Hippolyte (Paul) Delaroche was a French academic painter who helped set the standards for late 19th Century history painting.

Though denigrated in subsequent times (and at the time by upstarts like the Impressionists), history painting was the core of mainstream academic painting, then the artistic establishment; and Delaroche, along with Eugéne Delacroix and Théodore Géricault, was among its chief proponents.

Delaroche was a student of Antoine-Jean Gros, and a teacher of many notable artists, including Charles-François Daubigny and Jean-Léon Gérôme.

His highly refined and smoothly rendered history paintings, often large scale tableaux with life-size figures, were dramatic portrayals of scenes from both distant times and recent events.

Very popular in his day, his paintings represented what many find appealing, and others find objectionable, about academic art — superb draftsmanship and flawless technique, but, despite their drama, little investment of emotion or passion on the part of the artist.

Delaroche is known for his monumental work, 88 feet (27 metres) long, around the inside curve of a wall of the hemicycle (circular chamber) of the award theatre of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (image above, top and middle). The painting was a commission from the architect of the school and portrays 75 great artists from various points in time, focused on three thrones on which the creators of the Parthenon sit, flanked by muses, representing their chosen arts of architecture, sculpture and painting.

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (images above, third down and detail, bottom), was unusual and caused great interest when it debuted. It was essentially the start of a new genre of painting, combining the refined painting technique exemplified by Ingres with the drama of history painters like Delacroix. It was an event from English history portrayed, in striking scale and realism, by a French painter. It shows the moments just before the beheading of Lady Jane Grey, who, at the age of 16, was Queen of England for only 9 days before being deposed and later executed by her half-sister Mary.

Other paintings of similar subjects, by Delaroche and other French history painters, would follow. These history paintings, particularly involving subjects like the wresting of crowns from one hand to another, along with such juicy subjects as beheadings (you know — entertainment), would prove very popular with the French audience, who saw many parallels to their own history of clashing monarchs.

This painting, perhaps Delaroche’s most famous, and several notable works on loan, are part of an exhibition at the National Gallery in London, Painting History: Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey, that is on display until 23 May, 2010.

There is a nice big zoomable version of the painting here as part of the online material for the exhibition (detail above, bottom); be sure to use the “expand” button (rectangle with 4 arrows) to make the zoomable image full screen.

California born, new Mexico based artist Glenn Dean finds endless variety in the rocks, hills, canyons, bluffs and mountains of the American West.

Sometimes his work can be more intimate, with scenes of small arroyos, canyons and adobe structures, and he occasionally paints views of the California coast, but most often portrays the monumental geologic structures of the western part of the continent.

His site is, in fact, themed Landscapes of The West. Unfortunately, it’s one of those stock FineArtStudioOnline stock sites, in which you must view the larger images in a little pop-up window, the largest of which is still somewhat small. You can see some larger images, in which Dean’s brushwork and color variations are more apparent, on the Brandon Michael Fine Art gallery (though some items are not linked to larger versions).

Dean cites as inspiration noted painters of the America West like Edgar Payne and Maynard Dixon. You can also see the influence of California Impressionists like Hanson Puthuff and Granville Redmond in his bright but atmospherically softened palette.

Dean also carries forward the spiritual/philosophical component of some of the early California painters, in which the landscape is seen as an expression of the spiritual within the material.

He is essentially a self-taught artist. His work has been featured in a number of magazines like Southwest Art, Art of the West and American Artist.

Dean paints en plein air when possible, finishing larger works in the studio.