Tassaert may have caused many fans to flutter and cheeks to flush, but now we stand in awe of their great composition and daring of his erotic paintings
The pernicious addiction to alcohol and the unrelenting loss of vision dragged the talented artist Nicolas François Octave Tassaert away from the arts and into a listless life where the only respite was literature. Ultimately, he committed suicide in his modest home at Rue du Géorama in Paris. What truly led to his lack of recognition and society's repudiation was that the theme Tassaert explored the most in his paintings was eroticism. His paintings were certainly not rose tinted; he represented the life of the poor, dysfunctional families, dying mothers and children, or sick people. He was a painter and sculptor of works that were highly charged, depicting the carnal act, seduction, temptation, and sexual pleasure. He was the patron of lust in the art world par excellence.
While today Nicolas François is a well-loved painter, this Parisian artist was an outcast from the artistic circles of his time and the public spurned his creations. He carried in his blood generations of artists, and he was a pupil in the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris. With such a heavy burden on his shoulders, he was disappointed never to be awarded the acclaimed Prix de Rome nor the Legion of Honor. To make a living, he had to do historical, epic paintings and portraits.
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