Master Copies by Atelier de Bresoles Instructors

Making a copy of a painting that you admire is a wonderful way to learn about another artist, and to develop skills and individuality as a painter. The following paintings were made by Atelier instructors Eric Mannella, or Allana Benham.

Eric Mannella, after Caravaggio's 'Torment of Christ' of 1602 / 1604.

Above, Eric Mannella's copy of Alma-Tadema's painting, 'Ask me no more.' from 1906.


Allana Benham, after a portrait of an unidentified woman by William Owen Harling in 1874.


Above, Allana Benham's copy of Van Dyck's Portrait of Cornelius van der Geest, 1620.



and below, Allana Benham's copy of Antoine Guillemet's (1841-1918) Le Moulin


Much can be learned about mixing colour, paint application, compositional choices, and the personal art-making process in making a copy of a painting that moves you.

Drawing by P. Chameron, student of Gerome

I recently found this cast drawing of a young flute player from the mid-1880's by Paul Chameron (1865-1918). This drawing was likely done while Chameron was a student in Gerome's private atelier. However, it is possible this drawing was executed while Chameron studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Gerome's tutelage. It is in charcoal on off-white paper, 18x24 inches, with only the white of the paper used to represent the most intense illumination.

Chameron's approach is typical of late-19th century French academic drawing. He finished the face and most of the figure to a very high degree; the tonal gradations are very sensitive, giving the drawing a strong optical effect. At the same time, the shadows are relatively uniform in tone, and the deep background gives a brilliant quality to the light effect.

In contrast to the degree of finish in the face, the feet and lower legs are less developed. Here we see Chameron's preliminary approach, with masses of tones in the light and loose shapes to indicate the structure of the ankle, the arch of the foot, etc.

Chameron tried for the Prix de Rome in 1886. After his study in Paris, he returned to his hometown of St. Maur and began teaching drawing and painting there. His daughter Andree also became a painter.

I was inspired to make the drawing below following Chameron's example:

I used Fabriano Roma paper with vine and compressed charcoal. I utilized the tone of the paper to represent the highest lights in the figure, and carefully applied the tone to represent a range of half-tones in the light, while keeping the shadows more uniform in tone, following Chameron's, and hence Gerome's method. It took me approximately 9 hours to finish the drawing to this degree.

The sculpture is an ecorche figure by Eugene Caudron (1818-1865), called l'Ecorche combattant, from 1845. Caudron conceived of this figure as an instructive model for sculptors and it became very influential as an example of a dynamic composition within the figure. It has been reproduced in many academic drawings, paintings, and instructional lithographs of the 19th century.

Female Écorché Head

written by Allana Benham

Here is a new écorché sculpture I am currently working on. This is a female head with a neutral expression. I have chosen to develop the bone structure of the skull, cervical spine, and first two ribs to emphasize the forms and proportions of the skull, the facial features, and the neck. This sculpture is 12 inches tall, modeled in plasteline on a metal armature.

The sculpture progresses in finish; the photos above are from an early stage of development of the skeletal structure. Upon this bone structure, I added the deep layers of facial musculature, followed by superficial facial muscles on the right side only.

Finally, I developed the superficial musculature on the left side of the neck, leaving the intermediate layer exposed on the right.

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.

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.