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Video: Why in the 17th century no one believed that exquisite paintings were painted by a woman: The Charm of Louise Muayon's Still Life
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
For centuries, women's painting in the history of art has been perceived as something nameless and no-one. That is why many talented artists had to work hard to prove their right to be recognized in the art world. In today's review - the amazing creative fate of the French artist of the Baroque era - Louise Muayon, who so masterly mastered the painting technique that several centuries later, her works were attributed to the authorship of Dutch, Flemish and even German masters, not suspecting that the real author is a woman.
Louise Moillon Louise Moillon (1610 - 1696) - the most famous master of French still life of the 17th century, who developed her own unique style and achieved true recognition in her youth. The artist's works were very popular. Among the connoisseurs of talent and patrons of Muayon were representatives of the highest nobility of France and England, including King Charles I of England.
The artist's unique painting technique was so refined and filigree that in subsequent centuries even experts confused her work with the works of eminent painters. Most of the works of the French artist are still lifes, executed in an exquisite painting technique. Her compositions with painstakingly prescribed fruits and vegetables lying in wicker baskets, porcelain vases, and just on the table are often performed from a high point of view. Louise Muayon's still lifes are distinguished by their severity and restraint, she perfectly conveys the texture and material of objects.
At one time, experts in the field of symbolism in art tried to decipher the meaning of compositions and subject series in the still lifes of the French artist. So, in "Still life with fruits and bunches of artichokes and asparagus" in the foreground we see
Often, Muayon used multi-figure genre scenes, where still lifes served as an addition to the plot. So, against the background of fruits, vegetables and flowers, including human figures, the artist gave her compositions a special symbolism.
For example, art critics interpret this picture as follows:
A few words about the artist
Louise was one of seven children of the Muayon family. Her father, Nicholas, was an excellent landscape and portrait painter, and her mother, Marie Gilbert, was the daughter of a jeweler. Of course, Louise received the basics of drawing from her father, who died when she was barely ten years old. Soon, his mother married another artist, François Garnier, who also gave art lessons to Louise. However, not only Louise, by the way, her brother, Isaac Muayon, also became an artist in the future.
In addition, it so happened that Louise Muayon's family lived in the Parisian district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where there were many Protestant refugees from the Netherlands, including artists. It was these painters who introduced young Muayon to their traditional style of still life, which influenced the development of the artist's special style in the future.
It is worth noting that almost all still lifes were created by the artist in the 1630s, that is, before her marriage in 1640. Louise married a wealthy merchant, Etienne Girardot de Chancourt. Curiously, the last works of the artist date back to 1645. And this means that for the next half century of her life, Louise did not paint pictures - there were probably good reasons for this. Louise Muayon has lived her entire life in Paris. She died of heart disease in 1696.
Isn't it amazing works that are examples of incredible artistic skill. They certainly cause the viewer not only visual pleasure, but also incredible taste anticipation from the contemplation of the magnificent gifts of nature.
And at the end of the topic of still lifes, I would like to offer the reader a fascinating a story about a modest still life that literally fed Count Tolstoy and his family for many years.
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