This exhibition will examine the changing role of classical imagery in painting from the 17th to the 19th centuries, and also explain how these changes gradually produces realism. In the 17th century, Nicolas Poussin and Pierre Paul Rubens produced works that corresponded to the classicism of the French Academy of Fine Arts, although they presented these ancient subjects in very different ways. The predominance of drawing and planning in Poussin's work contrasts with the dynamic use of color in the works of Rubens. These two ways of approaching classical themes ideologically divided the Academy between the Rubenists and the Poussinists, who argued for more than a century over artistic approaches and techniques. The innovative and expressive works produced in the 18th century and beyond can be seen as the product of the Rubenists' triumph in this conflict. Following Rubens' example, British artist Joshua Reynolds used dynamic composition and color techniques that combined portraiture popular in England with the Grand Manner style that won favor with the Academy. Reynolds became the first president of Britain's Royal Academy and gained international fame for his work. Obtaining such an honor proved more difficult for artists such as Eugène Delacroix, who took a bolder approach to combining classical imagery with reality and was frequently rejected by the Academy for doing so. . This was also the case for Edourad Manet, whose scandalous work shocked spectators at the Salon des Refusés with its perceived immorality and its unpleasant appropriation of classical imagery. The exhibition will begin with a work by Poussin and another by Rubens, combined in an effort.. .... middle of paper ...... (1994): 86.Læssøe, Rolf. “Édouard Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass as a veiled allegory of painting. » Artibus et Historiae 26, no. 51 (2005): 195-220. Locke, Nancy. Manet and the family novel. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2001. Roberts, Warren. “Hedonism in French literature and painting of the 18th century. » Conference 30, no. 1 (1976): 42.Stokstad, Marylin and Michael Cothren. History of art: Art from the 14th to the 17th century. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2013. Stokstad, Marylin, and Michael Cothren. History of art: art from the 18th to the 21st century. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2013. Warner, Malcolm. “The Sources and Meaning of Reynolds’ “Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces.” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 15, no. 1 (1989): 6-19. Wiseman, Mary. “Gender symbols”. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56, no. 3 (1998):241.