Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA FRS FRSA (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769. BiographyJoshua Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723, the third son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, master of the Plympton Free Grammar School in the town. His father had been a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, but did not send any of his sons to the university. One of his sisters was Mary Palmer (1716–1794), seven years his senior, author of Devonshire Dialogue, whose fondness for drawing is said to have had much influence on him when a boy. In 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshua's pupilage, and nine years later advanced money for his expenses in Italy. As a boy, he came under the influence of Zachariah Mudge, whose Platonistic philosophy stayed with him all his life. The work that came to have the most influential impact on Reynolds was Jonathan Richardson's An Essay on the Theory of Painting (1715). Reynolds' annotated copy was lost for nearly two hundred years until it appeared in a Cambridge bookshop, inscribed with the signature ‘J. Reynolds Pictor’, and is now in the collection of the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Having shown an early interest in art, Reynolds was apprenticed in 1740 to the fashionable London portrait painter Thomas Hudson, who had been born in Devon. Hudson had a collection of Old Master drawings, including some by Guercino, of which Reynolds made copies. Although apprenticed to Hudson for four years, Reynolds remained with him only until summer 1743. In 1749, Reynolds went to Rome, Italy, where he spent two years, studying the Old Masters and acquiring a taste for the "Grand Style". While in Rome he suffered a severe cold, which left him partially deaf, and, as a result, he began to carry a small ear trumpet with which he is often pictured. Reynolds travelled homeward overland via Florence, Bologna, Venice, and Paris. Following his arrival in England in October 1752, Reynolds spent three months in Devon, before establishing himself in London, where he remained for the rest of his life. He achieved success rapidly, and was extremely prolific. Lord Edgecumbe recommended the Duke of Devonshire and Duke of Grafton to sit for him, and other peers followed, including the Duke of Cumberland, third son of George II. In 1760 Reynolds moved into a large house, with space to show his works and accommodate his assistants, on the west side of Leicester Fields (now Leicester Square). Alongside ambitious full-length portraits, Reynolds painted large numbers of smaller works. In the late 1750s, at the height of the social season, he received five or six sitters a day, each for an hour. Reynolds often adapted the poses of his subjects from the works of earlier artists. By 1761 Reynolds could command a fee of 80 guineas for a full-length portrait; in 1764 he was paid 100 guineas for a portrait of Lord Burghersh. The clothing of Reynolds' sitters was usually painted by either one of his pupils, his studio assistant Giuseppe Marchi, or the specialist drapery painter Peter Toms. Lay figures were used to model the clothes. Reynolds also was recognized for his portraits of children. He emphasized the innocence and natural grace of children when depicting them. His 1788 portrait, Age of Innocence(it will become the title of Edith Wharthon's book Age of Innocence published in 1920), is his best known character study of a child. The subject of the painting is not known, although conjecture includes Theophila Gwatkin, his great niece, and Lady Anne Spencer, the youngest daughter of the fourth Duke of Marlborough. Although not known principally for his landscapes, Reynolds did paint in this genre. He had an excellent vantage from his house, Wick House, on Richmond Hill, and painted the view in about 1780. Reynolds worked long hours in his studio, rarely taking a holiday. He was gregarious and keenly intellectual, with many friends from London's intelligentsia, numbered amongst whom were Dr Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, Giuseppe Baretti, Henry Thrale, David Garrick, and artist Angelica Kauffman. Because of his popularity as a portrait painter, Reynolds enjoyed constant interaction with the wealthy and famous men and women of the day, and it was he who brought together the figures of "The" Club. It was founded in 1764 and met in a suite of rooms on the first floor of the Turks Head at 9 Gerrard Street, now marked by a plaque. Original members included Burke, Bennet Langton, Topham Beauclerk, Goldsmith, Anthony Chamier, Thomas Hawkins, and Nugent, to be joined by Garrick, Boswell, and Sheridan. In ten years the membership had risen to 35. The Club met every Monday evening for supper and conversation and continued into the early hours of Tuesday morning. In later years, it met fortnightly during Parliamentary sessions. Reynolds was one of the earliest members of the Royal Society of Arts, helped found the Society of Artists of Great Britain, and in 1768 became the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, a position he was to hold until his death. In 1769, he was knighted by George III, only the second artist to be so honoured. His Discourses, a series of lectures delivered at the Academy between 1769 and 1790, are remembered for their sensitivity and perception. In one lecture he expressed the opinion that "invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory." Waddesdon manor was amongst the historic houses that supported Sir Joshua Reynolds's influence at the academy, acknowledging how: "[He] transformed British painting with portraits and subject pictures that engaged their audience's knowledge, imagination, memory and emotions... As an eloquent teacher and art theorist, he used his role at the head of the Royal Academy to raise the status of art and artists of Britain. " On 10 August 1784 Allan Ramsay died and the office of Principal Painter in Ordinary to King George III became vacant. Thomas Gainsborough felt that he had a good chance of securing it, but Joshua Reynolds felt he deserved it and threatened to resign the presidency of the Royal Academy if he did not receive it. Reynolds noted in his pocket book: "Sept. 1, 2½, to attend at the Lord Chancellor's Office to be sworn in painter to the King". It did not make Reynolds happy, however, as he wrote to Boswell: "If I had known what a shabby miserable place it is, I would not have asked for it; besides as things have turned out I think a certain person is not worth speaking to, nor speaking of", presumably meaning the king. Reynolds wrote to Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St Asaph, a few weeks later: "Your Lordship congratulation on my succeeding Mr. Ramsay I take very kindly, but it is a most miserable office, it is reduced from two hundred to thirty-eight pounds per annum, the Kings Rat catcher I believe is a better place, and I am to be paid only a fourth part of what I have from other people, so that the Portraits of their Majesties are not likely to be better done now, than they used to be, I should be ruined if I was to paint them myself". In 1789, Reynolds lost the sight of his left eye, which forced him into retirement. In 1791 James Boswell dedicated his Life of Samuel Johnson to Reynolds. In June 1791 Reynolds suffered from a swelling over his left eye and had to be purged by a surgeon. In October he was too ill to take the president's chair. On 5 November Reynolds, fearing he might not have an opportunity to write a will, wrote a memorandum intended to be his last will and testament, with Edmund Burke, Edmond Malone, and Philip Metcalfe named as executors. On New Year's Day 1792 Reynolds became "seized with sickness" and from that point could not keep down food. Reynolds died on 23 February 1792 at his house in Leicester Fields in London between eight and nine in the evening. Edmund Burke was present on the night Reynolds died, and was moved within hours to write a eulogy of Reynolds starting with the following sentiments: "Sir Joshua Reynolds was on very many accounts one of the most memorable men of his Time. He was the first Englishman who added the praise of the elegant Arts to the other Glories of his Country. In Taste, in grace, in facility, in happy invention, and in the richness and Harmony of colouring, he was equal to the great masters of the renowned Ages." Burke's tribute was well received and one journalist called it "the eulogium of Apelles pronounced by Pericles". Reynolds was buried at St Paul's Cathedral. In 1903, a statue, by Alfred Drury, was erected in his honour in Annenberg Courtyard of Burlington House, home of the Royal Academy. Around the statue are fountains and lights, installed in 2000, arranged in the pattern of a star chart at midnight on the night of Reynolds' birth. The planets are marked by granite discs, and the Moon by a water recess. The Royal Academy of Art in London celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2018, since its opening in 1768. This became an impetus for galleries and museums across the UK to celebrate "the making, debating and exhibiting art at the Royal Academy".
0 Comments
Jeanne Paquin(23 June 1869–28 August 1936) was a leading French fashion designer, known for her resolutely modern and innovative designs. She was the first major female couturier and one of the pioneers of the modern fashion business. Jeanne Paquin, née Jeanne Beckers le 23 juin 1869 à L'Île-Saint-Denis et décédée le 28 août 1936 à Paris 7e, est une grande couturière française. Elle est l'une des premières à avoir acquis une renommée internationale, à la fin du xixe siècle. BiographyJeanne Paquin was born Jeanne Marie Charlotte Beckers in 1869. Her father was a physician. She was one of five children. Sent out to work as a young teenager, Jeanne trained as a dressmaker at Rouff (a Paris couture house established in 1884 and located on Boulevard Haussmann). She quickly rose through to ranks becoming première, in charge of the atelier. In 1891, Jeanne Marie Charlotte Beckers married Isidore René Jacob, who was also known as Paquin. Isidore owned Paquin Lalanne et cie, a couture house which had grown out of a menswear shop in the 1840s. The couple renamed the company Paquin and set about building the business. In 1891, Jeanne and Isidore Paquin opened their Maison de Couture at 3 Rue de la Paix in Paris, next to the celebrated House of Worth. Jeanne was in charge of design, while Isidore ran the business. Initially, Jeanne favored the pastels in fashion at the time. Eventually, she moved on to stronger colors like black and her signature red. Black had been traditionally the color of mourning. Jeanne made the color fashionable by blending it with vividly colorful linings and embroidered trim. Jeanne Paquin was the first couturier to send models dressed in her apparel to public events such operas and horse races for publicity. Paquin also frequently collaborated with the illustrators and architects such as Léon Bakst, George Barbier, Robert Mallet-Stevens, and Louis Süe. She was also known to collaborate with the theatre, in a time when other houses rejected collaboration. In 1913, a New York Times reporter described Jeanne as "the most commercial artist alive". A London branch of The House of Paquin was opened in 1896 and the business became a limited company the same year. This shop employed a young Madeleine Vionnet. The company later expanded with shops in Buenos Aires and Madrid. In 1900, Jeanne was instrumental in organizing the Universal Exhibition and she was elected president of the Fashion Section. Her designs were featured prominently at the Exhibition and Jeanne created a mannequin of herself for display. Isidore Paquin died in 1907 at the age of 45, leaving Jeanne a widow at 38. Over 2,000 people attended Isidore's funeral. After Isidore's death, Jeanne dressed mostly in black and white. In 1912, Jeanne and her half-brother opened a furrier, Paquin-Joire, on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The same year, Jeanne signed an exclusive illustration contract with La Gazette du Bon Ton, which featured six other leading Paris designers of the day – Louise Chéruit, Georges Doeuillet, Jacques Doucet, Paul Poiret, Redfern & Sons, and the House of Worth. In 1913, Jeanne accepted France's prestigious Legion d’Honneur in recognition of her economic contributions to the country – the first woman designer to receive the honor. A year later, Jeanne toured the United States. For five dollars, attendees saw The House of Paquin's latest designs. Despite the high ticket price, the tour sold out. During World War I, Jeanne served as president of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture. She was the first woman to serve as president of an employers syndicate in France. At its height, the House of Paquin was so well known that Edith Wharton mentioned the company by name in The House of Mirth. At a time when couture houses employed 50 to 400 workers, the House of Paquin employed up to 2,000 people at its apex. The Queens of Spain, Belgium, and Portugal were all customers of Paquin. So were courtesans such as La Belle Otero and Liane de Pougy. When Jeanne Paquin retired in 1920, she passed responsibility to her assistant Madeleine Wallis. Wallis remained as house designer for Paquin until 1936, the same year that Jeanne Paquin died. Between 1936 and 1941, the Spanish designer Ana de Pombo, Wallis's assistant, was house designer. In 1941, de Pombo left, and her assistant, Antonio del Castillo (1908–1984) took over as head designer. In 1945 del Castillo left Paquin to become a designer for Elizabeth Arden, and would later become head designer for the house of Lanvin. He was succeeded by Colette Massignac, who was tasked with the challenge of keeping Paquin going during the post-War years, when new designers such as Christian Dior were receiving greater publicity and attention. In 1949, the Basque designer Lou Claverie became head designer at Paquin, until 1953, when he was succeeded by a young American designer, Alan Graham. However, Graham's understated designs failed to reinvigorate the brand of Paquin, and the Paris house closed on 1 July 1956. BiographieNée à L'Île-Saint-Denis, Jeanne Beckers commence sa formation de modeliste pour faire son apprentissage. En 1891, après son mariage avec Isidore Jacob, dit Paquin, elle ouvre sa propre maison de couture à Paris, 3, rue de la Paix. Ses robes du soir aux motifs « xviiie siècle », ses modèles ornés de fourrure ou de dentelle, lui assurent une grande notoriété. Femme d’affaires avisée, elle est l’une des premières à pressentir l’intérêt des techniques de promotion, n’hésitant pas à apparaître entourée de ses mannequins lors de soirées à l'opéra Garnier ou encore lors des jours de grands prix équestres, et à organiser de véritables défilés de mode pour promouvoir ses nouveaux modèles. Elle préside la section Modes de l'Exposition universelle de 1900. Dans son stand, elle se fait représenter par un mannequin de cire vêtu d'un déshabillé brodé de roses d'or. Associée à des partenaires britanniques, Jeanne Paquin transfère, en 1896, son siège à Londres, au 39 Dover Street, tout en gardant sa succursale de Paris. En 1912, elle ouvre à New York, au 398 de la Cinquième Avenue, une boutique consacrée à la fourrure, qu’elle confie à son demi-frère, Henri Joire et dont l'agencement est réalisé par Robert Mallet-Stevens. La même année elle fait réaliser une villa au 33, rue du Mont-Valérien à Saint-Cloud (alors en Seine-et-Oise, aujourd'hui dans les Hauts-de-Seine) par l'architecte décorateur Louis Süe. Peu de temps après, deux nouvelles succursales voient le jour à Madrid et à Buenos Aires. Elle est la première grande couturière à recevoir, en 1913, la croix de la Légion d'honneur. Si l’inspiration de Jeanne Paquin puise largement dans le passé, elle sait également s’adapter aux évolutions de l’époque, proposant un modèle de tailleur adapté à la « civilisation du métro » ou, à la veille de la Première Guerre mondiale, une robe intermédiaire entre le tailleur et le costume. Son esprit résolument moderne s’exprime encore dans sa collaboration avec Léon Bakst pour la création de costumes de théâtre. Présidente de la Chambre syndicale de la couture de 1917 à 1919, Jeanne Paquin se retire en 1920, laissant l’administration de la maison à Henri Joire, et la direction artistique à Madeleine Wallis. Ana de Pombo la remplace en 1936, année de la mort de Jeanne Paquin, puis cède la place en 1942 à Antonio Canovas del Castillo. La direction de la maison revient ensuite à Colette Massignac, puis à Lou Claverie, qui sauront adapter le style des collections au New Look mis à la mode par Christian Dior. En 1956, la maison Paquin, essuyant de graves difficultés financières, cessera son activité. La « maison Paquin » est immortalisée par la chanson de Léo Lelièvre, La Biaiseuse en 1912 (reprise notamment par Annie Cordy et Marie-Paule Belle) : « Je suis biaiseuse chez Paquin... ».
La couturière se fait construire une villa à Deauville en 1909 : le premier projet, demandé à Robert Mallet-Stevens, semblant ne pas avoir abouti, c'est finalement l'architecte Auguste Bluysen qui est retenu. Au xxie siècle, la villa est baptisée Les Abeilles. Jacques Doucet (19 February 1853–30 October 1929) was a French fashion designer and art collector. He is known for his elegant dresses, made with flimsy translucent materials in superimposing pastel colors. Jacques Doucet, né le 19 février 1853 à Paris et mort le 30 octobre 1929 à Neuilly-sur-Seine, est un grand couturier, collectionneur et mécène français, personnalité de la vie artistique et littéraire parisienne des années 1880-1920. BiographyJacques Doucet was born in Paris in 1853 to a prosperous family whose lingerie and linens business, Doucet Lingerie, had flourished in the Rue de la Paix since 1816. In 1871, Doucet opened a salon selling ladies' apparel. An enthusiastic collector of eighteenth-century furniture, objets d'art, paintings, and sculptures, many of his gowns were strongly influenced by this opulent era. Beginning in 1912, the fashions of Jacques Doucet were illustrated in the fashion magazine La Gazette du Bon Ton with six other leading Paris designers of the day – Louise Chéruit, Georges Doeuillet, Jeanne Paquin, Paul Poiret, Redfern & Sons, and the House of Charles Worth. His most original designs were those he created for actresses of the time. Cécile Sorel, Rejane and Sarah Bernhardt (for whom he designed her famous white costume in L'Aiglon) all often wore his outfits, both on and off the stage. For the aforementioned actresses he reserved a particular style, one which consisted of frills, sinuous curving lines and lace ruffles the colors of faded flowers. Doucet was a designer of taste and discrimination who valued dignity and luxury above novelty and practicality, and gradually faded from popularity during the 1920s. A collector of art and literature throughout his life, by the time of his death he had a collection of Post-Impressionist and Cubist paintings, including Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which he bought direct from Picasso's studio, as well as two libraries' both of which he left to the French nation. Doucet donated his collection of art books and research to the University of Paris in 1917, transferred to the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art in 2003 and, at his death in 1929, his collection of manuscripts by contemporary writers for which the University created in his honour the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques-Doucet. Francois Chapon wrote a book titled C'etait Jacques Doucet about the life and work of the fashion designer. Jacques Doucet owned a hôtel particulier, rue Saint-James, Neuilly-sur-Seine.which was designed by the architect Paul Ruaud. Several years after World War I, in 1927, Cubists Joseph Csaky, Jacques Lipchitz, Louis Marcoussis, Henri Laurens, the sculptor Gustave Miklos, and others collaborated in the decoration. Laurens designed the fountain, Csaky designed Doucet's staircase, Lipchitz made the fireplace mantel and Marcoussis created a Cubist rug. BiographiePropriétaire d’un magasin hérité de sa mère, rue de la Paix, Jacques Doucet fonde à Paris une des premières maisons de haute couture. Sa riche clientèle d’actrices et de femmes du monde — Réjane, Sarah Bernhardt, Liane de Pougy, la Belle Otéro — lui assure une fortune et lui permet de satisfaire ses passions d’amateur d’art et de bibliophile. Il forma Paul Poiret (1898-1901) et eut Madeleine Vionnet parmi ses assistantes. En 1925, le financier Georges Aubert prend le contrôle de la maison Doucet et provoque un rapprochement avec la maison de Georges Dœuillet. Après la crise de 1929, la nouvelle société Dœuillet-Doucet perdure jusqu'en 1937. Enrichi par son activité de couturier, Jacques Doucet pose les premières pierres d'une importante collection d'objets d'art consacrée au xviiie siècle. Il rassemble des tableaux, dessins, sculptures, œuvres d'ébénisterie et de marqueterie, des estampes et des livres. Sa collection, qui réunit des pièces de provenance prestigieuse, est ouverte aux amateurs et chercheurs qui en font la demande. Parmi les pièces remarquables, on compte les Bulles de Savon de Chardin. En 1912, il vend une grande partie de cette première collection, à la suite de la mort tragique de la femme qu'il aimait en secret et à laquelle il destinait cet ensemble1. La vente publique, qui fait événement, engendre 13 884 460 francs d’adjudications, ce qui en fait la vente la plus chère de son temps. Outre les prix atteints, cette vente est remarquable en ce qu'elle donne lieu à un catalogue de vente particulièrement documenté, illustré et investi d'une dimension scientifique : il a été rédigé par des spécialistes, historiens de l'art et conservateurs de musée2. Une partie importante de la collection d'art du couturier est présentée en permanence au Musée Angladon-Collection Jacques Doucet à Avignon, créé par les héritiers de Doucet. En 1912, il vend une grande partie de cette première collection, à la suite de la mort tragique de la femme qu'il aimait en secret et à laquelle il destinait cet ensemble. La vente publique, qui fait événement, engendre 13 884 460 francs d’adjudications, ce qui en fait la vente la plus chère de son temps. Outre les prix atteints, cette vente est remarquable en ce qu'elle donne lieu à un catalogue de vente particulièrement documenté, illustré et investi d'une dimension scientifique : il a été rédigé par des spécialistes, historiens de l'art et conservateurs de musée. Une partie importante de la collection d'art du couturier est présentée en permanence au Musée Angladon-Collection Jacques Doucet à Avignon, créé par les héritiers de Doucet. Conseillé par Henri-Pierre Roché ou André Breton, Jacques Doucet constitue un nouvel ensemble composé de pièces modernes ou contemporaines, Manet, Constantin Brancusi Cézanne, Degas, Van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Marie Laurencin, Joan Miro, Francis Picabia et des pièces Art déco de Marcel Coard, Joseph Csaky, Jean Dunand, Eileen Gray, Pierre Legrain, etc. En 1924, il est le premier propriétaire des Demoiselles d'Avignon de Picasso : achetées sans avoir été déroulées parce qu'elles traînaient dans un coin de l'atelier du peintre, elles seront estimées quelques mois plus tard entre deux et trois cent mille francs. C'est la vente en 1972 de la collection Doucet qui re-popularise l'Art déco auprès du grand public, avec des oeuvres de Pierre Legrain, Rose Adler, Eileen Gray, Clément Rousseau ou encore Marcel Coard. Ami d'André Suarès, il collectionne ses manuscrits, s’intéresse à ceux de la génération précédente — Stendhal, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud — et de la génération contemporaine : Apollinaire, Gide, Cocteau, Mauriac, Montherlant, Maurois, Morand, Valéry, Proust, Giraudoux. Il fait recouvrir ces manuscrits de reliures modernes avant de donner cette bibliothèque littéraire à l’Université de Paris en 1929 : elle deviendra la Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet. Jacques Doucet a également eu un rôle de mécène auprès de nombreux écrivains tels que André Suarès, Max Jacob, Reverdy, André Breton, Louis Aragon, Robert Desnos.
|
Categories
All
Archives
December 2023
|