La poétesse Sappho n’a en rien facilité les rapports hommes-femmes, avec son admirable Ode à Aphrodite qui célèbre l’amour et une sexualité épanouie entre femmes. Avec la libéralisation des mœurs, l’homosexualité féminine est un fait incontournable de nos sociétés modernes. Mais que l’histoire retient-elle de ces pratiques ? Comment l’amour de deux femmes était-il apprécié ? En enfreignant les règles des sociétés passées, comment ces femmes ont-elles vécu leur particularisme et leur plaisir ? Pourquoi choisir sa semblable plutôt que l’autre, l’homme en l’occurence, pour obtenir le plaisir ? Exercice difficile, permettant au Professeur Döpp de réaliser un tour de …

“The Devil holds the strings which move us!” (Charles Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil, 1857.) Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer… the Devil has many names and faces, all of which have always served artists as a source of inspiration. Often commissioned by religious leaders as images of fear or veneration, depending on the society, representations of the underworld served to instruct believers and lead them along the path of righteousness. For other artists, such as Hieronymus Bosch, they provided a means of denouncing the moral decrepitude of one’s contemporaries. In the same way, literature dealing with the Devil has long offered inspiration …

Ornans, Courbet’s birthplace, is near the beautiful valley of the Doubs River, and it was here as a boy, and later as a man, that he absorbed the love of landscape. He was by nature a revolutionary, a man born to oppose existing order and to assert his independence; he had that quality of bluster and brutality which makes the revolutionary count in art as well as in politics. In both directions his spirit of revolt manifested itself. He went to Paris to study art, yet he did not attach himself to the studio of any of the prominent masters. …

Berlin, once perceived of as a puritan city, became in the 1920’s the capital of lust and the decadence of morals. It is in this capricious town that an exceptional museum entirely dedicated to eroticism opened its doors. Abandoning all aspects of voyeurism, the Erotic Museum in Berlin is a magical place where the imagination of man and the most refined works of art interact. This remarkable book is comprised of more than 350 rare illustrations, and accompanied by a major study written by the history professor, Hans-Jürgen Döpp. It covers different aspects of erotica throughout time and continents.

La collection populaire de parkstone sur les « cinq plus beaux/belles…» offre aux jeunes lecteurs un cours miniature d’histoire de l’art, associant des puzzles interactifs représentant les chefs-d’œuvre de l’art à des textes simples mais didactiques. ces livres fournissent aux parents et aux professeurs un moyen de développer l’imagination artistique des enfants, posant les fondations d’une vie future d’amateurs d’art. Que ce soit des portraits de leurs propres enfants, d’amis ou membres de la famille, les représentations d’enfants sont toujours des exemples saisissants du lien entre l’innocence de l’enfance et le travail méthodique du talent artistique adulte. dans ces charmants …

Karl Bryullov (1799–1852) stands as a towering figure in 19th-century Russian art. Though trained in the classical traditi on, he is best remembered for his emotionally charged Romantic masterpieces. Bryullov’s brilliance—both intellectual and artistic—combined with his fiercely independent spirit, ignited widespread admiration across Russia. His dynamic style and expressive power stirred the hearts of a nation. His fame extended well beyond Russia’s borders. In Western Europe, Bryullov earned the respect of cultural luminaries such as Thorvaldsen, Sir Walter Scott, Stendhal, and Liszt, securing his place among the greats of European art.

Pierre Bonnard was the leader of a group of post-impressionist painters who called themselves the Nabis, from the Hebrew word meaning ‘prophet’. Bonnard, Vuillard, Roussel and Denis, the most distinguished of the Nabis, revolutionized the spirit of decorative techniques during one of the richest periods in the history of French painting. Influenced by Odilon Redon and Puvis de Chavanne, by popular imagery and Japanese etchings, this post-impressionist group was above all a close circle of friends who shared the same cultural background and interests. An increasing individualism in their art often threatened the group’s unity and although tied together by …

Oskar Schlemmer (1888-1943) war ein deutscher Ballettmaler, Theatergestalter und Bühnenbildner. Nach Abschluss seiner Ausbildung als kunstgewerblicher Zeichner vervollständigte er sein Studium an der Stuttgarter Akademie für bildende Künste. In Stuttgart lernte er ein Tänzerehepaar kennen, das ihn für das Theater begeisterten. In 1914 machte Schlemmer die Bekanntschaft des späteren Bauhausgründers Walter Gropius, der auf Schlemmer aufmerksam wurde. Mit dessen Hilfe trat er dem Bauhaus von Weimar bei, wo er von 1920 bis 1929 unterrichtete. Zu dieser Zeit übernimmt er Bühnengestaltungen zu Werken der Komponisten Igor Strawinsky und Arnold Schönberg. Die politische Radikalisierung führte dazu, dass Schlemmer in 1937 von den …

Deriving from the French word rocaille, in reference to the curved forms of shellfish, and the Italian barocco, the French created the term ‘Rococo’. Appearing at the beginning of the 18th century, it rapidly spread to the whole of Europe. Extravagant and light, Rococo responded perfectly to the spontaneity of the aristocracy of the time. In many aspects, this art was linked to its predecessor, Baroque, and it is thus also referred to as late Baroque style. While artists such as Tiepolo, Boucher and Reynolds carried the style to its apogee, the movement was often condemned for its superficiality. In …

The five hundred or more paintings of Caillebotte were not given much attention during his lifetime. For years, he was considered primarily a generous patron of impressionists, but not as a painter in his own right. Later, his style was seen to be more realistic than those of his friends Degas, Monet and Renoir. In 1874, he helped to organise the First Impressionist Exhibition. However, he did not include his own work – he would show in later impressionist exhibitions. In this typical work he captures the feeling of a new Parisian boulevard in an area of the Batignolles quarter …

Peu de personnes contestent le fait que Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) ait été l’artiste le plus important du XXe siècle. Né à Malaga, en Espagne, Picasso a révélé son génie dès son plus jeune âge et s’est rapidement trouvé une place au sein des cercles artistiques les plus populaires de son temps, d’abord à malaga puis à Paris. En recherche d’inspiration et dans un contexte de renouveau artistique, Picasso se tourne vers l’histoire médiévale et les arts primitifs. On lui doit, ainsi qu’à George Braque, l’invention du Cubisme, non seulement l’un des nombreux mouvements avant-gardistes mais aussi l’expression d’une esthétique qui …

Pieter Brueghel was the first important member of a family of artists who were active for four generations. Firstly a drawer before becoming a painter later, he painted religious themes, such as Babel Tower, with very bright colours. Influenced by Hieronymus Bosch, he painted large, complex scenes of peasant life and scripture or spiritual allegories, often with crowds of subjects performing a variety of acts, yet his scenes are unified with an informal integrity and often with wit. In his work, he brought a new humanising spirit. Befriending the Humanists, Brueghel composed true philosophical landscapes in the heart of which …