Monthly Archives: August 2019
What caused the official painter of the Napoleonic victories to take his own life: Antoine-Jean Gros
In June 1835, a man’s body was fished out of the river Seine in the vicinity of the town of MEUDON. The investigation established the identity and circumstances that led to this sad incident. The deceased turned out to be the artist Antoine-Jean Gros, the official painter of Napoleon I. after Surviving his main customer and employer for fourteen years, Gros took his own life – when he realized that he had changed the cause of his life.
At the time of his death, he was 64 years old. The life of Antoine-Jean Gros fell on a dramatic and difficult time for France. Continue reading
What secret was hidden for 100 years by the famous painting: “the Lady in the fur Cape»
For more than 100 years, this painting hid the secret of the true author of the canvas. Who painted the stunning $ 26 million painting from the Louvre? A hundred years later, art historians have finally found the true author, but the second secret of the picture – the identity of the model – remains unknown.
The first mystery of the picture is the identity of the heroine
“The lady in the fur Cape” is an oil painting dated 1577-1579. Now stored in the Pollock House Museum in Glasgow. The painting was purchased by sir William Stirling Maxwell in 1853 and is part of a collection of Spanish works that, along with the Pollock House, was donated to the city of Glasgow in 1967 by his granddaughter Ann Maxwell MacDonald. Continue reading