Brad Allan

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The art of Toulouse-Lautrec

Apr 14, 2024 | thegoodlifefrance.com | Brad Allan |In Melbourne |Janine Marsh

Being born into the French aristocracy in 1864, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec could have luxuriated in a life of country comforts at the family chateau in Albi, in the idyllic south-west. Instead, he immersed himself in the seedy demi-monde of gritty Montmartre, producing artworks of astonishing originality, perception and intensity that reflected the lives of the outcasts and bohemians he chose to live among.
French artist Jacques Tissot

Mar 14, 2024 | thegoodlifefrance.com | Brad Allan |In Melbourne

In recent years, the West has been gripped with a heated debate about ‘cultural appropriation’ – the cross-cultural adoption and expression of original stylings. It’s a vexed issue today, but in the European-centric world of the late 1800s, cross-cultural interplay, inspiration, referencing, homage, borrowing or theft (choose your own term) raised no critical concerns whatsoever.
French painter Maximilien Luce - The Good Life France

Feb 4, 2024 | thegoodlifefrance.com | Brad Allan |In Melbourne |Janine Marsh

Some gifted artists are justifiably garlanded with honours for their work, while others of comparable talent might be shunned by polite society for being ‘difficult’ in their subject matter and beliefs. The French painter, Maximilien Luce, placed himself defiantly the outcast camp during the late 1800s. Growing up in working-class Montparnasse, Luce became an ‘anarcho-socialist’ in political outlook.
Monet's Ice Floes on the Seine at Bougival - The Good Life France

Nov 20, 2023 | thegoodlifefrance.com | Brad Allan |In Melbourne

Monet’s painting of Ice Floes on the Seine at Bougival is a masterpiece in 50 shades of grey…It’s a delicious irony when an insult can be adopted as a badge of honour. It completely confounds the intention of the people who hurled the insult, often to their own intensified fury. It worked when the Nazis called the dug-in Australian troops in North Africa the Rats of Tobruk. The Aussies readily adopted the name amid great hilarity.
The molten lead-filled gargoyles of Reims

Oct 8, 2023 | thegoodlifefrance.com | Brad Allan |In Melbourne |Janine Marsh

Some artworks or artefacts can take you by surprise and leave you jaw-droppingly stunned. That is to say, you might take a passing glance at something that appears mildly interesting and assume that you have it more-or-less figured out. For instance, the gargoyles of Reims with their molten-lead filled mouths…So, you find yourself in the French city of Reims.
The art of Felix Vallotton

Oct 8, 2023 | thegoodlifefrance.com | Brad Allan |In Melbourne |Janine Marsh

Some of the greatest works of our culture, including those from literature and painting, can inspire our admiration, but also leave us feeling a sense of mystery and ambiguity about their underlying meanings. For instance, despite their incisive insights into human nature, what are we to finally make of Shakespeare’s Macbeth or Hamlet?
French artist Émile Friant

Aug 24, 2023 | thegoodlifefrance.com | Brad Allan |In Melbourne |Janine Marsh

Émile Friant is a French artist whose name is little known today. Yet he was a painter of immense and widely acclaimed talent in his own era, being awarded the highly prestigious Legion of Honour when he was just 25 years old in 1888. Friant’s painting from that year, Les Amoureux (or The Lovers), is a characteristic expression of his immense talent.
The art of Eugène Carrière

Jul 29, 2023 | thegoodlifefrance.com | Brad Allan |In Melbourne

The French artist, Eugène Carrière, was a remarkable painter who worked almost exclusively in a colour palette of browns and deep yellows, using quick, semi-dry brush strokes to create his typical ghostly effects. Carrière’s name is little known now, but at his peak around 1900 he was one of the most celebrated figures in French culture.
Five Ways Higher Education Can Leverage Generative AI

Jun 30, 2023 | bcg.com | Brad Allan

Recent advancements in generative AI (GenAI) and the rise of ChatGPT, Bard, and many other models have catalyzed a new wave of interest in the field of artificial intelligence and its potential impact on a variety of sectors. Few will be more impacted than higher education, with its focus on research and the creation and transmission of knowledge and skills.
Raft of the Medusa, Louvre Museum

Jun 7, 2023 | thegoodlifefrance.com | Brad Allan |In Melbourne

The French masterpiece The Raft of the Medusa is an emotionally wrenching painting that depicts a notorious real-life human tragedy: the appalling suffering of people set adrift at sea on a ramshackle raft. In 1816, a wooden French ship, the Medusa, ran aground and sank 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of Africa. As the 400 panicked passengers and crew scrambled into lifeboats, it became horribly clear that not all people could be accommodated.