Pierre-Louis Bouvier
Pierre-Louis Bouvier (born August 23, 1765 in Geneva ; † November 27, 1836 there ) was a Swiss miniature painter , draftsman , portrait painter and educator, as well as the author of a manual of oil painting and inventor of a machine for grinding pigments .
Live and act
Pierre-Louis Bouvier studied at the public drawing school in Geneva at the age of thirteen. He then became an apprentice to the enamel artist Louis-André Fabre, then studied for three years at the Paris Academy of Fine Arts and in the studio of the famous miniaturist Antoine Vestier.
In 1788 he returned to Geneva. He dealt with miniature watercolor and gouache painting on ivory . The next year he made his debut with two portraits at the Geneva Salon.
In 1790 he married Marie Isaline Fé, daughter of an engraver and enamel artist, and later became the father of two sons and two daughters. Before the creation of the Helvetic Republic , Bouvier emigrated to Hamburg in 1797 , where he could work in peace.
Bouvier returned to Geneva in 1801 and often visited Paris. He began exhibiting in the Paris Salon in 1804 and received orders from the court from 1808 onwards. He especially painted numerous portraits of the Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais (Louvre, Paris). In 1816 he created the miniature portrait of Madame de Staël in Geneva , which brought him great success in the form of an engraving.
He was friends with the Paris-based Swiss artists Wolfgang-Adam Töpffer and Firmin Massot and painted several portraits with them. From his seat in Paris, Bouvier visited Switzerland, Belgium and Holland.
In addition to his many miniatures of Swiss, French and English personalities, he also created portraits in watercolor or colorless ink painting and some oil portraits. In 1827 his handbook of oil painting appeared, published in Strasbourg and Paris, which brought him great success and also appeared in German and English translation.
In 1828 he was appointed director of the school of figure painting in Geneva and held this post for life. Bouvier invented and built a pigment grinding machine recognized by the Institut de France in 1829.
literature
- Elisabeth della Santa: Pierre-Louis Bouvier: peintre et miniaturiste genevois (1765-1836). Biography. Meyrin-Village 1978.
Web links
- Lucien Boissonnas: Bouvier, Pierre-Louis. In: Sikart (French)
- Fabienne Xavière Forward: Bouvier, Pierre-Louis. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Pierre-Louis Bouvier's Handbook of Oil Painting for Artists and Art Lovers
- Publications by and about Pierre-Louis Bouvier in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bouvier, Pierre-Louis |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss miniature painter, draftsman, portrait painter and teacher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 23, 1765 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Geneva |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 27, 1836 |
| Place of death | Geneva |