Pierre-Paul Prud'hon

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Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (Template:IPA, 4 April 1758 – 16 February 16, 1823) was a French Neo-classical painter and draughtsman best known in his own time for his allegorical paintings and portraits, now for his drawings. He painted a portrait of both of Napoleon's two wives.

He was an early influence on Théodore Géricault. After 1803 he worked so closely with artist Constance Mayer on many paintings, that it is almost impossible to tell where the contribution of one ends and the other begins.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Biography

darkly shaded painting of two winged angels chasing man, who runs away from a fallen, naked body
Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime, 1808. The darkness and the sprawling naked figure anticipate Théodore Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa.<ref name=gayford/>

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon was born in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. He received his artistic training in the French provinces He married Jeanne Pennet in 1778 in Cluny. They had six children.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>He went to Italy when he was twenty-six years old to continue his education.

In Paris he became an enthusiastic supporter of the Revolution and made drawings of mythological and republican allegories which were engraved and published by his friend Jacques-Louis Copia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Prud'hon made some portraits during this period including one of Louis de Saint-Just, one of the key figures in the Reign of Terror.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

At the fall of Robespierre,in 1794, Prud'hon found it prudent to leave Paris. He spent two years in Franche-Comte, painting portraits and making book illustrations.

In 1796, it was safe to return to Paris. He decorated rooms in some private mansions with allegories of art, philosophy, wealth, and pleasure.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1802 several artists, including Prud'hon received studios in the Sorbonne.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1803, Constance Mayer, already an accomplished artist, entered Prud'hon's studio as a student. She soon became his close collaborator and mistress. She tried to replace the absent mother of his children. His wife had been separated from him and confined to an insane asylum.

Prud'hon and Mayer worked very well as a team. He produced plans and sketches for an allegory or literary subject and she patiently rendered the final painting. Often the paintings were exhibited as her work. This arrangement left him time for portraits and other work.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Prud'hon's Portrait of Empress Josephine shows her alone in the garden of her home, Malmaison.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>After the divorce of Napoleon and Josephine, he was also employed by Napoleon's second wife Marie-Louise. He taught her drawing and designed furniture. His commission for a portrait of Marie-Louise was given to François Gérard and Robert Lefèvre because of Prud'hon's meticulous and time consuming working method.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Prud'hon was at times clearly influenced by Neo-classicism, at other times by Romanticism. He was appreciated by other artists and writers, including Stendhal, Delacroix, Millet and Baudelaire, for his chiaroscuro and convincing realism. He painted Crucifixion (1822) for St. Etienne's Cathedral in Metz; it now hangs in the Louvre.

The young Théodore Géricault had painted copies of work by Prud'hon, whose "thunderously tragic pictures" include his masterpiece, Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime, where oppressive darkness and the compositional base of a naked, sprawled corpse obviously anticipate Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa.<ref name=gayford>Gayford, Martin. "Distinctive power". The Spectator, November 1, 1997. Retrieved from findarticles.com on January 6, 2008.</ref> Template:Clear

References

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Further reading

General studies

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