Prudhon: His Palette E-Book

Arron Adams

• Herausgeber: Arron Adams
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon was a French Romantic painter and draughtsman best known for his allegorical paintings and portraits. "Prud'hon's true genius lay in allegory; this is his empire and his true domain," Eugène Delacroix later wrote. His artistic style contrasted starkly with the dominant version of Neoclassicism under Jacques-Louis David. Prud'hon's paintings were based on classical texts and ancient prototypes, but his dreaminess and melancholy were more akin to Romanticism. Prud'hon was at times clearly influenced by Neo-classicism, at other times by Romanticism. Appreciated by other artists and writers like Stendhal, Delacroix, Millet and Baudelaire for his chiaroscuro and convincing realism, he is probably most famous for his Crucifixion (1822), which he painted for St. Etienne's Cathedral in Metz. The young Théodore Géricault had painted copies of work by Prud'hon, whose "thunderously tragic pictures" include his masterpiece, Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime.

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Prudhon

His Palette

By Arron Adams

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Prudhon: His Palette

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Copyright © 2016 by Arron Adams

Foreword

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758 – 1823) was a French Romantic painter and draughtsman best known for his allegorical paintings and portraits. Prud'hon's artistic style contrasted starkly with the dominant version of Neoclassicism under Jacques-Louis David. Prud'hon's paintings were based on classical texts and ancient prototypes, but his dreaminess and melancholy were more akin to Romanticism. His drawings, often black chalk on blue paper, were widely admired.

Born the tenth son of a stonecutter in Burgundy, Pierre Prudon transformed both halves of his name and became Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, as if to relate himself to Peter Paul Rubens and to evoke landed gentry. He began studying painting in Dijon at age sixteen. Prud'hon arrived in Paris in 1780, but his experience in Italy from 1784 to 1787, when he absorbed the softness and sensuality of Correggio's works and Leonardo da Vinci's sfumato, gave his art its distinctive style.

Upon his return to Paris, Prud'hon enthusiastically supported the French Revolution. In 1801 Napoleon favored him with commissions for portraits, ceiling decorations, and allegorical paintings. His painting of Josephine portrays her, not as an Empress but as a lovely attractive woman which led some to think that he might have been in love with her. After the divorce of Napoleon and Josephine, he was also employed by Napoleon's second wife Marie-Louise.

In 1816 Prud'hon gained membership in the Institute de France. An ill-fated love affair with a pupil and collaborator who committed suicide in his studio caused Prud'hon's depression and subsequent death.

Paintings

Dr. Thomas Dagoumer, 1819, oil on canvas

This intimate portrait of the artist’s lifelong friend and doctor, Thomas Dagoumer (1762–1833/35), shows the sitter holding a quill pen and folded piece of paper, allusions to his accomplishments as an author of medical tracts. Prud’hon and Dagoumer were first introduced in Rome, where they both studied from 1784 to 1788. Prud’hon had won the Prix de Rome in painting from the FrenchAcademy in Dijon, and Dagoumer was pursuing a career as an architect. Their friendship continued throughout their lifetimes, and this painting from four years before Prud’hon’s death was one of the last works the artist exhibited at the Salon, to critical acclaim. The subtle and arresting effects of lightthroughout the composition, reinforced by the white highlights on the edges of Dagoumer’s cravat and shirt collar and on the piece of paper, suggest a private encounter between viewer and sitter, a feature for which Prud’hon’s portraits were often celebrated.

Detail

Detail

Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime, about 1805 – 1806, oil on canvas