See how well you know the 19th-century English or French artist who had only one leg, who had his marriage annulled, or who was financially ruined over a column.
Can you guess -
Which 19th-century artist:
1. Had only one leg?
Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Pena
Diaz (1808–76) is known as a leader of the Barbizon landscape school, a group of 19th-century French painters including Théodore Rousseau, Jean François Millet, Jules Dupré, and Charles François Daubigny, who from about 1830 to 1870 lived in or near the town of Barbizon at the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau, France. There they painted the animals, landscapes, and people of the region.
The group’s activity was distinguished by painting outdoors instead of in studios, as had been the practice, turning away from academic practice to study directly from nature. The Barbizon painters were the precursors of Impressionism in their informality and their fascination with naturalism.
Diaz was also known for his floral paintings that were so admired by Vincent Van Gogh. Diaz’s work ranges from simple flower still lifes to classical mythology to themes set in the Near East. Because of a snake bite, his left leg had to be amputated when he was thirteen.
2. Was unable to consummate his marriage after seeing his wife’s pubic hair?
John Ruskin
Ruskin (1819-1900),Victorian English Romantic writer, painter, and draftsman, was a highly influential critic. It is believed that he helped promote the field of art criticism and that he drafted some of the best English prose ever written.
Ruskin took on the cause of rescuing J.M.W. Turner, the great painter, from obscurity. He also defended the work of the pre-Raphaelites. He was made the first professor of art in England (at Oxford) and his lectures were well attended.
Sadly, he suffered various bouts of insanity, though his best prose was written in his lucid periods. Six years after getting married, his wife left him and had their marriage annulled on grounds of non-consummation.
3. Helped to pull down the column in the Place Vendôme in Paris?
Gustave Courbet
Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) was a 19th-century French Realist painter of figures, landscapes, and seascapes. His work belonged neither to the predominant Romantic nor Neoclassical schools. Rather, Courbet believed in a Realist's mission as the pursuit of truth, which would help erase social contradictions and imbalances.
In Paris’ famous Place Vendôme, Emperor Napoleon erected a column as a monument to the glories of his armies. During the revolutionary Paris Commune (when communism briefly ruled France in 1871), Courbet was placed in charge of all the Paris art museums and saved them from looting mobs. However, he spoke out against Napoleon’s column in the Place Vendôme and pressured for it to be disassembled (to be presumably redisplayed somewhere else) saying that it had no artistic value. In 1871 the column was taken down without any intent to rebuild it. After the Paris Commune was thrown over, the decision was made to rebuild the column with its original statue of Napoleon. Because of his previous insistence on destroying the column, Courbet was ordered to pay part of the expenses, which financially ruined him.
Source:
Bailey, Colin J. The Art Quiz Book: 2000+ Questions on Painters and Paintings. Station Press: Scotland, 1995.
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![La Belle Irlandaise by Gustave Courbet, Wikimedia Commons [public domain]](http://images.suite101.com/126553_la_belle_irlandaise_courbet.jpg "La Belle Irlandaise by Gustave Courbet, Wikimedia Commons [public domain]")
