Known chiefly for his role as a teacher of the leading Impressionists, Charles Gleyre (1806-1874) won great acclaim for his own paintings at home in Switzerland and abroad, eventually gaining recognition as the most eminent Swiss painter between Fuseli and Hodler. Gleyre can now be seen as a highly original artist working in a late romantic-classical vein. In these two volumes, William Hauptman presents the first detailed account of the artist's life and work since Clément's study in 1878, and the first catalogue raisonné of his paintings, drawings, and water colors. One of his aims is to explore the importance of Gleyre's art and influence in nineteenth-century France and Switzerland.
Drawing on recently discovered documents, letters, and sketchbooks, Hauptman provides new information on Gleyre's extensive voyage to the Middle East, his unorthodox attitudes toward his own paintings and their exhibition, the originality of his major works for French and Swiss patrons, and his unconventional teaching career that spanned twenty-five years. The author pays particular attention to never- before-published material, including journals and diaries of friends and colleagues with whom Gleyre worked and traveled, and sketches Gleyre made for his American patron, John Lowell, Jr. Together these volumes examine and illustrate more than fifteen hundred works, ranging chronologically from Gleyre's youthful portraits and figure studies of 1825 to his last painting, said to have been retouched on the day of his death. The result is a rare, significant overview of a little-known artist whose work merits greater attention.
Review:
... [T]he most ambitious study devoted to an 'academic' painter in modern times. Monumental in its dimensions as well as it tenacious scholarship, his two volumes offer the reader a comprehensive account of a professional career spanning almost half a century . . . A model of exacting and lucidly presented scholarship, this volume not only more than doubles the number of works recorded by Clément, but provides a wealth of information on commissions, provenance and the artist's working methods. (Burlington Magazine)
Table of contents:
Introduction
Section 1 1825-1834 From Paris to Rome
Section 2 1834 The Voyage to the Middle East
I From Naples to Rhodes
Section 3 1835 The Voyage to the Middle East
II From Alexandria to Khartoum
Section 4 1838-1843 Paris and the First
Commissions
Section 5 1843-1845 The Salon Successes
Section 6 1845-1849 Italian Resonances
Section 7 1850-1857 History Painting and
Other Paths
Section 8 1858-1862 History Painting and
Other Paths
Section 9 1862-1869 Classical Essays
Section 10 1870-1874 The Final Works
Section 11 Miscellaneous Works
Abbreviations
Index of Principal Works
Photo Credits
Drawing on recently discovered documents, letters, and sketchbooks, Hauptman provides new information on Gleyre's extensive voyage to the Middle East, his unorthodox attitudes toward his own paintings and their exhibition, the originality of his major works for French and Swiss patrons, and his unconventional teaching career that spanned twenty-five years. The author pays particular attention to never- before-published material, including journals and diaries of friends and colleagues with whom Gleyre worked and traveled, and sketches Gleyre made for his American patron, John Lowell, Jr. Together these volumes examine and illustrate more than fifteen hundred works, ranging chronologically from Gleyre's youthful portraits and figure studies of 1825 to his last painting, said to have been retouched on the day of his death. The result is a rare, significant overview of a little-known artist whose work merits greater attention.
Review:
... [T]he most ambitious study devoted to an 'academic' painter in modern times. Monumental in its dimensions as well as it tenacious scholarship, his two volumes offer the reader a comprehensive account of a professional career spanning almost half a century . . . A model of exacting and lucidly presented scholarship, this volume not only more than doubles the number of works recorded by Clément, but provides a wealth of information on commissions, provenance and the artist's working methods. (Burlington Magazine)
Table of contents:
Introduction
Section 1 1825-1834 From Paris to Rome
Section 2 1834 The Voyage to the Middle East
I From Naples to Rhodes
Section 3 1835 The Voyage to the Middle East
II From Alexandria to Khartoum
Section 4 1838-1843 Paris and the First
Commissions
Section 5 1843-1845 The Salon Successes
Section 6 1845-1849 Italian Resonances
Section 7 1850-1857 History Painting and
Other Paths
Section 8 1858-1862 History Painting and
Other Paths
Section 9 1862-1869 Classical Essays
Section 10 1870-1874 The Final Works
Section 11 Miscellaneous Works
Abbreviations
Index of Principal Works
Photo Credits