Completed Écorché: A figure in the deluge

written by Allana Benham

I have finished the musculature of the upper torso and arms, and blocked in the masseter and temporalis muscles on the skull. This represents a completed figure. It is 22 inches in height.

I composed this figure from a variety of sources. The pose is loosely inspired by the figure of Gabriel in Pontormo's fresco of the Annunciation in Santa Felicita in Florence. This figure is swirling backward in a current, turning over his left shoulder. It represents an ecstatic state of levitation. I modeled the anatomy from a life-size skeleton, and developed the volumes of the musculature from photo and anatomical references.

Écorché: A figure in the deluge

written by Allana Benham
An écorché is a sculpture or drawing which depicts the flayed human figure for the purposes of anatomical study.

I am just a couple short weeks away from completing my most recent écorché sculpture of a floating male figure. The legs and torso are essentially complete; I am now adding the musculature of the arm, and I will work more on the skull. More images will follow as I finish this piece.

I began this sculpture while teaching my Ecorché sculpture class. First, we constructed our armatures and sculpted a skeleton in proportion. Then we added each muscle individually, arranged in groups, to represent the gesture of a pose. When complete, this écorché will contain more than 200 individual muscles. I will post images of our completed sculptures in the coming weeks.


For advanced students of anatomy, making an écorché sculpture offers the best way of appreciating the structure, volumes, and mechanisms of the body. By completing this work, the student is better prepared to continue learning from various sources, texts, and 2-dimensional images. This augments one's perception when drawing, painting, or sculpting the human body from life, and gives the artist the means to draw the human body accurately from imagination.

Below is a work-in-progress photo of one of my student's sculptures. She has achieved a very precise resolution of the muscular forms of her figure. We plan to make a larger-scale écorché of the head once this figure is complete.

Cast Painting Demonstrations

Eric Mannella and Allana Benham present their approach to Cast Painting using casts from Michelangelo's sculpture of David. This method is covered in detail in our Grisaille Painting course, the first course in oil painting at the Atelier. For the Atelier de Bresoles course description, click here.

Allana Benham's work-in-progress example of David's Eye:



Eric Mannella's work-in-progress example of David's Nose:


Both of these paintings were mid-way to completion after the third stage, seen above. To finish them, both artists refined edges, temperature shifts, transitions, and contrast to increase the illusion of depth of form.

An additional finished example is posted below: David's ear, painted by Eric Mannella.

Mid-19th Century Lithographs

Like the Julien lithographs in a previous post, the following lithographs were created by accomplished artists for the purposes of teaching. These portrait heads, hand and foot studies served as models of excellent draughtsmanship, to be copied accurately by students.

The following portraits are by Anton Maurin (1793-1860), made in 1839. Note the delicate use of hatching in light tones to model the forms of the face, and the variety of marks which indicate texture in the hair and clothing. Maurin's use of the full range of values, from the white of the paper to a rich dark black, challenges the student to achieve a powerful graphic statement with their chosen drawing media. After copying the expert use of tone in these examples, the student's eye would be more sensitive to the subtle variations in tone when working from the live model.


The following hand and foot studies were made by A. Fay, a German lithographer from the 19th century. These feature bold hatching and give a very different impression from the softness of Maurin and Julien.


These studies of noses are by Barbier, a French lithographer. These prints are from the collection of Craig Chivers.


Finally, here are a selection of landscape lithographs by Swiss artist Alexandre Calame (1810-1864). Here, Calame presents two lessons on trees and foliage, and one finished study. In addition to his lithographic works, Calame was also well established as a landscape painter. These are from the collection of Craig Chivers.

Bernard-Romain Julien, 1802-1871

written by Eric Mannella

Above lithographs collection of Atelier de Bresoles

Julien was a prominent French lithographer and painter from Bayonne. He illustrated a Cours de dessin which was used extensively to teach principles of drawing in mid-19th century France. His Cours preceeded that of Gérôme and Bargue (1868-70), and represents the height of achievement in sculptural rendering in lithography, just before the advent of photography led artists towards camera-conditioned rendering. His hatch marks echo the tool marks of Michelangelo, translating planar surfaces into sensitive passages of tone. These plates were intended to be copied by students, proceeding from the mise-en-traits, to a linear contour, to tonal rendering.

Julien was a student of A.J. Gros, who had studied with David, and through this lineage, is connected back to Louis Boullogne the elder (1609-1674), one of the original founding members of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in Paris in 1648.

These images are in the collection of the New York Public Library



The following lithographs are in the collection of Atelier de Bresoles

Artistic Lineage: Deane G. Keller

In an effort to understand the lineage of our own artistic experiences, and those we pass along to our students, we have been researching relationships from our teachers to their teachers over many generations. Here is a tree which traces our lineage through one of our teachers, Deane G. Keller, to the founding of the French Academy in 1648.

Eric Mannella (b. 1974)
and Allana Benham (b. 1975) studied with

Deane G. Keller (1940-2005)

• Deane G. Keller studied with Deane Keller Sr. (1901-1992)

... Deane G. Keller also studied with Nera Simi (1890-1987), and anatomy with David Rubins at the John Herron Art Institute from 1966 to 1968.

Deane Keller Sr. and Robert Beverly Hale (1901-1985) studied with George Bridgman (1864-1943)

Bridgman was a student of Gérôme (1824-1904) and Boulanger (1824-1888) in Paris


Gérôme was a student of Delaroche (1797-1856)

Delaroche and Bernard-Romain Julien (1802-1871) were students of Gros (1771-1835)


Gros was a pupil of David (1748-1825)

David studied with Vien (1716-1809)


Vien studied with François Boucher (1703-1770)


Boucher was a student of François LeMoyne (1688-1737)


LeMoyne was a pupil of Louis Galloche (1670-1761)


Galloche studied with Louis Boullogne II (1657-1733)


Louis Boullogne II studied with his father, Louis Boullogne the Elder (also known as Bon Boulloge, 1606 or 1609-1674). He participated in the decoration of the Louvre and Versailles, and was one of 14 founders of the French Academy in 1648. All of his 4 childern; 2 girls and 2 boys, were acclaimed painters.