Amédée Elie Servin (1829-1884), Traditional Breton Festival, 1861

Amédée Elie SERVIN (1829-1884) Traditional Breton festival, Oil on canvas signed lower left and dated 1861. 41x60cm 65x81cm framed Very good condition Amédée Élie Servin born September 5, 1829 in Paris from a family from Douai, and died May 7, 1884 in Villiers-sur-Morin. He entered the Beaux-Arts in Paris on April 7, 1848, in the studio of the painter Michel Martin Drolling. His classmates were students of his generation, such as Jean-Jacques Henner, Benjamin Ulmann, Paul Baudry. He also frequented the studio of François Édouard Picot. He made his debut at the Salon of 1850, presented an Interior of the courtyard and lived at 18 rue de Bellefond where he exhibited regularly. In 1855, he exhibited there three landscape paintings inspired by Normandy and the following year, he was inspired by Breton landscapes. He is in contact with the first painters who frequent Barbizon, where he meets Théodore Rousseau and Jean-François Millet. Around 1857, he moved to Villiers-sur-Morin, became a friend of Jules Grenier (1844-1888), then in 1860, he founded the Cercle Artistique de Villiers there, and persuaded other artists and writers to come. in this village. He began to produce landscapes inspired by this village in Seine-et-Marne, where he lived until his death. Creators join him like Ernest Boetzel, who translates his paintings into engraving, or Louis-Alexandre Bouché, then his former comrades like Ulmann. In 1872, he received a medal at the Salon, a year after losing his wife. The Parisian gallery that represents him is Deforge-Carpentier. His widowhood makes him sad, his production decreases. His friend Alexandre Falguière sculpted his bust portrait for a monument erected in his honor in Villiers in 1887. Servin was nicknamed the "master of the Morin valley". Bibliographic references. Pierre Satet, Amédée Servin (1829-1884). The master of the Morin valley and his friends, collection "The great misunderstood", Le Livre d'histoire, 1999