Charles Paul Landon | |
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| Born | Charles Paul Landon (1760-10-12)12 October 1760 Nonant-le-Pin, France |
| Died | 5 March 1826(1826-03-05) (aged 65) Paris, France |
| Occupations | painter, art historian |
Charles Paul Landon (French pronunciation:[ʃaʁlpɔllɑ̃dɔ̃]; 12 October 1760 – 5 March 1826) was a Frenchpainter and popular writer on art and artists.
Landon was born inNonant-le-Pin and entered the studio ofJean-Baptiste Regnault, where he made a lifelong friendship withRobert Lefèvre.[1] He and won the first prize of the Academy in 1792, for study at theFrench Academy in Rome, where he stayed for five years.[2] After his return from Italy, in the disturbed patronage conditions of theFrench Revolution, he seems to have abandoned painting and turned to writing, although he began to exhibit in 1795, and continued to do so at various intervals up to 1814.[3] He exhibited three pictures at theLouvre: theMother's Lesson, theBath of Paul and Virginia andDaedalus and Icarus.[2] A portrait from this period was purchased in 2003 for theMuseum of Grenoble.[4]
HisLeda won an award of merit in 1801, and is in thechâteau de Fontainebleau (deposited by theLouvre in 1932). HisMother's Lesson was the subject of a popular engraving.Paul and Virginia Bathing (an illustration ofBernardin de Saint-Pierre's popular novel, also engraved), hisSleep of Achilles andDaedalus and Icarus (1799,illustrated right) are all at the Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, Alençon.
It is chiefly for his writing on the arts that he made a reputation, however. He published nearly one hundred volumes during his lifetime. Landon was among the collaborators of the influentialJournal des arts, des sciences et de la littérature. He was also a part-owner of theGazette de France, where the extended accounts of annualParis Salons were published. He was a paintings conservator at theLouvre, a corresponding member of theInstitut and painter toCharles Ferdinand, duc de Berry, whose widow's paintings gallery he catalogued.[2]
His major, on-going work comprised theAnnales du musée et de l'école moderne des beaux-arts, published between 1808 and 1835 and running to 33 volumes. It forms a comprehensive resource on European art and artists prior to the 19th century. However it is far from perfect. The work has been criticised for containing many careless biographical mistakes and lacking critical accuracy.
An example of his popular works that has been recently reprinted wasNumismatique du voyage du jeuneAnacharsis, ou Médailles des beaux temps de la Grèce which was accompanied by an essay on connoisseurship of medals by Théophile Marion Dumersan and dedicated toLouis XVIII, 1823. Anacharsis had recently been established in the popular imagination in ahistorical novel, while coins were among the few antiquities that the middle class might aspire to own.
Landon also published
He also produced descriptions of thePalais du Luxembourg and its contents, of the Giustiniani collection.
Landon died at Paris in 1826.[3]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Landon, Charles Paul".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 160.
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