Poste à Porvoir
Jeune fille allongée dans l'herbe avec son ombrelle, Repos dans le chemin par Joseph Johann Süss
Yves LE GUELLEC - Esquisse Barroque
YAKOVLEV, Alexander YAKOVLEV
Le Marché Biron
Document Actions
MOREAU Adrien MOREAU
1843-1946
The late 19th century saw a renewed interest in scenes of the bygone
days. Artists like Meissonier, Madou, Detti, Moreau, Hamza and Stone
were among its greatest proponents, and the detail and precision of
their works were admired by many collectors of the time. People began
to look back on the 17th & 18th centuries as an age of elegance, a
period in history when, as Meissonier put it men respected their own
persons. The graceful gesture, the harmonious attitude… was not a mere
pose.
The artiste Adrien MOREAU was a pupil of M. Pils.
Like
Van Dyck, the artist Moreau depicted his men as cavaliers, and gived to
his grandes dames as much refinement as grace. Moreau’s historical
genre was often translated into a display of elegance and refinement of
the upper class.
Biography: The artist Moreau was born in
Troyes on April 18, 1843. Despite being related to several artists, his
family had other aspirations for him besides becoming an artist.
He
soon left for Paris to pursue true artistic training in the tradition
of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts atelier system. He first worked under Léon
Cogniet, but one year later began studying with the great Academic
Realist painter Isidore Pils.
Moreau debuted at the Paris
Salon in 1868 with “Puis ce Prophète s’en alla et un lion le rencontra
et le tua”, a religious subject which placed him among the ranks of the
greatest painters of contemporary genre. He followed his debut the next
year with a neo-classical painting entitled “Néron chez les Belluaires”
(Nero at the house of the Belluaires).
Collectors from across the
globe vied for Moreau’s work and many of his important paintings were
acquired by the wealthy Americans of the time. Many of Moreau’s
paintings were reproduced in important art history books.
During
his lifetime the artist received commissions to illustrate several
works, including many reprinted works by French literary masters such
as Victor Hugo and especially Voltaire.