Voyage à l’infini (1899)

Émile Friant: Voyage à l’infini

A Child's Disappointment (1897-98)

Émile Friant: A Child's Disappointment

Le Souvenir (1894)

Émile Friant: Le Souvenir

Cast Shadows (1891)

Émile Friant: Cast Shadows

In 1891, Friant presented four paintings at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. One of these was Cast Shadows which he was careful to place prominently when submitting his works. He had already depicted young couples, outdoors and indoors, always carefully building his composition around an interplay of looks and hands. He did the same in 1891 but in a much more radical way. The protagonists are placed in front of a wall. The frontal light source, directed upwards, highlights the hands and faces. Beneath the dark clothes, their bodies are reduced to silhouettes. This treatment recalls an extract from Pliny's Natural History recounting how painting was invented: "[Dibutade] was in love with a young man; when he left for foreign lands, she traced the shadow of his face, projected on to a wall by the light of a lantern".

But Friant equally turned to the current research of the time. Degas' work in particular comes to mind, with the effects he achieved using unusual light sources, capable of changing the perception of colour and chromatic harmony. [Musée d’Orsay]

Émile Friant (1888)

Émile Friant: Idyll on a Bridge (Les Amoureux) 

 

Émile Friant: Spring

  

Émile Friant: The Rowers of the Meurthe

Émile Friant (1887)

Émile Friant: Portrait of the artist's mother peeling a turnip, in front of a window

 

Émile Friant: Young Woman of Nancy in a Winter Landscape

The Study (ca. 1885)

Émile Friant: The Study

Portrait of Madame Constantin (1885)

Émile Friant: Portrait of Madame Constantin

The Drinkers (1884)

Émile Friant: The Drinkers

The influence of the camera is very obvious here, yet it feels fresh and spontaneous. Two drinkers sharing cheap wine, perhaps on a lunch break at work...Friant chooses unusual themes and in turn creates a realism that forces us to think about people and life in a way that we often overlook. He is a poet and storyteller and yet no words are spoken at all. A poet without drama, yet discovering a reality behind the lives of ordinary people that is truly engrossing. [Beside the Easel]

Portrait of Madame Petitjean (1883)

Émile Friant: Portrait of Madame Petitjean

The Entrance of the Clowns (1881)

Émile Friant: The Entrance of the Clowns