Jacques-Laurent Agasse

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Jacques Laurent Agasse, The Playground, 1830

Jacques-Laurent Agasse (born April 24, 1767 in Geneva , † December 27, 1849 in London ) was a Swiss animal and landscape painter .

biography

Jacques-Laurent Agasse was born in Geneva as the son of the merchant Philippe Agasse (1739-1827) and Catherine Audéoud (1737-1818). The parents were Huguenots , whose ancestors had settled in Aberdeen and, from the early 17th century, in Geneva. In 1742, the paternal grandfather was granted citizenship of the city of Geneva. Agasse grew up privileged in the Les Philosophes district and on the Crevin estate at the foot of the Salève . He got his first art education at the Geneva drawing school (École de dessin d'après nature), where he attended classes from Jacques Cassin and Georges Vaniére from 1782 . The school in the Calabri house was not actually an art academy, but rather aimed at the craftsmen of the watch industry. His first works include paper cutting -Silhouetten in the style of Jean-Daniel Huber . In 1786, at the age of 19, he went to Paris to study in Jacques-Louis David's studio . Despite a few such works (now mostly lost), he was unable to develop any inclination for his teacher's history painting. He therefore studied animal anatomy and dissection at the veterinary school and at the Natural History Museum. Because of the French Revolution he returned to Geneva.

Jacques-Laurent Agasse, The Nubian Giraffe, ca.1827

Agasse met the rich nobleman George Pitt, future Lord Rivers, with whom he traveled to Great Britain and discovered English painting. Pitt was the owner of numerous horses and greyhounds , the Agasse on its estates Stratfield Saye ( Hampshire ) and Hare Park ( Newmarket could study) extensively. In the wake of the French Revolution, Agasse had lost his fortune and was reluctant to earn income from his own work. Back in Geneva, he worked with his childhood friends Firmin Massot and Wolfgang-Adam Töpffer . Together they painted lively landscapes in plein air , each contributing the part that he mastered best; Animals, people, landscapes (e.g. the horse market in Gaillard , around 1799). Together with Firmin Massot and Wolfgang-Adam Töpffer, Jacques-Laurent Agasse is one of the most important representatives of the Geneva School from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Towards the end of 1800, Agasse established himself as an animal painter in London with the support of Lord Rivers. He soon became famous for his horse and dog depictions, but also painted wild and exotic animals, which he observed in the London menageries . From 1801 to 1845 he exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy . One of his most outstanding works is The Lord Rivers Stud in Stratfield Saye (around 1806). These paintings were created on the two country estates mentioned above, as well as on Richmore Lodge ( Shaftesbury ) and Sudeley Castle ( Gloucestershire ); all owned by Lord Rivers. From 1810 he lived with George Booth, whose children served him as models for genre paintings . Agasse also painted the Thames , worked as a scientific illustrator and devoted himself to portraiture between 1820 and 1830 . He made a living but never got rich and remained a bachelor all his life. His financial legacy was so small that the cost of his funeral had to be covered by auctioning the paintings that remained with him.

Web links

Commons : Jacques-Laurent Agasse  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Renée Loche: In the light of French-speaking Switzerland - Oskar Reinhart as a collector of art from western Switzerland . Ed .: Lukas Gloor, Peter Wegmann. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2001, p. 128-143 .
personal data
SURNAME Agasse, Jacques-Laurent
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1767
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1849
Place of death London