Reproduction Hippolyte Flandrin - Naked Young Man Sitting by the Sea, 1837

Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864)

Like the Oedipus painted by Flandrin's master Ingres, this study of a nude youth was sent to Paris in 1837 as representative of the work of the fourth-year students at the French Academy in Rome. Ingres' purism is here taken to extremes: the human body is close to achieving the primeval form of the circle.

Classical esthetics and contemporary tastes

This refined nude is a perfect example of the neo-classical esthetic practised by Ingres' students. The backdrop of a seascape heightens the rather eerie atmosphere of the scene, showing how this generation of artists undertook to renew the classical esthetic and realign it with contemporary tastes. Hippolyte Flandrin was a superb portrait painter, one of Ingres' most talented disciples, and one of the finest exponents of neo-classical art. He is also one of the major figures in the history of religious painting in the 19th century.
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