Alexandre Merch
Description: Alexandre Dumas quote: Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realize the blessings of fair weather.
Description: The Birth of Venus was one of the great successes of the 1863 Salon, where it was bought by Napoleon III. Typical of Cabanel's virtuoso technique, this facile and disciplined painting is a perfect example of popular and official artistic taste of the period. In an eclectic spirit characteristic of the Second Empire, Cabanel combines references to Ingres with an 18th century style of painting. Here, however, the mythological theme is simply a pretext for the portrayal of a nude figure who, though idealized, is nonetheless depicted in a lascivious pose. Emile Zola denounced this ambiguity: "the goddess, drowned in a river of milk, resembles a delicious courtesan, not made of flesh and bone - that would be indecent - but of a sort of pin...
Description: Alexandre Dumas quote: There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die...that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.
