Merry-Joseph Blondel | |
|---|---|
 Blondel by his friendIngres, Rome, 1809 | |
| Born | Merry-Joseph Blondel (1781-07-25)25 July 1781 Paris,Kingdom of France |
| Died | 12 June 1853(1853-06-12) (aged 71) Paris,Second French Empire |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Neo-Classical |
Merry-Joseph Blondel (French pronunciation:[mɛʁiʒozɛfblɔ̃dɛl]; 25 July 1781 – 12 June 1853) was a Frenchhistory painter of theNeoclassical school. He was a winner of the prestigiousPrix de Rome in 1803. After theSalon of 1824, he was bestowed with the rank ofKnight in the order of theLegion d'Honneur byCharles X of France and offered a professorship at theÉcole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts: a position in which he remained until his death in 1853. In 1832, he was elected to a seat at theAcadémie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.[1]
Blondel was a student of the Neoclassical masterBaron Jean-Baptiste Regnault and from 1809, a lifelong friend of the painterIngres.[2]
For much of Blondel's painting career, he was occupied with public commissions for paintings and frescoes in important buildings, including palaces, museums and churches. Blondel completed major commissions for thePalace of Fontainebleau, thePalace of Versailles, theLouvre Museum, theBrongniart Palace (also known as theBourse de Paris), theLuxembourg Palace, and the churches ofSt.Thomas Aquinas andNotre-Dame-de-Lorette.
Blondel's 1814 paintingLa Circassienne au Bain became infamous during the early part of the 20th century for being the subject of the largest claim for financial compensation made against theWhite Star Line, for a single item of luggage lost by a passenger on theRMS Titanic.[3]
Merry-Joseph was born on 25 July 1781 to Joseph-Armand Blondel (1740–1805), a painter and expert instucco decoration, and his second wife Marie-Geneviève Marchand (died 1819). Merry-Joseph had two brothers and a sister, including Charles-Francois Armand Blondel, an architect. Several generations of the Blondel family had become associated with architecture and the design and decoration of buildings. Blondel's great uncle,Jacques-Francois Blondel (1705–1774) wrote a treatise on the subject and opened the first dedicated school of architecture in Paris.[4]
At the age of fourteen, on the advice of his maternal uncle, Merry-Joseph went to work in the office of aNotary, an experience which he would later describe as "excruciating".[5] After two years of complaining to his father, in 1797, a place was secured for him as an apprentice at the Dihl and Guerhardporcelain factory, where young apprentices received figure drawing lessons from the celebrated Charles-Etienne Leguay for five out of every ten working days. By 1801, however, demand for Dihl and Guerhard porcelain had increased so much that the drawing department was eliminated and apprentices were expected to focus on decorative techniques more suited to the demands of mass-production, directly on the factory floor.[6]
In 1801, once again, Blondel convinced his father to break his apprenticeship contract as his drawing talent secured him a place in the studio of Baron Jean-Baptiste Regnault. Within a year, Blondel had acquired the nicknameMonsieur Cinq-Prix (Mr Five-prizes) among his peers at the studio, on account of the number of medals and prizes he had won for his drawing.[7] Another year on and Blondel's entry to the 1803 salon, a painting depictingAeneas rescuing his father from the burning city of Troy, won him theGrand Prix de Rome. However, due to a change in the system and the temporary suspension of scholarships, no students were sent to theFrench Academy in Rome that year and Blondel would have to wait until 1809 before he could take his place at theVilla Medici.[8]
_in_1807.jpg)
_Portrait_de_Madame_Blondel_1849_-_Merry-Joseph_Blondel_-_Mus%25C3%25A9e_des_Beaux-Arts_d%2527Agen.jpg)
On arrival at the Villa Medici in Rome in 1809, Blondel struck up a friendship with fellow student Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres which, as correspondence between the two artists demonstrated, lasted for the rest of their lives. In 1835, Ingres returned as the director of the French Academy in Rome and Blondel appeared to be the favourite to succeed him in 1840. Together with his second wife, Louise Emilie Delafontaine, Blondel stayed at the Villa Medici as a guest of Ingres for four months in 1839, during which time the three of them undertook a lengthy sketching tour ofthe Marches andUmbria. When Blondel was unexpectedly overlooked for the position of director of the academy in 1840, Ingres sent him a "lengthy and heartfelt" letter of condolence.[9]
After three years in Rome, Blondel returned to Paris and became a regular exhibitor at the Louvre salon exhibitions. At the salon of 1817, Blondel won a gold medal for his painting depicting theDeath of Louis XII. After theSalon of 1824, the rank ofChevalier (Knight) in the order of theLegion d'Honneur, was bestowed upon both Blondel and Ingres by the French King, Charles X.
In 1824, the year of his knighthood, Blondel was awarded a professorship at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, a position which he occupied until his death in 1853. In that same year, Blondel also competed for a vacant seat at the Académie des beaux-arts but lost out to Ingres. He was eventually elected to a seat at the Académie in 1832.[10]
.jpg)
By the mid-1820s, his many notable achievements had firmly established Blondel as a history painter of great renown and he was accordingly rewarded with many public commissions for paintings and frescoes in important buildings, including museums, palaces and churches. Most notable among these commissions were:
Blondel was working on his fresco cycle at the church of St. Thomas Aquinas, in the7e arrondissement when he fell ill and died in 1853.[11]
Blondel's entry for the salon exhibition in November 1814 was a full-sized figure painting, in oil on canvas, depicting a standing female figure, bathing in an idealised setting from classical antiquity. In typically simplistic fashion, the exhibition catalogue described the painting aspainting no.108, Une Baigneuse (a bather). Critical references to the painting would later confirm Blondel's given title for the picture asLa Circassienne au Bain.[12]
In January 1913, a claim was filed in New York against the White Star Line, by RMSTitanic survivorMauritz Håkan Björnström-Steffansson, for financial compensation resulting from the loss of the painting. The amount of the claim was $100,000 ($2.4 million equivalent in 2014); a valuation which reflected Blondel's significant artistic status at that time and making it by far the most highly valued single item of luggage or cargo lost as a result of the sinking.[13]
Media related toMerry-Joseph Blondel at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
