follower of Antoine Calbet

Available for sale from Big Sky Fine Art in the English county of Dorset, this original work is by an unknown hand who was a follower of the talented French painter and illustrator Antoine Calbet b.1860 - d.1944.<br> This mixed media work from the Art Nouveau period (1890 – 1910), is a slightly larger stylised depiction of Calbet’s smaller pastel work titled “Thésée Victorieux” of the same period. <br> The painting is presented and supplied in its original Art Nouveau frame (which is shown in these photographs). A new replacement acid-free mount and backboard have been fitted along with premium anti-reflective glass with UV Protection greater than 70% (Artglass AR 70™). <br> This antique painting is in very good condition. It wants for nothing and is supplied ready to hang and display.<br> The artwork is signed lower right.<br> <br> This original painting is signed by the artist in the bottom right corner, but we have not been able to identify the artist. However, our research reveals a strikingly similar image was produced by the French artist and designer Antoine Calbet (1880-1944) in the early 1900s. The position of the two figures and the style is so similar that the piece now offered has to be a tribute by an artist who had seen the Calbet version., either in person or in a publication. Although this piece takes inspiration from the Calbet version, and was produced in the same era, it does not seek to replicate it exactly as the medium and size are different. This piece is, frankly, more attractive that the Calbet version in that it is more stylised. <br> <br> The piece offered is then antique French, in a style and with a frame than is typical of the Art Nouveau period. This international artistic movement emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as a reaction against the historicism of previous art styles and focused instead on organic shapes. The key artistic features of this piece that align with the Art Nouveau style are the flowing organic lines that emphasise movement, the soft pastel palette which suggests a dreamlike atmosphere and the idealised, sensual human forms. The figures are intertwined both with each other and with the nature around them. <br> <br> The subject of this painting is the Greek legend of Theseus and Ariadne. Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, and she fell in love with the Athenian hero Theseus. Ariadne helped Theseus kill the Minotaur and escape by giving him a ball of yarn to unroll as he moved through the labyrinth. Hence, Theseus managed to flee Crete and elope with Ariadne. There are then two versions of what happens next; one is that Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos on his journey back to Athens and she was so distraught that she hanged herself. The other is that he abandoned her, but she was rescued by the god Dionysus, whom she then married. Fortunately, this painting depicts that couple in the earlier part of their relationship, very much is love and still acting in unison!<br> <br> © Big Sky Fine Art