Thomas couture

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Manet’s Oil Painting Technique Manet differed from Couture on one very significant technical issue. Whereas his master taught the careful analysis and rendering of midtones, Manet believed that light presents itself so forcefully to the eye that it should be depicted by simplified tones in order to retain its immediacy. In reducing midtones and concentrating on simple areas of dark and light, Manet flattened the picture plane, because he negated illusionism, which was achieved by subtle…

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Thomas Couture (French, 1815–1879)

Portrait de femme

Thomas Couture (French, 1815–1879)

Thomas Couture | Soap Bubbles | The Met

KDS Photo, Musee des Beaux Arts Lyon, painting by Thomas Couture, "Monk Seen from Behind", 1871

Since the 16th century, a figure blowing bubbles has served as an allegory for the vice of vanity. A schoolboy slouches on a chair beside his unopened books as bubbles drift overhead. The note tucked in the broken glass reads: "Le Parasseux indigne de vivre" (the lazy one unworthy of living). The soap bubbles and the crumbling wall suggest the fleeting nature of time, and the laurel wreath symbolizes glory ignored. Rejecting prevailing academic traditions, Couture developed a highly personal…