Alexis Simon Belle

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Alexis-Simon Belle, self-portrait, Versailles Palace

Alexis-Simon Belle (born January 12, 1674 in Paris ; † November 21, 1734 there ) was a French painter, best known for his portraits of French and Jacobite nobles .

Life

Belle was the second child and only son of Jean-Baptiste Belle (born before 1642, died 1703), also a painter, and his wife Anne (died 1705). Belles birth and baptism was in the parish register of Saint-Sulpice noted.

Portrait of Alexis-Simon Belle 'by Louis François I de Bourbon, Prince of Conti

Belle first studied with his father before moving to the studio of François de Troy (1645 / 46–1730), a painter at the court of James II of England in exile in Saint-Germain-en-Laye . Influences from Hyacinthe Rigaud and Nicolas de Largillière may also exist.

Its productive phase began there in the years 1698 to 1701. This was a brief period of peace between France and Great Britain, during which the Jacobites could freely sail across the English Channel and transport portraits of, for example, James Edward Stuart and his sister Princess Louisa Maria . Troy was Jacob II's only portrait painter at court from 1700, needed help and commissioned his best pupil Belle to finish the work he had commissioned on time.

Belle won the Prix ​​de Rome in August 1700 but continued his work in Saint-Germain instead of traveling to Italy.

On November 12, 1701, Belle married the miniature painter Anne Chéron (1649-1718). Belle now moved permanently to the Jacobites with his wife. After the outbreak of war between Great Britain and France in 1702, the portraits of James Edward Stuart ('The Old Pretender') and his sister were again smuggled across the English Channel. Belle carried out other work for members of the royal family and for the Augustinian order in Paris. Several copies of James Edward Stuart, in armor and standing on the Channel coast and pointing at the Dover cliffs, have survived.

Belle's best-known portrait of James Edward Stuart dates from 1712. It was made immediately before he left Saint Germain for Lorraine and shows him in a tent in military clothing. This image manifested his role as a pretender and was often copied. In an engraving of a picture by François Chéreau, Belle is referred to as peintre de SM Brit. (Painter to the British Majesty). In 1713, Chéreau signed a portrait of Belle depicting Princess Louisa Maria (who died in 1712). This picture hangs today in Sizergh Castle in Cumbria .

In the 1720s, Belle's work was more and more noticed by the French nobility. He painted the young Louis XV. The picture is now in Versailles . Most of his works from this period are signed, which suggests how recognized his status was in France. He resumed his work for the Jacobites, and in 1724 he signed a portrait of Marie-Charlotte Sobieska (James Edward Stuart's sister-in-law ) with pictor regis Britann (painter to the King of England). (The painting is now in the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore .) In 1731, Belle made two copies of the portraits of James Edward Stuart's two sons, Prince Charles Edward Stuart and Prince Henry Benedict Stuart .

After the death of his first wife Anne, on January 12, 1722, he married Marie-Nicole Horthemels (born 1689, died after 1745), who was also a painter and engraver. Together they had two sons, born in 1722 and 1726, and a daughter (* 1730). Together with his new wife, Belle bought land in Saint Germain, where he was now mainly, and also in rue du Four in Paris.

The sister of Belle's second wife, Louise-Madeleine Horthemels (1686–1767) was an important engraver in Paris for over 50 years and the mother of the designer , engraver and art critic Charles-Nicolas Cochin (1715–1790). Another of Belle's sisters-in-law was Marie-Anne Horthemels , who also worked in this art field and was the wife of Nicolas-Henri Tardieu (1674–1749), also a recognized engraver and member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture . The Horthemels family originally came from the Netherlands , were descendants of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen and had connections to the Parisian abbot of the Port-Royal des Champs , the center of Jansenism in France.

Prince James Francis Edward Stuart , around 1703, portrait attributed to Belle in the Royal Collection

Belle and his wife Marie-Nicole were the parents of Clément-Louis-Marie-Anne Belle (1722–1806), a French painter and designer of carpets. One of his students was Jacques-André-Joseph Camelot Aved (1702–1766).

When Belle died in 1734, he was named "painter to the king in his Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, comptroller of clergy stipends and comptroller of poultry" (painter to the king in the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, controller of spiritual studies and the Poultry farming).

Belle's son Clément-Louis became a history painter . After his death in 1806 he was described as "Rector of the Special School of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and Engraving, and Professor of Design to the Imperial Manufactury of Gobelins ".

Work

Belle was primarily a portrait painter . His work includes:

  • Allegorical portrait of Prince James Francis Edward Stuart and his sister Princess Louisa Maria Theresa , depicting the prince as an armed angel leading his sister under a cherubim veil (1699), now in the Royal Collection
  • Mary of Modena , around 1699, now in Sizergh Castle in Cumbria .
  • Princess Louisa Maria Theresa Stuart , 1704
  • James Francis Edward Stuart , around 1700–1705 (attributed)
  • James Francis Edward Stuart , shows the prince in armor on the English Channel, on which several warships can be seen, standing and pointing at the cliffs of Dover. Next to it a page in Polish costume (1703, now in the Collège des Ecossais, Paris)
  • Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke , about 1712
  • James Francis Edward Stuart , 1712
  • James Francis Edward Stuart with the insignia of the Order of the Garter, around 1714, painting missing but known from the copper engraving by Marie-Nicolle Horthemels
  • Elisabeth-Charlotte and her son , double portrait of Elisabeth Charlotte de Bourbon-Orléans and Francis I , dated 1722, now in Lunéville Castle
  • John Law , between 1715 and 1720 (attributed)
  • Louis François I de Bourbon, prince de Conti
  • François de Troy (1645–1730) , oil on canvas, first quarter of the 18th century, now in the Palace of Versailles
  • Antoine Crozat, Marquis du Chatel (1655–1738) , oil on canvas, first quarter of the 18th century, now in the Palace of Versailles (attributed)
  • Alexis Simon Belle, self-portrait , oil on canvas, first quarter of the 18th century, today in the Palace of Versailles
  • Marie-Charlotte Sobieska , 1724
  • Charles Gabriel de Belsunce, Marquis of Castelmoron, Lieutenant General (1681–1739) , oil on canvas, first quarter of the 18th century, now in the Palace of Versailles
Portrait of Princess Louisa Maria Theresa Stuart von Belle, 1704

literature

  • Emmanuel Bénézit : Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays , new edition, Gründ, Paris 1976

Web links

Commons : Alexis Simon Belle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Edward Corp: Belle, Alexis-Simon (1674-1734). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
  2. ^ Government Art Collection
  3. ↑ a b c d Alexis Simon Belle in Getty.edu (Engl.)
  4. ↑ a b c Louise-Magdeleine Horthemels: Reproductive Engraver by Elizabeth Poulson in Woman's Art Journal , vol. 6, no. 2 (Autumn, 1985 - Winter, 1986), pp. 20-23
  5. ^ Piot, Eugène, Le Cabinet de l'amateur Annees 1861 et 1862 (Paris, Librairie Firmin Didot Frères, 1863) p. 162, (accessed on February 5, 2011)
  6. ^ Register of the XIIth arrondissement of Paris, division of Finistère, September 1806
  7. ↑ Prince James Francis Edward Stuart with his sister, Princess Louisa Maria Theresa ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.royalcollection.org.uk archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. online at the Royal Collection (last accessed on Feb. 9, 2008)
  8. ↑ NPG 1658 Princess Louisa Maria Theresa Stuart, attributed to Alexis Simon Belle , oil on canvas, circa 1704, at npg.org.uk (last accessed on March 15, 2011)
  9. ↑ Prince James Francis Edward Stuart (1688-1740), c.1700-5 ( Memento of the original of June 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. online on the Royal Collection website (last accessed on March 15, 2011) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.royalcollection.org.uk
  10. ↑ In the National Portrait Gallery, London , online on page NPG 593 Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, attributed to Alexis Simon Belle, oil on canvas, 1712?
  11. ↑ NPG 348 Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, studio of Alexis Simon Belle, oil on canvas, circa 1712 at npg.org.uk (last accessed on Feb. 9, 2008)
  12. ↑ Portrait ( memento of November 26, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) of Élisabeth Charlotte de Bourbon-Orléans and Franz I , dated 1722, on estrepublicain.fr, status: November 26, 2006 in the Internet Archive at archive.org, viewed 26. July 2011 (JPG)
  13. ↑ In the National Portrait Gallery, London, online at NPG 191 John Law, attributed to Alexis Simon Belle, oil on canvas, oval, circa 1715-1720 (last accessed March 15, 2011)
  14. ↑ Louis François I de Bourbon, prince de Conti ( Memento of the original of September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. online at alfonsi.it (last accessed on Feb. 9, 2008)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.alfonsi.it
  15. ↑ François de Troy online at culture.gouv.fr (last accessed on March 15, 2011)
  16. ↑ Antoine Crozat, marquis du Chatel online at culture.gouv.fr (last accessed on March 15, 2011)
  17. ↑ Alexis Simon Belle, self portrait online at culture.gouv.fr (last accessed on March 15, 2011)
  18. ↑ Charles Gabriel de Belsunce, marquis de Castelmoron online at culture.gouv.fr (last accessed on March 15, 2011)
personal data
SURNAME Belle, Alexis Simon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Belle, Alexis-Simon (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French portrait painter
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1674
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1734
Place of death Paris