Léon Delachaux

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Léon Emile Aldala Delachaux (born July 30, 1850 near Villers-le-Lac , Doubs , † January 27, 1919 in Saint-Amand-Montrond ) was a French painter who also worked in Switzerland and the United States was.

biography

Léon Delachaux was born as the first child of the French and Catholic Melanie Henry and the Swiss and Protestant Louis-Auguste Delachaux. His parents, both watchmakers, had four more daughters, two of whom died in infancy. Between 1850 and 1855 Léon Delachaux spent his childhood in Switzerland in Murten in the canton of Friborg . His father died in 1855 by suicide for material reasons. Between 1855 and 1859, Léon was placed in a school in Pontarlier with two of his sisters.

In 1859 his mother immigrated to Cairo and took her children with her. In 1868 Léon Delachaux moved to Marseille . He spent some time as a painter on car bodies and then returned to Switzerland, where he found a job as a precious metal engraver. Delachaux emigrated to the United States at the suggestion of a representative of the American jewelry company Tiffany & Co. He settled in Philadelphia in 1876, where he met Marie-Appoline Noël, who came from Étival-Clairefontaine in the Vosges Mountains in France. He married her on April 29, 1875. Their only son, Clarence, was born on December 14, 1875. Léon Delachaux became an engraver of watch cases. Clarence founded an electrical engineering company in Colombes in 1902 .

In 1876, Philadelphia celebrated the 100th anniversary of the United States' Declaration of Independence and opened the World's Fair of the Century in 1876 . This event was crucial for Léon Delachaux, who decided to study painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts . Between 1876 and 1881 he was a student of Thomas Eakins , a former student of Jean-Léon Gérôme . He also tried to take pictures. In 1882 Delachaux decided to return to France with his family. He financed the travel expenses from the contract with his art dealer Harrison Earle, to whom he promised to deliver his French works. In 1883 Delachaux was granted American citizenship.

On arrival in France, he moved to Levallois-Perret and visited the studio of Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret , a great friend of Thomas Eakins, with whom he studied with Jean-Léon Gérôme. In 1884 he moved to the international artists' colony Grez-sur-Loing near Fontainebleau . He showed his works at the Salon des Artistes Français . In 1887 he received an honorable mention in the “Crux Ave à Pàques” salon ( Kunsthaus Zürich ). In 1889 he took part in the Paris World Exhibition in 1889 and won the bronze medal for the painting La Louée à Château-Landon .

In 1891 Léon Delachaux left the Salon des Artistes Français for the Société nationale des beaux-arts . In 1895 he became “Associé”, in 1901 “Sociétaire” and in 1903 a member of the jury. He exhibited there every year until 1915. From 1900 to 1919 he lived in Saint-Amand-Montrond in the Cher. In 1907 he regained his French citizenship while retaining his inalienable Swiss citizenship. On November 4, 1911, Léon Delachaux received the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor . He died in Saint-Amand-Montrond and rests in the Grez-sur-Loing cemetery .

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personal data
SURNAME Delachaux, Léon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Delachaux, Léon Emile Aldala (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French painter, also active in Switzerland and the United States
DATE OF BIRTH July 30, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Villers-le-Lac
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1919
Place of death Saint-Amand-Montrond