I had the good fortune to travel to Paris this summer and while there I went to all the museums I could! 🙂 The Orsay is such a spectacular museum and the Petit Palais rises higher on my list of must see museums each time I go. I was very surprised to see Waterhouse, Leighton and Tadem in the latter!

If you’ve followed my posts for a bit you know I love to try and get good captures of my favorite masterpieces when I visit museums. It’s not always possible due to poor lighting, glare, glass, or crowds, but with some patience and persistence, I can often get a good capture as a memento of sorts to bring home with me. And I love sharing them!

Let’s start with this gorgeous painting of Lamia!

John William Waterhouse

Lamia, oil on linen – 1909


Here are some 1:1 scale details from the full sized capture I made. I love the grays in Waterhouse’s skin! I also love making these captures to see details that are often hard to observe in person due to the way they are hung, or restrictions on how close you can get. Like the little fleck of red above her upper lip. And look at the grey/turquoise splash above the right eyebrow.

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The green fringe of color on her hand on the left is a neat touch. And seeing the roughness of some areas that still read is cool. Like the fingertips peeking through the hair.

Look at the bit of grey on the right side of the breast to turn that form. It appears to be painted over what was more chromatic before.

Next up is this masterpiece by William Adolphe Bouguereau!

William Adolphe Bouguereau

The Assualt, oil on linen – 1898

 

Once of the things that I love when getting some big captures of Bouguereau’s work is seeing the brushwork. Often in reproductions in books it looks like everything is blended to be as smooth as can be, but his surfaces are much more varied than that.

 

The grey on the back of her hands, which shows the blood vessels, is so beautifully done and far from being overworked.

I hope that you enjoy these big images. Thanks for giving this post a read!