Charles Bargue and Jean-Leon Gerome: Drawing Course [Hardcover]

Gerald M. Ackerman (Author), Graydon Parrish (Editor), Charles Bargue (Drawings)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2007 | ISBN-10: 286770166X | ISBN-13: 978-2867701665 | Edition: 2nd

The Bargue-Gerome Drawing Course is a complete reprint of a famous, late nineteenth century drawing course. It contains a set of almost two hundred masterful lithographs of subjects for copying by drawing students before they attempt drawing from life or nature. Consequently it is a book that will interest artists, art students, art historians, and lovers and collectors of drawings. It also introduces us to the work and life of a hitherto neglected master: Charles Bargue. The Drawing Course consists of three sections. The first consists of plates drawn after casts, usually of antique examples. Different parts of the body are studied in order of difficulty, until full figures are presented. The second section pays homage to the western school of painting with lithographs after exemplary drawings by Renaissance and modern masters. The third part contains almost sixty academies or drawings after nude male models, all original inventions by Bargue, the lithographer. With great care, the student is introduced to continually more difficult problems in the close observing and recording of nature. Practiced professional artists will see at once the problems of representation that are approached by Bargue, and they will delight in his solutions. Figure painters will copy the plates to keep in tune; so to speak, much as pianists practice the exercises of Czerny before performing Beethoven. Art students will find it a practical and progressive introduction to realistic figure drawing. Art historians can learn by studying these drawings just what was prized in late 19th century figure painting. They will recognize the reliance upon tradition by the use of antique sculptures as models in the first part: Antiquity is here used, not to impose a classical style, but as an aid in seeing the structure of the human body with clarity and intelligence. The result is a convergence of Classicism and Realism. There are no numerical proportional charts, perspective boxes or geometrical schemata to memorize. All the techniques and schemata are developed out of and for the object or person in view. The drawings are splendid; beautiful; not simply products of assiduity, but of careful observation and the wish to transcribe and communicate the beauty of nature and light, as well as the manifold appearances of the human body. These are objectives that will touch and move any careful reader of drawings, and the figurative arts. Charles Bargue started his career as a lithographer of drawings by hack artists for a popular market in comic, sentimental and soft-porn subjects. By working with Gerome, and in preparing the plates for the course, Bargue was transformed into a spectacular painter of single figures and intimate scenes; a master of precious details that always remain observation and never became self-conscious virtuosity, of color schemes that unified his composition in exquisite tonal harmonies. The last part of the book is a biography of Bargue, along with a preliminary catalogue of his paintings, accompanied by reproductions of all that have been found and of many of those lost.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gerald Ackerman was born in California. He completed his studies at the University of California at Berkeley, then at the University of Munich and finally at Princeton, where he received his PhD. For twenty years, he was a professor of art history at Pomona College in California. He is a specialist of Gerome and published studies on other 19th century American and European artists, as well as on the theory of academic art.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Art Creation Realisation; 2nd edition (October 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 286770166X
• ISBN-13: 978-2867701665
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 10.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #641,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a treasury of lost teachings February 16, 2004

By "benj9"

Format:Hardcover

This book is essential for those students who wish to study art seriously, and to make themselves capable enough draftmen in order to paint. It is a complete reproduction of the "fabled but rare" drawing course used in Gerome's studio in nineteenth century Paris, comprising multiple levels of cast drawings, master-copies and linear life-drawings designed specifically to train the student's eye for painting.

The plates are meant for study, to be copied by the student for several purposes; mainly serving as an introduction to the academic drawing process, but also as an artistic and anatomical reference for showing what is essential in form - Bargue, as a teacher, is unmatched in this respect.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the study and/or appreciation of fine drawing, and cannot thank the Dahesh museum enough for compiling it!

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a treasury of lost teachings February 16, 2004

By "benj9"

Format:Hardcover

This book is essential for those students who wish to study art seriously, and to make themselves capable enough draftmen in order to paint. It is a complete reproduction of the "fabled but rare" drawing course used in Gerome's studio in nineteenth century Paris, comprising multiple levels of cast drawings, master-copies and linear life-drawings designed specifically to train the student's eye for painting.

The plates are meant for study, to be copied by the student for several purposes; mainly serving as an introduction to the academic drawing process, but also as an artistic and anatomical reference for showing what is essential in form - Bargue, as a teacher, is unmatched in this respect.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the study and/or appreciation of fine drawing, and cannot thank the Dahesh museum enough for compiling it!

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars an enigmatic master January 9, 2007

By Paulybrooklyn VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I saw the show that accompanied this book and it really re-invigorated me during a difficult time in my progress as an artist. Bargue is a unique figure in art history; his work is breathtaking and his career is an inspiring puzzle.

The plates from the drawing course are interesting, and certainly of historical value--I have often seen Picasso's student copies of Bargue's lithographs reproduced in books (but never credited!). However, it should be said that this course was created fairly late in the history of academic painting and did not contribute to the training of its most well-known artists, such as Bouguereau. Personally, I would not find the course very useful; in this day and age one can easily find excellent reproductions of the drawings that Bargue copied, as well as high-resolution photographs of antique sculptures. It is informative to see how Bargue simplified forms, but I think one would be better off drawing from life than from his lithographs.

It is Bargue's paintings that really deserve the most notice, although they seem to have been included in this book (and in the exhibition) almost as an afterthought. His technique is exquisite beyond description, comparable to the very best of the Dutch masters. The plates, although good, don't begin to capture the impossible perfection of his work--I doubt that any reproduction could. He describes surfaces and textures with a graceful delicacy that I've never seen surpassed. His draftsmanship and sense of gesture are understated yet flawless, and his compositions--consisting of orientalist and historical genre subjects--are delightful if not particularly original.
It is distressing that so little is known of his life, other than the fact that he was, perplexingly, rather unsuccessful. He seems to have been a late bloomer; I was fascinated to see that none of his existing paintings were produced before the age of 42. Before that, he primarily worked as a graphic artist, specializing in mediocre soft-porn lithographs. Also intriguing is the fact that, other than his unclear association with Gerome, he had no direct ties to the academy. In fact, it is unknown where he studied... very strange considering how skilled he was--his technique blows most of his contemporary academicians out of the water. He is a useful example for the present day "neo-neo" classicical/realist painters who bemoan the loss of traditional academic schools.