L'avènement De Louis-Philippe 1837

Charles-Philippe Lariviere celebrated the rise of Louis-Philippe with oil on canvas. Look closely, and you'll see the materiality of paint and the artist’s mark is everywhere. This isn’t about slick illusionism; it’s about putting pigment to work. The texture varies from the smooth handling of Louis-Philippe’s face to the frenetic, gestural flags. Consider how the painting was made, layer upon layer, stroke upon stroke. It’s a relatively fast process, not like the laborious tapestries that would have commemorated royalty in centuries past. This is a newly efficient kind of image-making, meant for a middle class audience hungry for political theater. Lariviere’s brushwork speaks of labor, politics, and consumption, all mixed together. Recognizing the crucial role of materials and making expands our understanding, and also challenges conventional boundaries between art and craft.