Charles Eisen

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Charles Eisen

Charles Dominique Joseph Eisen (born August 17, 1720 in Valenciennes , † January 4, 1778 in Brussels ) was a French painter, etcher, draftsman and illustrator. He was best known for his illustrations and vignettes for books and is considered one of the most sensual illustrators of the eighteenth century.

Life

Charles Eisen was the second son of the Flemish painter Frans Eisen (1695–1778), who lived in Valenciennes from about 1705, and his wife Marie-Marguerite Gainse. At first he was a student of his father. In order to complete his training, he was in Paris from 1742 to 1746 in the studio of the famous copper engraver Jacques-Philippe Le Bas .

In 1745 Eisen received his first major commission, probably through the mediation of Le Bas. He designed a volume about the engagement party of the Dauphin Louis de Bourbon with Maria Theresa of Spain . Two years later he established his reputation and independence with 43 drawings for an edition of the works of Nicolas Boileau . In 1750 he was accepted as a history painter in the Académie de Saint-Luc with a painting on Daedalus and Icarus .

Eisen designed the book decorations for numerous well-known works, for example in 1762 for Jean de La Fontaines Contes e nouvelles en vers (“Verse stories and novellas”), 1767 for Les Métamorphoses by Ovid and also for Voltaire's La Henriade . Iron's illustrations of the time of Louis XV. are considered special examples of the "gravure galante".

Eisen gave the Marquise de Pompadour private drawing lessons. Due to their significant influence as mistress Louis XV. Eisen became court painter and professor at the Acadèmie de Saint-Luc. The irregularity of his private life, his rough manners and his dissolute life and debts left him out of favor. In 1877 he fled from Paris to Brussels from his creditors, where he died the following year.

From 1745 Eisen was married to the pharmacist's daughter Anne Aubert, who was 13 years his senior. Of his six children, the sons Christophe Charles (* 1744) and Jacques Philippe (* 1747) also became known as artists.

Works (selection)

Charles Eisen: Illustration for
Le Diable de Papefiguiere
in La Fontaine: Contes e nouvelles en vers

Illustrations

literature

Web links

Commons : Charles Eisen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charles Eisen. In: Dictionnaire critique de biographie et d'histoire Plon, Paris 1867, pp. 529-531 (French; full text in the Google book search)
  2. ^ Charles Eisen. In: Mary L. Myers: French Architectural and Ornament Drawings of the Eighteenth Century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1991, ISBN 0-87099-625-8 , p. 66 ( Google books , also at archive.org )
  3. ^ Eisen, Christophe Ch. And Eisen, Jacques Ph. In: Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker u. a .: General Lexicon of Visual Artists ... Volume 10, EA Seemann, Leipzig 1914, p. 429.
personal data
SURNAME Eisen, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eisen, Charles Dominique Joseph (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French painter, etcher, draftsman and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1720
PLACE OF BIRTH Valenciennes
DATE OF DEATH January 4, 1778
Place of death Brussels