Atelier at the Academie Julian

Atelier at the Académie Julian, Paris

Caleb Arnold Slade

American (1882-1961)

Atelier At The Academie Julian, Paris (1905)

Oil on canvas

Alumni Annual Giving Program and Museum Purchase, 1976.1

Daylight filters into an art studio crowded with students studying from a live, nude model. At the time this was painted, men and women studying art were segregated into separate spaces, with the model being an exception to this rule. Slade captures a candid glimpse at academic painting, carefully rendering the wooden easels, stools, paintbrushes and palettes that assist the artist in mastering the human form. 
 
The word atelier, or artist’s teaching studio, derives from the Old French term astelle, meaning

“splinter of wood.”