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.

An important but often overlooked aspect of creating a finished painting or drawing is the application of a signature by the artist.

Simultaneously claiming authorship and declaring the work finished, signatures are a source of pride to some artists, and a necessary chore to others.

Prized by collectors, to whom attribution is often more important than the actual character of the work when considering art as a commodity, signatures are both boon and bane to those who must establish attribution of historical works, and have to deal with illegible, confusing and often forged signatures and marks.

Throughout history artists have signed their work in any number of ways, often with cryptic marks or monograms, as much a design element as a recognizable mark of the artist’s name.

I’m often admired the monograms of artists like Albrecht Durer (above, bottom left) and Howard Pyle (bottom right), which seem “right” and are pleasing designs in themselves.

There is a nice feature on the ArtArchive on Artist Monograms, and Artist Signatures (I’ve had to pop these out of context to link to them because the site is in frames for some unknown reason.)

Viewing is slightly awkward, in that the marks and signatures are arranged on sheets in groups, on a separate page from the list of names, and associated by number. Click on the linked name ranges to open the pages with the graphics (maybe use the contextual menu in your browser to open them in a separate window so you can have them side by side).

The images at top show a page monograms and one of signatures from the ArtArchive site.

There is also another site devoted to Artist Signatures that is mostly of interest to serious collectors who are willing to pay a fee for full access. For casual browsers, the signatures section is pointless, but the monograms section can be browsed by first letter just to see some of the variety (particularly if you’re trying to design your own artist’s monogram). Listings of the artist name associated with the monograms, however, are behind the paywall.

The Artist Signatures site is by John Castagno, author of several of the most widely recognized authoritative books on the subject, beginning with Artists’ Monograms and Indiscernible Signatures, and continuing with a series (all of which are on the expensive side, but presumably valuable for collectors and dealers).