About

Bargue Plate Supply's mission is to explore and promote the study of Classical Realism. It intends to be a resource for helping aspiring students and drawing instructors get started. Future plans include helping students and instructors share and connect over their progress, experiences, and learnings.

The project was conceived in tandem with a post-covid personal challenge to draw the first 70 Bargue plates of Part I: the Models after Casts (Modèles d'après la bosse), at their original 18" x 24" size. This project is me: procrastinating at my best. 

I discovered the story of Charles Bargue 1868 drawing course and his lithographs, in Gerald M. Ackerman's wonderful Charles Bargue's Drawing Course textbook. In it Ackerman compiles high-quality images drawn from the surviving sets held by the Goupil Museum in Bordaeux, and presents them as models for students to copy as Bargue intended.

Presented at 6.75" x 9", the museum generously extended their permission "for the plates to be enlarged by laser printers for educational purposes only -- that is, as models for copying in classrooms or private ateliers or studios". Lower-quality scans of these images exist elsewhere online to download and print yourself, however those scans did not enlarge well.

Irrespective, given their age the complete works of Charles Bargue are legally established to be in the public domain. 

My intention is to share the work I have already done with others in the community. On this site you will find high-quality full-color scans that I scanned, digitally color corrected, cropped, and upsampled myself. They are organized to have printed, or for you to download and print yourself.

 

Our prints are color laser printed in semi-gloss on sustainably-sourced, FSC-certified 100-year archival and acid-free heavy weight 80lb or 216 gsm coated cover card stock paper, then shipped within 5-7 days. I found their durable semi-gloss finish perfect for annotating with construction lines with erasable color pencil.

Artists Drawing and Painting in a Studio. Pier Francesco Mola. 1612–66
Met Open Access Policy: Public Domain