Francis Bourgeois
Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois RA (born November 1756 in London , England; † January 8, 1811 in London) was an English landscape painter and important English art dealer in the late 18th century. Together with Noël Desenfans , he laid the foundation for the collection of the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London.
Life
Bourgeois was the son of a watchmaker of Swiss origin in London. At the latest since 1776 - according to his own statements since 1766 - he was sponsored by the French art dealer Noël Desenfans (1744–1807) and accepted into his London household. From then until his death, Bourgeois lived with his benefactor and his wife Margaret (née Morris; 1731-1813).
Bourgeois had desenfans from the London-renowned painter Philipp Jakob Loutherburg the Elder. J. (1749-1812) teach. In 1776 he gave his protégé a Grand Tour through France, Holland , Italy and Switzerland. Desenfan's protection also owed Bourgeois his admission as a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1793 . In 1794 the British King George III appointed him . (1738–1820) as a royal landscape painter, having received the title of court painter at the Polish court in 1791.
With the appointment as court painter, the elevation to the nobility was connected, in 1791 to the Polish and 1794 to the English. In February 1793 he was accepted as a full member of the Royal Academy of Arts . Since 1794 Bourgeois could adorn himself with the title "Sir".
Bourgeois' importance, however, does not lie in his painting, which is largely forgotten today, but in his success as an art dealer. Together with his business partner Desenfans, Bourgeois received an order from the Polish King Stanislaus II August Poniatowski in 1790 to put together an art collection for the Polish court. Despite the turmoil of the French Revolution and the associated First Coalition War , the two traveled across Europe from 1790–95 and acquired a total of 190 important works of art. However, this collection never came to Warsaw because its client abdicated as a result of the Third Partition of Poland and was no longer interested in the collection. With his death in 1798, the last hope of handing over the paintings and getting the money back - Desenfans himself is said to have given a sum of nine thousand pounds - was extinguished. Attempts to get the money from the Russian tsar failed, as did the plan he submitted to the British government in 1799, namely to establish a national gallery. Even an auction in 1802 did not generate the desired income.
Bourgeois and Desenfans, however, were so successful in the art trade that they could cope financially with these failures. Bourgeois even added various other valuable masterpieces to the collection.
Desenfans died in 1807, leaving his wife Margaret and Bourgeois together with his property. For the collection of around 350 works of art, however, he appointed bourgeois as the sole heir.
Bourgois' goal was to make this collection available to the public and to ensure that it would not be smashed after his death. After a serious riding accident at the end of 1807, he made his will. Childless and unmarried, he appointed Margaret Desenfans as sole heir, with the condition that after her death the collection should go to Dulwich College . He left £ 10,000 to maintain the collection and an additional £ 2,000 to build a building on the Dulwich College site to house the collection. A few weeks later, on January 8, 1811, Bourgeois died.
Margeret Desenfans did not wait until her own death with the foundation, but immediately put Bourgeois' will into practice. Immediately after his death, she commissioned the construction of the building, which was built by the English architect Sir John Soane . When it became clear that the £ 2,000 would not be enough, she injected money from her private assets. Margaret did not live to see the opening of the picture gallery, she died in 1813.
In 1815 the remains of Bourgeois and Noel and Margaret Desenfans were transferred to the mausoleum that had been built on the central axis of the Dulwich Picture Gallery for its founders.
Individual evidence
- ^ Database entry of the Royal Academy of Arts , accessed April 14, 2013
literature
- Robin Simon, 'Bourgeois, Sir (Peter) Francis (1756–1811)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
- CHILVERS./ "Bourgeois, Sir Peter Francis." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (September 7, 2009)
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bourgeois, Francis |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bourgeois, Sir Peter Francis (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English painter and art dealer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 1756 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 8, 1811 |
| Place of death | London |