Henri-Pierre Picou
Henri-Pierre Picou (born February 27, 1824 in Nantes , † July 17, 1895 ibid) was a French painter . In the beginning he painted portraits and historical motifs before shifting his focus to allegorical , mythological and religious subjects.
Life
Henri-Pierre Picou was born on February 27, 1824 in Nantes, France. He was an academic painter and studied with his friends Jean-Léon Gérôme , Gustave Boulanger and Jean-Louis Hamon , with whom he later founded the art movement Néo-Grec , with Charles Gleyre and Paul Delaroche . Picou's style was mainly influenced by Gleyre. While the other members of the Néo-Grec movement mainly painted classical and mythological themes, Picou also received commissions for religious frescoes from various churches - such as the Église Saint-Roch in Paris .
Picou made his debut as an artist in 1847 with an exhibition at the Salon de Paris . The following year he was awarded a second class medal for his painting Cléopâtre et Antoine sur le Cydnus ( Cleopatra and Antony on Kydnos ), widely recognized as his greatest masterpiece. At its exhibition in the Salon de Paris in 1848, the art critic Théophile Gautier wrote that the subject was too ambitious, but also: “As it is, it gives you the best hope for the future of the young artist and ranks as one of the best seven or eight of the salon's most important paintings. ”In 1875 the picture was to be exhibited again in New York before it was deposited with a private art gallery in San Francisco .
Picou had a studio on the Boulevard de Magenta , where he could work on his extensive frescoes. His fame grew over time and so Picou won the Prix de Rome in 1853 for his painting Jésus chassant les vendeurs du Temple ( Jesus chases the moneylenders out of the temple ). In 1857 Picou also won a second second class medal in the Salon de Paris, where he exhibited regularly until his last exhibition in 1893.
Two years later, on July 17, 1895, Picou died in his native Nantes at the age of 71.
Neo-Grec
Picou and his friends Jean-Léon Gérôme, Gustave Boulanger and Jean-Louis Hamon were the founders of the Néo-Grec, a neoclassical art movement in France in the middle and end of the 19th century, i.e. during the Second Empire and the reign of Napoleon III. The Néo-Grec was created both in remembrance of the excavations in Pompeii , which began in the 18th century and continued in 1848, as well as triggered by the excavations of a similar nature in Herculaneum, which were also carried out at this time . The movement by no means only covered painting, but also architecture , music and decorations , recalling the art of Greco-Roman antiquity , the buildings of Pompeii, the Adam style and Egyptian architecture .
plant
For a Neo-Grec artist, Picou's oeuvre was surprisingly complex. His earlier works were portraits and paintings with historical subjects such as the celebrated and award-winning Cleopatra and Antonius on Kydnos . It shows the journey of Cleopatra VII and her lover Mark Antony on the river Kydnos on their way to Egypt . So Picou reflected on the epoch itself and painted real events from that time.
That would change with later pictures by the artist. On the one hand there are motifs from Greek and Roman mythology . Examples of paintings in these categories would be Andromeda Chained to the Rock or The Judgment of Paris . Incidentally, both pictures contain female nudes. The first shows the bared Andromeda , who was tied to a rock in the sea, and on her right (left for the viewer) Perseus hurrying up with the head of the Gorgon , who thus defeats Ketos , who is shown at the lower left edge of the picture. The judgment of Paris shows Paris holding the apple of contention in his hand, surrounded by the goddesses Aphrodite , Athena and Hera .
On the other hand, Picou also painted pictures whose motifs originated from the world of Christian beliefs . Examples of this would be Jesus chasing the moneylenders out of the temple or The miraculous fishing , which Jesus shows by Simon Peter and a group of fishermen who are just getting out of their boats. This is quite unusual for neoclassical or neoclassical artists, as they mostly remembered antiquity before the triumphant advance of Christianity.
Picou's work also includes allegories such as Allegory of Spring , on which a young woman can be seen symbolizing spring, who is being courted by nature spirits and people.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Picou, Henri-Pierre |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 27, 1824 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nantes |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 17, 1895 |
| Place of death | Nantes |