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Wargaming the Seven Years War with 40mm miniatures, done by: Johann-Peter Scheck and Anselm Scheck

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Les Baigneuses of the 18. century

























Today I present you a quite famous and oftenly found motive of the contemporary art of the 18. and 19. century: the motive of bathing women or nymphs. The idea is founded on the intention to built a normal pond, how we can find such in every Prussian and Silesian village of the 18. century
 - till today.

See this postcards I found by combing through Polish and German sites about East-Prussia:

Lake Schwentainen, Masuria, Poland;
source: Doliwa-Naturfoto.de

source: Doliwa-Naturfoto.de

pond in Mensguth Dorf, Ortelsburg district, former Prussia
source: www.Bildarchiv-Ostpreussen.de














































































But the object seemed to be too boring to be placed simply on the tabletop as a decorative element between the rural buildings around our battles. Having irregular troops like Cossacks and Prussian hussars and Jaegers, it could be a piquant detail to add some nude girls, having a bath in the pond.
If the Cossacks will harass them or the Prussians will defend them by time, we will see later.

This motive is also a theme in the classical art - nearly every painter used the motive of bathing nymphs in his work - it gives me also the excuse to be in a good society...  I risk to be spammed in google by showing naked bodies, but I hope, you will put your intellectual glasses on and interpretate my post as a contribution to an all-embracing knowledge of the life of the 18. century...
Thank you, gentlemen.

The figures are some of S+D 1/43 miniatures from UK, the ladies free of of clothes from the Spanish manufacturer El Viejo Dragon - a rare and excellent range of Roman Bath scenes. I gave them a pale skin and lighter, fair hair to match better in the Prussian-Polish context. That´s all. I forgot: It was also a nice occasion to experiment with the artificial water effect from NOCH, a sort of guck with a lot of options in modelling.




























































A nice couple of S+D Miniatures: girl pets a dachshund





























Paul Cézanne: les baigneuses

Pierre Auguste Renoir, Baigneuses


Pierre Auguste Renoir, Baigneuses 2
































Thanks to abdul666, who wrote me such a kind comment with this image linked, I put that here - it matches well with the theme. ..
source: http://p.joux.graphiste.free.fr/Histoire%20Web/18emeWeb/img18m/rgtBigorre.jpg

11 comments:

  1. Un article extraordinaire! Entre poésie, peinture, beauté, lumière magnifique...bravo, un EXCELLENT travail, j'adore!!

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    1. Merci Phil - assez d´exagérer! C´était un experiment au travail avec l´eau - peut-être je vais faire une rivière la prochaine fois. Mais merci pour tes mots chauds - je suis vraiment ravi!
      _Peter

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  2. The young ladies are enjoying better weather than us at the moment ! , excellent figures

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    Replies
    1. That´s true, but in bavaria we had some shiny days this week... but not be nude in nature.. Thanks for your comment, Mosstrooper!
      _Peter

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  3. love the bathing beauties - great work on the water

    -- Allan

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Allan - I am always inspired by your great sceneries!
      _Peter

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  4. Your dioramas are always marvels, but this one adds a 'note of tenderness in a brutish male world' -and you did a tremendous job on the transparencies, something you don't get an opportunity to do in your other dioramas!

    Little in the costumes specifies the 18th C. (!) but indeed the scene was a favorite of the period -and combines very well with soldiery in 'Lace Wars' uniforms.

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    1. Oh Abdul, thank you so much for your words - it´s such a joy to read. And thank you for the great image - I put it immediately above.
      _Peter

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  5. Fantastically beautiful work as always. Love the water and the skin. I plan eventually to do a Hussarette painting on this theme, but the ladies will have wet underclothes and lace dolmans and pelisses nearby. I have a lot of suitable photos of my model already but it will be a lot of work to prepare and execute. Thanks for the extra inspiration. Could I use the background buildings from your first photo of real locations please?
    Chris
    http://notjustoldschool.blogspot.co.uk/

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    Replies
    1. Dear Chris, firstly - thanks for your kind words! I adore your paintings and the specific theme of Hussarettes you do - very curious to get more info about it!
      Of course, you can use everything I have - for any purpose - feel free. The background is an arranged building on my tabletop with model trees; the sky is a montage. Just write me, if you need more.
      _Peter

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    2. Thanks Peter, you are very generous, I actually meant the Lake Schwenteinen photo. And thank you for your appreciation of my Hussarettes. I'm currently negotiating for the services of another beautiful model who might blow some life into the project. I have to justify the expenditure to my wife! The origin of this work was described on my first Hussarette blog post and expanded on in many since. Here is the link
      http://notjustoldschool.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/lady-hussars-anyone.html
      Just email me privately with what info you are specially curious about and I'm happy to discuss it.
      Chris

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