over the top. I think that may have defined him and his lifestyle. But it can be fun to see something so different from what is our own 'usual.'
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