Drawing of a plaster cast of Bertel Thorvaldsen’s sculpture ‘Venus with the apple’

The drawings by Stanisław Filibert Fleury (1858–1915) that survive from his drawing school years are still-life exercises portraying plaster casts and fabrics of famous old works. They have no special value or originality. These exercises were training tools and a daily routine for art students. However, it is clear that Fleury studied the effects of light on form very hard. This is evident from a comparison of two drawings of plaster casts of Venus with the apple by the Danish Neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844). The drawings expressly show how light changes the image and the perception of form, and thus the spirit of the work. Fleury was famous not for his artistic abilities but for his talent as a photographer. His drawing skills were undoubtedly useful for retouching photographs. Later, as a photographer, he lost interest in the casts of Classical sculptures he drew so patiently at the drawing school, although the motif was popular among his colleagues. Gypsum and marble copies of sculptural masterpieces practically inundated public and private interiors in the 19th century. Photographers could hardly avoid including them in interior photographs. They then turned their attention to the sculptures, which were attractive for their serene whiteness, applying long exposures and guaranteeing good results. The mid-19th century photographer Hippolyte Bayard (1801–1887) was famous for his still-lifes with plaster copies (cf. Julia Balerini, Recasting Ancestry: Statuettes as Imagined by Three Inventors of Photography, The Object as Subject. Studies in the Interpretation of Still-life, compiled by Anne W. Lowenthal, Princeton University Press, 1996, pp. 41–42, 44–48).

Text author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album MORE THAN JUST BEAUTY (2012). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, OBJECTS ON SHOW (2017). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, RES PUBLICA (2018). Compiler and author Rūta Janonienė
Expositions: “More Than Just Beauty: The Image of Woman in the LAWIN collection”, 12 October – 11 November 2012, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius

The drawings by Stanisław Filibert Fleury (1858–1915) that survive from his drawing school years are still-life exercises portraying plaster casts and fabrics of famous old works. They have no special value or originality. These exercises were training tools and a daily routine for art students. However, it is clear that Fleury studied the effects of light on form very hard. This is evident from a comparison of two drawings of plaster casts of Venus with the apple by the Danish Neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844). The drawings expressly show how light changes the image and the perception of form, and thus the spirit of the work. Fleury was famous not for his artistic abilities but for his talent as a photographer. His drawing skills were undoubtedly useful for retouching photographs. Later, as a photographer, he lost interest in the casts of Classical sculptures he drew so patiently at the drawing school, although the motif was popular among his colleagues. Gypsum and marble copies of sculptural masterpieces practically inundated public and private interiors in the 19th century. Photographers could hardly avoid including them in interior photographs. They then turned their attention to the sculptures, which were attractive for their serene whiteness, applying long exposures and guaranteeing good results. The mid-19th century photographer Hippolyte Bayard (1801–1887) was famous for his still-lifes with plaster copies (cf. Julia Balerini, Recasting Ancestry: Statuettes as Imagined by Three Inventors of Photography, The Object as Subject. Studies in the Interpretation of Still-life, compiled by Anne W. Lowenthal, Princeton University Press, 1996, pp. 41–42, 44–48).

Text author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album MORE THAN JUST BEAUTY (2012). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, OBJECTS ON SHOW (2017). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, RES PUBLICA (2018). Compiler and author Rūta Janonienė
Expositions: “More Than Just Beauty: The Image of Woman in the LAWIN collection”, 12 October – 11 November 2012, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius