Étienne La Font de Saint-Yenne

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Étienne La Font de Saint-Yenne (* 1688 in Lyon ; † 1771 ) was an early French art critic .

As the son of a middle-class Lyon family, he completed an apprenticeship as a model draftsman in a Lyon silk manufacture . Later trips to Holland and Flanders (1729) brought him into contact with painting. In 1741 he settled as an art writer in Paris and was part of the leading artistic and social circles. He devoted himself to architecture and monument preservation and made friends with several renowned painters.

His review of the Paris Salon of 1746, which he published anonymously in The Hague in 1747 as Réflections sur quelques causes de l'état des présence de la peinture en France (reflections on some causes of the present day) , contributed to his reputation as the founder of public art criticism in France State of painting in France). This criticism, which was about a hundred pages long, appeared to be revolutionary because it was the first time that it stated that everyone was entitled to judge a work of art from their subjective point of view. The art critic should not only mediate between the viewer and the artist, but also give advice to the artist “without passion and without any personal interest”.

plant

  • Réflections on quelques causes de l'état des présence de la peinture en France. Avec un examen des principaux ouvrages eposés au Louvre des mois d'août 1746 . The Hague 1747.
  • Oeuvre critique . Étienne Jollet (éd.). École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris 2001.

literature

  • Dorit Kluge: Criticism as a Mirror of Art. The art reflections of La Font de Saint-Yenne in the context of the emergence of art criticism in the 18th century . VDG, Weimar 2009.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Albert Dresdner: The emergence of art criticism in the context of the history of European art life . Bruckmann, Munich 1968, p. 129. - Virginie Spenlé: The Dresden picture gallery and France. The “bon goût” in 18th century Saxony . Sax-Verlag, Beucha 2008, p. 221.
  2. ↑ Virginie Spenlé: The Dresden Art Gallery and France. The “bon goût” in 18th century Saxony . Sax-Verlag, Beucha 2008, p. 221.
personal data
SURNAME La Font de Saint-Yenne, Etienne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French art critic
DATE OF BIRTH 1688
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyon
DATE OF DEATH 1771