Smart Secrets of Great Paintings

This series explores history of art in a totally new way. Each film is a journey, an investigation and an adventure. The painting comes to life, as animation takes us to the heart of the canvass.

Painted only seven years after the July revolution of 1848, "L'atelier du peintre" by Gustave Courbet reflects his own vision of the society of the time; through a pronounced realism, the painter denounces the authoritarian power of Napoleon III.

A look at the history, technique and context of a painting "Bathers at Asnières" also known as "The Bathers" by Georges Seurat who completed the work at the age of 24 in a time of great social and economic change for the areas around the River Seine.

This series explores history of art in a totally new way. Each film is a journey, an investigation and an adventure. The painting comes to life, as animation takes us to the heart of the canvass.

A decade after the end of the Hundred Years' War, in Tours, where Charles VII had set up his court, Jean Fouquet produced a miniature inspired by the martyrdom of Saint Apolline, displaying a medieval universe of pain and violence, but with a distancing that already heralded the Renaissance.

In 1571, while the War of Religion is tearing France apart, François Clouet paints "A Lady in Her Bath". Through his technique and the choice of colors, he gives a peaceful image of his time. Official painter of Charles IX, Clouet sets lasting and drastic beauty standards...