Inside the artist’s studio at the petit palais in Paris

Everyone has in mind the artist’s studio :a huge stove,big windows and a bric-à-brac ,casts and souvenirs brought back from the east .This is the artist’s studio in the 19th century ,very different from the modern ones of the contemporary artists.

A beautiful exhibition calles”inside the studio” has chosen to give us the photographers’point of view of this place of creation :In the 19th century when the photography was invented and today inside the studios of great creators .

When photography was invented in the middle of the 19th century photographers pushed the studios’ doors and gave us a glimpse of these incredible spaces of creations .

Today ,they continue to enter in the artists’intimacy and the exhibition follows their approaches with a great subtlety.As a spectator we are invited to dicover universes as invisible witnesses.

On the right:Anish Kapoor’s studio in London by Gautier Deblonde .2010

Jeff Koon’s studio in New York.2005 by Gautier Deblonde

Miquel Barcelo’s studio in Paris .2012.Gautier Deblonde

Studio from the Italian artist Mariano Fortuny y Marsal ,via Flaminia in Rome circa 1870

Edmond Bénard (1838-1907)was a photographer and a member of the Société Française de photographie from 1862 to 1885 and became famous thanks to his series of portraits representing “des artistes chez eux” , artits at home.The pictures he realized are displayed for a great part inside the exhibition.What bliss to be able to approach photographs of artists so famous in art history: Manet, Monet , Renoir , Ingres , Cabanel, appear in front of us in the dark interiors of their studios and we stare fascinated at these sacred monsters, all dressed up for the occasion with a kind of utmost fascination of catching these creators in the privacy of their studios!!

Edmond Berard.Pierre Puvis de Chavanne in his studio.Paris C.1880

Edmond Bérard.

Alexandre Cabanel in his studio .Paris C.1880

portrait of Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres.C.1860

Adolphe Dallemagne

As an artist,to have your own photograph by a prestigious photographer became something inescapable.But the artists struck the pose in different ways.Some were confirmed posers while others looked very shy or didn’t even pay attention to the photographer , letting him share their intimacy.The artist became an object of collection and public curiosity .In the 19th century,people collected the pictures of the great names of painting and sculpture.

This exercise of style that consists for a photographer to give us his vision of the creator in his studio still prevails today and through the centuries that will follow the discovery of photography ,beautiful portraits of great figures of art history will be realized.

Camille Corot

Painter Renoir with Sacha Guitry who realized beautiful movies around ,the great creators of the 19th century.

Monet in Giverny

Pierre Bonnard in his studio

Toulouse Lautrec in his studio

Successively Picasso,Camille Claudel and Gustave Courbet

Robert Rauschenberg in New York by Henry Cartier Bresson.1968

With the invention of oil paint in tubes, the artists left their studios and started working in the open air and aroused people’s curiosity.The photographers followed them.For the artists it was something rather difficult to achieve because they had to take all their material to be recreate their studio outdoors:folding stools, parasols and portable boxes .For artists who didn’t own their studios, they settled wherever they found interesting topics to paint :cities, countryside,evreything was interesting and worth while to be painted.Their ephemeral works were caught by the photographers who gave us glimpse of forgotten worlds.

Painter performing outdoors

Self portrait of the photographer Henri Roger in his studio rue Servandoni in Paris.June 1892

The artist is never alone in his studio.Their wives are most of the time installed next to them .Invisible ,they are the forgotten ones of Art history and yet they played an important role in the processus of creation.Many of them served as models for the painter and photographers have immortalized their faces and sometimes their moody expressions.

Gabrielle Renard in Auguste Renoir’s studio :1895.

The painter Jean Béraud in his studio and his wife.C1880

The painter Henri Fantin -Latour and his wife in his studio .C.1880

Mrs Fantin -Latour in her husband’s studio.C1880

The animals are also present in the artits’studio.Dogs, cats and friends they are also closely involved with the creative process.

Picasso’s studio,rue des Grands Augustins in Paris by Brassaï.1944

the sculptor Ossip Zadkine in his studio in Paris.C.1960

Picasso in his studion by Brassaï and the french actor Jean Marais with his dog Moujik.1944

The photographer is not only a discreet and silent guest in the studio.They also use what they see inside the room to create their own mental universe .

Some of them like to photograph the artist’s studio after his death to transmit us his secreet garden and establish a dialogue between the living and the dead.Some artists became themselves real photographers and established real scenarios to enhance their works such as Bourdelle and Brancusi.In the 20th century the artists’ places of creation have become something from which new universes can emerge for young photographers.

Wall inside Bonnard’s studio by Brassaï.1946

Aristide Maillol’s studio in Marly le Roy by Brassaï.1932

Photography inside Constantin Brancusi’s studio.C1948.Florence Homolka

From left to right:Constantin Brancusi’s studio by himself and At Mondrian’s by André Kertesz.Paris .1926.

Cezanne’s objects .2013 by Joel Meyerowitz.2013

After a visit of the provencal studio of Cezanne, the american photographer Joel Meyerowitz took a new start.While he was making a few photos inside the artist’s studio, he realiezd that to create his own universe , the painter needed to recreate appropriate surroundings.As did Cézanne before , the photographer has chosen to take pictures of several objects under a natural light ,following the footsteps of the master.Bourdelle studio’s photographed by the artist as a theatral setting.1899

So if you have some free time during the week ends to come, rush and see this very beautiful exhibition at the petit palais.The little art seeker recommends it!!!

Eugene Giraud’s studio by his brother Charles.1870