Portrait Of A Man, "circle Of" Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864)

Portrait of a Man, circle of Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864) Hippolyte Flandrin, 1809 -1864 Circle of Portrait of a Man. Oil on panel. 41 x 31 cm without frame 60 x 52 cm with frame Frame from a later period Bibliography: He is the brother of Auguste Flandrin and Paul Flandrin, also painters. He married Aimée-Caroline Ancelot (1822-1882) in 1843, from whom Paul Hippolyte Flandrin, painter of sacred art, portraitist and decorator, was born. Hippolyte Flandrin, born March 23, 1809 in Lyon and died March 21, 1864 in Rome, is a French painter. Coming from a family of artists with Auguste and Paul, Hippolyte Flandrin is undoubtedly the most brilliant student of Ingres. He dabbled in all genres, but became famous in his time especially for his talent as a portraitist and religious painter. The one who was called the "new Fra Angelico" drew his inspiration from the works of the Renaissance, Raphael in particular. Portraits, landscapes, religious subjects, Flandrin was able to handle everything with gentleness and delicacy. His encounter with Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) was decisive for his career. In Lyon, he and his younger brother Paul (1811-1902) frequented the studio of Pierre Réveil (1776-1842), a troubadour painter, who invited him to go to Paris. In 1829, the two brothers went to the capital and first considered entering the studio of Louis Hersent (1777-1860), a fashionable painter. But one of their friends from Lyon, Guichard, told them it would be more profitable to get in touch with Ingres, a "rising figure" in the artistic world. A wise choice! Paul and Hippolyte Flandrin came under the wing of Ingres, who grew very fond of the two brothers. Hippolyte's destiny was indeed closely linked to that of his brother Paul. But while Paul devoted his art to landscapes and portraits, Hippolyte devoted himself more to religious painting. The two brothers' academic backgrounds also differed, making a division of labor inevitable. Hippolyte won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1832, while Paul failed. This did not prevent them from meeting in the Eternal City - especially since Ingres was then director of the Villa Medici. Upon their return to Paris in 1838, the two Flandrins brilliantly applied Ingres' lessons, respecting the Italian models of the Renaissance, Raphael first and foremost. One of Hippolyte Flandrin's most famous works is undoubtedly The Young Nude Man by the Sea (1836; Paris, Louvre Museum). Executed in Rome, the painting effectively questions the viewer about its subject. His series on the Florentine, dating from 1840 (museums of Nantes, Évreux, Beauvais), pays a strong homage to Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci. Closely linked to the Count of Feltre, who donated his collection to the city of Nantes, Hippolyte Flandrin was to produce works for his patron, such as Rêverie (1846, Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts), which shows a more intimate side of the artist's talent as a colorist. In the same vein, he executed with his brother Paul an extraordinary Double self-portrait (1842, Nantes, Musee des Beaux-Arts). From the 1850s, Hippolyte Flandrin was overloaded with portrait commissions. La Comtesse Maison (1852, Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Musée de Gajac), Mme Bordier mère (1852, Grenoble, Musée), La comtesse de Gayon (1855, Montauban, Musee Ingres), made him even more sought after by the aristocracy and the court of the Second Empire. His famous portrait of Napoleon III (1862, Versailles, National Museum of the Château) has become a classic, despite or thanks to the strange, dreamy and fleeting gaze of the imperial model. At the same time, Hippolyte devoted himself to religious painting; in 1848, he decorated the church of Saint-Paul in Nîmes. He also worked in Paris: in 1841 at Saint-Séverin, at the chapel of Saint-Jean then on the nave of the church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul (1848-1853). His masterpiece in this field remains the decoration of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (1842-1864) which his brother Paul would complete after his death. These decorations earned him great fame. The great clarity of the friezes, the power of imagination, the mastery of a softened chromaticism and the flexibility of the line of the drawing were praised. It is therefore hardly surprising to see him follow a very laudatory academic career: in 1853, Flandrin was named officer of the Legion of Honor and member of the Academy of Fine Arts; in 1857, he took up his duties as professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His fame reached Germany and he was decorated in 1863 with the Order of Merit of Prussia. But due to fragile health, he decided that same year to return to Italy, his country of affection. He died in Rome on March 21, but was buried in Paris at the Père-Lachaise cemetery;