#les oceanides

[lilithlikesart]

Gustave Doré - Les Oceanides Les Naiades de la mer (Oceanides (Naïads of the Sea)), c.a 1860/’69 - unknown

[arthist0rian]

Les Océanides (Les Naiades de la Mere), Gustave Dorè, oil on canvas, 1860

Gustave Dorè was a painter, illustator and sculpture, he studied as a self taught at the Louvre, and started drawing since childhood. In his teen he collaborated with various news papers and literary megazine as a caricatures designer.

In His art style it's predominant a variegated and movimental invective, reflecting the taste of Delacroix, sharing the dynamics searching, the chiaroscuro contrast e traits of enviromental verism.

Being already very appreacieted as a lithographer in his late 20s he started working with the publisher P. Lacroix. He mainteined the association even when working with other publisher of while being a private painter.

In his later years he fucused on the painting and sculpting, but he never had the same reputation with those media than when he worked as an illustrator.

From his illustration work: the inferno, don quixote, the lost paradise.

The painting depics the chorus of "Prometheus Bound" the oceanides, ocean nymphs, the 3000 daughters of Ocean a tytanus in the greek mythology, while in the back we see Prometheus on the rock, chained.

The composition can be familiar to a painting of Gèricault (le radeau del la Meduse), we have the focus of the painting in the middle, but the rock makes a triangular shape where the action is being carried on. There's also this dichotomy between life and death, some of the oceanides looks like corpses in the oceans, while other looks like survivors of a shipwreck finding a safe spot where to rest and not being carried by the sea current. Some of them can be seen still arrive on the right.

As in the tragedy here akso some of them are worried about the future. They are all young and know almost nothing about the world, so they get out of their dad palace to go see and try to help Prometheus. Who will not accept help from them but he will describe to them the future, and why they should not be worried.

I honestly love the use of the varies blues and green for the ocean and waves. The little details give at a rather symple concept a more defined and refined look, the chiaroscuro beautifully executed. And of course the myth happening in the background.

[themuseumwithoutwalls]

MWW Artwork of the Day (9/5/19) Gustave Doré (French, 1832–1883) Les Oceanides (Les Naiades de la mer)(c. 1860-69) Oil on canvas, 127 x 185.5 cm. Private Collection

Doré was the greatest book illustrator of the 19th century, famed for his illustrations to such works as Dante's 'Inferno' (1861), 'Don Quixote' (1862), and the 1866 Holy Bible.  He only turned to painting later in life.  Like his illustrations, his paintings reflect his love of the Romantic and are essentially fanciful, lie this one here.

In Greek mythology and, later, Roman mythology, the Oceanides were sea nymphs who were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. Each was the patroness of a particular spring, river, sea, lake, pond, pasture, flower or cloud. Some of them were closely associated with the Titan gods (such as Calypso, Clymene, Asia, Electra) or personified abstract concepts (Tyche, Peitho). They were sometimes known as Nereids.