Eugène Flandin

Eugène Flandin

Eugène Flandin , with his full name Jean-Baptiste Eugène Napoléon Flandin (born August 18, 1809 in Naples , † September 29, 1889 in Tours ), was a French painter whose graphic documentation of archaeological sites still plays a role in scientific research today.

His parents were Baptiste Flandin (1777-1853), an administrator in Napoleon's army, and Marie-Agnès Durand (born 1792). Eugène's early childhood was closely linked to his father's profession. He was only 2 years old when the family returned from Naples in 1811, where his father had served under Joachim Napoléon Murat from 1807 . During Napoleon's Russian campaign he was assigned to Comte Pierre Bruno Daru . After 1815 he remained an officer on half pay in various military and administrative positions - mainly in Algeria . Because of "irregularities" he had to quit early in 1835. Now it was difficult to take care of the family with 4 children.

The early years

These troubled years were most unfavorable for Eugène's upbringing. Nothing is known about his school and apprenticeship time. His father forced him into a military career, which he soon gave up in order to pursue his actual calling. It is said that he studied in France or Italy, but according to most biographers, he was self-taught . The fact that he was a student of Horace Vernet has no basis.

In 1834 he made his first trip to Italy to study the old masters. In 1835/36 he visited Venice and most likely completed his education in Belgium.

First successes as a painter

His first exhibition at the Paris Salon in 1836 was a success, especially his landscapes of Venice and Naples. In 1837 he became a draftsman for the French army in Algeria. In the same year he exhibited his painting La prize de Constantine and various Algerian and Belgian subjects in the Paris Salon . He had debts that he could hardly pay off by selling his paintings. In 1838 and 1839 he again exhibited his work in Paris and in the provinces. Successive participations in the Paris Salon - with the exception of those mentioned in 1853 and later in 1861 - are not documented.

With Coste in the Orient

In 1839 Flandin was delegated to the French embassy in Persia by the Institut de France together with the architecture professor Pascal Coste . They stayed in Isfahan for 2 years . With very little resources they set out on May 31, 1841 on a journey via Hamadān, Kangāvar, Bīsotūn, where they met Austen Henry Layard , Ḥolwān etc. Returned to Isfahan, they went to Shiraz and the Persian Gulf and back. From Persepolis Flandin made many drawings, which should commend him for his later work. They traveled to Tabriz , where unbelievable sanitary conditions hindered their return journey via Trabzon or Tbilisi , so that they had to take the route to Baghdad through Kurdistan . Coste praised Flandin's courage and fearlessness as well as his temper. Their schedule and their work were strictly organized. On the basis of extensive travels up to 1841, the joint works “Voyage en Perse” (1843) and “La Perse ancienne” (1848) were created. Upon his return, Flandin became a Knight of the Legion of Honor .

At Botta in Khorsabad

Paul-Émile Botta , who carried out archaeological excavations in Assyria , had asked for an artist to be sent to draw his findings. The government complied with this request in October 1843. The Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres proposed Eugène Flandin for this purpose, who was valued for his experience in Persia. In May 1844 Flandin arrived in Mosul and worked with Botta in Khorsabad until the end of October. In Paris he submitted his work to the academy, which commissioned a commission to evaluate it. She was enthusiastic about it and suggested creating an extra volume with Flandin's drawings, along with the explanatory reports that Botta would give on his return, for scholars and artists to study. On May 16, 1845, the Academy decided to follow the Commission's proposal. Botta and Flandin were rewarded for their work by publishing a number of splendid folio editions, the costs of which were borne by the government.

Back in France

After returning to France, he married Elisabeth Leblanc in 1846, who gave birth to his only child, a son, in 1847. His paintings had not brought him the expected success and could not save him from financial problems. So he turned to archaeological and administrative work. In 1849 he was elected mayor of Cérelles in the Arrondissement of Tours , where he had his second residence. While trying to beautify his little town, he divided his time between Paris, Normandy and Touraine . He also prepared his reports for publication.

When he resigned from his mayor's office in 1865, he was entrusted with tasks in the prefecture and other administrative tasks until 1868 , mainly in the Indre-et-Loire department .

Although his pictures often won awards in academic circles, Flandin became less famous than most of his contemporaries. Without a master or student, he did not attract the attention of critics. Some thought he was a student of Vernet and even of Ingres . He was also often confused with Hippolyte Flandrin (1809–64) or his brother Paul (1811–1902). His painting "Assaut de Constantine" (1838), which Louis-Philippe had acquired for his palace in Neuilly, was torn to pieces by bayonets during the revolution of 1848 (Guyot de Fère).

In Jules Laurens' studio he met Colonel F. Colombari, who was in Persia between 1833 and 1848, Prince Soltykoff, the widow of Xavier Hommaire de Hell , another traveler to Persia , and other painters. With his precision and accuracy, Flandin's paintings were no longer in demand and he withdrew from artistic life in the early 1870s when the Impressionists slowly conquered the art world. His works are in provincial museums or in private collections. They appear regularly in auctions.

Flandin's publications

• “Voyage archéologique à Nineveh: l'architecture assyrienne,” in Revue des deux Mondes , NS 10, 1845a, pp. 1081-1106.
• “Voyage archéologique à Nineveh: la sculpture assyrienne”, Revue des deux Mondes, NS 11, 1845b, pp. 88-111.
• “Monument de Ninive” [sic], découvert et décrit by MPE Botta; mesuré et dessiné par ME Flandin, 5 vols., Paris, 1849-50.
• Accounts of his Persian travels in Revue des deux Mondes, Nouvelle période 7, 1850, pp. 114-41, 413-33; 10, 1851, pp. 651-81; 11, 1851, pp. 965-1000; 12, 1851, pp. 585-626; 15, 1852, pp. 1111-42.
• “Voyage en Perse” by MM. Eugène Flandin, peintre, et Pascal Coste, architecte…, 1 vol. and atlas of plates and maps in 4 vols, Paris, 1843-54; 2 vols. and atlas in 6 vols., Paris, 1851-54.
• “Reports on the Herat crisis and Anglo-Persian War of 1856-57” in Revue des deux Mondes, Seconde période 7, 1857a, pp. 674-97 and in L'illustration, no.730, 21 February 1857b, pp. 115-18; no.731, 28 February 1857, pp. 131-34; no.731, 21 March 1857, pp. 179-82.
• “Voyage en Mésopotamie, 1840-42,” in Le Tour du Monde, 1861, 2nd semestre, pp. 49-80; 1863, 1er semestre (plates only), pp. 305-36. L'Orient, 4 vols., Paris, 1853-67.
• “Histoire des Chevaliers de Rhodes”, Tours, 1864; 2nd edition Tours 1867 (in quarto); 3rd edition Tours, 1873; Reprint Tours [?], 1879
• online books in French

Flandin's pictures in museums

• Le pont des soupirs à Venise , Musée d'Auch .
• Intérieur d'atelier , Musée de Caen .
• Vue prize à Tripoli de Syrie , Musée de Lille .
• Vue de Baghdad , Musee de Marseille .
• Entrée des caveaux de Venise , Musée de la Roche-sur-Yon .
• Vue d'Athènes , Musée de Rouen .
• Entrée de l'armée française à Alger le 5 juillet 1830 , Musée de Versailles .
• “Palais du Bey Constantine” Algeria 1837, Musée Historique de Versailles.
• Ispahan, Meidan-i-Shah, Victoria & Albert Museum, London [1]
• Ispahan - Cour intérieure de la grande Mosquée, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

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Translation from English

Jean Calmard “Flandin and Coste” Encyclopædia Iranica , Online Edition, December 15, 1999, available at iranicaonline Letter "F", page 35 (Engl.)

literature

• Angelika Leitzke: The image of the Orient in French painting. From Napoleon's Egypt campaign to the Franco-Prussian War. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2001, ISBN 3-8288-8267-6 (also: Greifswald, Univ., Diss., 2000).
• Eugène Flandin, Pascale Coste: Voyage en Perse. Adamant Media Corporation, Boston MA 2002, ISBN 1-4212-2843-2 (Tome 1), ISBN 0-543-88548-8 (Tome 2), these are facsimile prints of the original edition from Gide et J. Baudry , Paris 1851.

Web links

• Voyage en Perse at the NYPL Digital Gallery
• NYPL "Monument de Nineveh"
• Comparison of the pass guard and the Flandin drawing, 1841