Théodore Chassériau
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Théodore Chassériau (September 20, 1819 – October 8, 1856) was a French romantic painter.
Life and Work
Chassériau was born in Samaná, in Saint Domingue (now the Dominican Republic). His father was a Frenchman who held an administrative position in what was then a French colony, and his mother was the daughter of a Creole landowner. The family moved to Paris in 1821, where the young Chassériau soon showed precocious drawing skill. He was accepted into the studio of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres at the age of eleven, becoming the favorite pupil of the great classicist, whom he joined at Rome in 1840. Within a few years, however, Chassériau fell under the influence of Eugène Delacroix, whose brand of painterly colorism was anathema to Ingres, who was bitter at the direction Chassériau's art was taking and sealed the breach. Chassériau's art has often been characterized as an attempt to reconcile the classicism of Ingres with the romanticism of Delacroix. He exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1836.
Chassériau is noted for his portraits, historical and religious paintings, allegorical murals, and Orientalist images inspired by his travels to Algeria in 1846 and following years. Among his chief works are "The Tepidarium" in the Musée d'Orsay; "Susanna and the Elders" and "Arab Cavaliers carrying away their Dead", both in the Louvre; "Christ in the Garden of Olives"; and "Mary Stuart defending Rizzio against his Assassins." His most monumental work was his decoration of the grand staircase of the Cour des Comptes, commissioned by the state in 1844 and completed in 1848. This work was heavily damaged in May of 1871 by a fire set during the Commune, and only fragments could be recovered; these are preserved in the Louvre.
He was a prolific draftsman; his many portrait drawings in hard graphite pencil are close in style to those of Ingres. He also created a group of eighteen etchings of subjects from Shakespeare's "Othello".
References
- Guégan, Stéphane; Pomaréde, Vincent; Prat, Louis-Antoine (2002). Théodore Chassériau, 1819-1856: the unknown romantic. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 1-58839-067-5
- Fisher, Jay M.(1979). Théodore Chassériau: Illustrations for Othello. Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art. ISBN 0-912298-50-2
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