Artists - Part 95

Hippolyte Flandrin

Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864) was a French neoclassical painter.  His brothers Paul and Auguste were also painters.  Above, a double self-portrait of Hippolyte and Paul.  I think Hippolyte is on the left.

Paul painted mostly landscapes, and Auguste painted mostly portraits.  Hippolyte painted mostly scenes from ancient classical tales, often featuring nudity, though he tended to conceal frontal views.

His most famous work is Young Male Nude Seated Beside the Sea, 1836, above.  It is now in the Louvre museum.

In 1832 he painted Theseus Recognized by his Father, above, winning the Prix de Rome, a prestigious art scholarship that let him study for five years in Rome.

Here are some more paintings by Hippolyte, mostly on classical subjects.  Above, Male Nude Seen from Behind.

Virgil's Shepherds, c. 1836.

Polites, son of Priam, observing the movements of the Greeks towards Troy, 1834.

Seated Young Shepherd, 1834.

Euripides Composing His Tragedies, 1836.

Jonah and the Sea Monster, 1860.

We end with this unusual Pieta, 1842.  Unusual because it shows Christ naked, including a visible penis.  Some think the dark figure is the Virgin Mary; others think it is Death.  I have to comment that Christ looks very European, not like a Middle Eastern Jew.  Christ with reddish-blond hair?  I think not.

Hippolyte died in Rome of smallpox in 1864.  He was 54 years old.  That is what happened to people before we had vaccines.