Emile René Ménard
"Naakt bij de waterval"
EMILE RENÉ MÉNARD
Paris 1862-1930
NUDE AT WATERFALL
Paris 1900
Olieverf op doek
70 x 50 cm.
Gesigneerd: rechts onder ‘E.R. Menard’.
Emile René Ménard was inspired by women: he depicted them as nymphs or dream-like creatures. In this painting, Ménard clearly saw the woman as a classical nude. He painted her, introvert and not knowing that she is being watched. The woman becomes one with the enchanting landscape. It is a moment without time and it has nothing to do with the quickly-changing society Ménard lived in.
Ménard was a student of Bouguereau and took classes at the Académie Julian. He was influenced by the painters in Barbizon, but also loved antiquities; in the Meditterannian he searched for the remains of Great Greece. He loved to paint pastoral scenes with the idyllic life of nymphs in idealized arcadic landscapes.