Dolce Far Niente

In the late 1800s, costume paintings were quite the rage. One popular painter of the genre was Auguste Toulmouche (1829-1890), a Frenchman from a modest background although all his paintings contain sumptuous costumes and intricate detail. Toulmouche married in 1862; his new bride just so happened to be a cousin of Claude Monet. At the time, Monet's father was looking for someone to "supervise" Claude's art studies in Paris. Toulmouche had entered the studio of Charles Gleyre, a Swiss painter, at the age of 17; thus, when Monet arrived in Paris in November 1862, Toulmouche directed him to Gleyre's studio. Toulmouche told his new cousin, "He will teach you to do a picture." While Monet chafed under Gleyre's academic instruction, it was in Gleyre's studio that he met Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley, who became his close friends.