Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel (18 October 1850 – 16 March 1913)[1] was a
Frenchpainter and
illustrator best known for his
watercolours for
children's books.[2] He was a major figure in nineteenth-century children's book illustration.
Early life and education
Boutet de Monvel was born in
Orléans, the second of nine children; his father, Benjamin Boutet de Monvel (1820–1880), was a physics and chemistry professor.[3] His maternal grandfather was the tenor
Adolphe Nourrit (1802–1839), and there were other artists in the family.[4] He lived mainly in Paris as a child.[4]
In 1873 he exhibited for the first time at the
Salon, showing a painting entitled Temptation.[4] He won a bronze medal in 1878 for The Good Samaritan and a silver medal in 1880 for The Lesson Before the Sabbath.[6][7]
Three trips to Algeria (1876, 1878, 1880) had a strong influence on his style as he responded to the quality of the light.[4] He became a
plein air painter and his palette shifted towards orange and blue as its base colors.[4] In the Paris salon of 1880, he showed one of his Algerian paintings, On the High Plateaus.[4]
In 1885, he exhibited The Rabble's Apotheosis, or the Triumph of
Robert Macaire at an exhibition organized by the
Society of French Artists.[4] However, the painting's royalist theme so angered Edmond Turquet, then the Deputy Secretary of State for Fine Art, that it was removed just before the private viewing and moved to the premises of the newspaper Le Figaro.[4]
He was an early member of the Society of French Watercolourists, which had recently been founded by
Édouard Detaille.[4] One of the first watercolours he sent to their exhibition was a portrait of a young woman in Renaissance clothing; its great success opened the door for a career as a portrait painter.[4] His skill at capturing the moods of children gained him many commissions from upper middle class parents.[3][7] He received so many commissions for portraits that at one time he contemplated giving up book illustration (see below).[7]
Illustrations
In 1876, he married Jeanne Labaigue of Orléans, and their first child was born three years later.[4] Their son
Roger would become a writer, and their son
Bernard would become a painter. The need to support his family pushed him into commercial illustration.[7] In 1881, he illustrated a children's reader, and this opened further commissions to illustrate children's books.[4] He also began contributing illustrations to the children's magazine St. Nicholas, continuing until 1890.[4]
In 1895 he published an illustrated children's history of
Joan of Arc that has been regarded as his masterpiece.[3][7] The epic scenes for Joan of Arc show the influence of two late-medieval painters:
Fra Angelico in the use of modeling and
Paolo Uccello in the composition of battle scenes.[4] Drawn with a strong line and clear, harmonious colors, his illustrations drew critical praise even though he himself was disappointed in the quality of the reproductions, which had been done by zincotype, a then-new photoengraving process.[4][7] As one critic put it:
Boutet de Monvel's full-page illustrations have a nobility and grandeur akin to the great church frescoes of the Renaissance. Their pleasingly flat rendering combined with a sophisticated use of design elements...owe a debt to the Japanese prints so popular in the artist's day.[3]
Joan of Arc was a huge success and brought him international recognition.[4] In 1899, he participated in an exhibition organized by members of the
Viennese Secession that focused on graphic art.[4] That same year his work was shown in the United States at venues such as the
Art Institute of Chicago, the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.[4] He went to Chicago for that exhibition but fell ill with a recurrence of a bronchial ailment contracted during the Franco-Prussian war.[4]
At the
World's Fair of 1900, he received a gold medal for a panel entitled Joan at the Court of Chinon that was part of a commission for a new basilica in Donrémy.[4][7] It was one of a set of five panels, but the other four were never finished, though a smaller-scale version was completed for senator
William A. Clark, who donated it to the
Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington.[4][7]
He died in
Nemours in 1913.[5] Not long afterwards, the Manzi et Joyant Gallery organised a retrospective of his work in Paris.[4] Further retrospectives have followed, and a large traveling show was organized in the United States in 1987-88. [4] Some of his work is held by museums.
Boutet de Monvel is still considered a master of the children's illustration genre for the originality of his work. His style has been praised for its lack of unnecessary detail,[5] and it has been noted that his images provide "a revelation of a subject which the writer has treated only in a fragmentary and superficial manner."[5] He has been ranked alongside
Kate Greenaway and
Randolph Caldecott as a leading figure of the 19th century's golden era of children's book illustration.[7]
Selected books illustrated by de Monvel
Vielles chansons et rondes pour les petits enfants (Old Songs and Rounds for Little Children, 1883)[8]
Chansons de France pour les petits français (Songs of France for French Children 1884)[7]
Quand j'étais petit by Lucien Briart (When I Was Young, 1886)
Pierre Bonnard, the Graphic Art, an exhibition catalog from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel (see index)
Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel (18 October 1850 – 16 March 1913)[1] was a
Frenchpainter and
illustrator best known for his
watercolours for
children's books.[2] He was a major figure in nineteenth-century children's book illustration.
Early life and education
Boutet de Monvel was born in
Orléans, the second of nine children; his father, Benjamin Boutet de Monvel (1820–1880), was a physics and chemistry professor.[3] His maternal grandfather was the tenor
Adolphe Nourrit (1802–1839), and there were other artists in the family.[4] He lived mainly in Paris as a child.[4]
In 1873 he exhibited for the first time at the
Salon, showing a painting entitled Temptation.[4] He won a bronze medal in 1878 for The Good Samaritan and a silver medal in 1880 for The Lesson Before the Sabbath.[6][7]
Three trips to Algeria (1876, 1878, 1880) had a strong influence on his style as he responded to the quality of the light.[4] He became a
plein air painter and his palette shifted towards orange and blue as its base colors.[4] In the Paris salon of 1880, he showed one of his Algerian paintings, On the High Plateaus.[4]
In 1885, he exhibited The Rabble's Apotheosis, or the Triumph of
Robert Macaire at an exhibition organized by the
Society of French Artists.[4] However, the painting's royalist theme so angered Edmond Turquet, then the Deputy Secretary of State for Fine Art, that it was removed just before the private viewing and moved to the premises of the newspaper Le Figaro.[4]
He was an early member of the Society of French Watercolourists, which had recently been founded by
Édouard Detaille.[4] One of the first watercolours he sent to their exhibition was a portrait of a young woman in Renaissance clothing; its great success opened the door for a career as a portrait painter.[4] His skill at capturing the moods of children gained him many commissions from upper middle class parents.[3][7] He received so many commissions for portraits that at one time he contemplated giving up book illustration (see below).[7]
Illustrations
In 1876, he married Jeanne Labaigue of Orléans, and their first child was born three years later.[4] Their son
Roger would become a writer, and their son
Bernard would become a painter. The need to support his family pushed him into commercial illustration.[7] In 1881, he illustrated a children's reader, and this opened further commissions to illustrate children's books.[4] He also began contributing illustrations to the children's magazine St. Nicholas, continuing until 1890.[4]
In 1895 he published an illustrated children's history of
Joan of Arc that has been regarded as his masterpiece.[3][7] The epic scenes for Joan of Arc show the influence of two late-medieval painters:
Fra Angelico in the use of modeling and
Paolo Uccello in the composition of battle scenes.[4] Drawn with a strong line and clear, harmonious colors, his illustrations drew critical praise even though he himself was disappointed in the quality of the reproductions, which had been done by zincotype, a then-new photoengraving process.[4][7] As one critic put it:
Boutet de Monvel's full-page illustrations have a nobility and grandeur akin to the great church frescoes of the Renaissance. Their pleasingly flat rendering combined with a sophisticated use of design elements...owe a debt to the Japanese prints so popular in the artist's day.[3]
Joan of Arc was a huge success and brought him international recognition.[4] In 1899, he participated in an exhibition organized by members of the
Viennese Secession that focused on graphic art.[4] That same year his work was shown in the United States at venues such as the
Art Institute of Chicago, the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.[4] He went to Chicago for that exhibition but fell ill with a recurrence of a bronchial ailment contracted during the Franco-Prussian war.[4]
At the
World's Fair of 1900, he received a gold medal for a panel entitled Joan at the Court of Chinon that was part of a commission for a new basilica in Donrémy.[4][7] It was one of a set of five panels, but the other four were never finished, though a smaller-scale version was completed for senator
William A. Clark, who donated it to the
Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington.[4][7]
He died in
Nemours in 1913.[5] Not long afterwards, the Manzi et Joyant Gallery organised a retrospective of his work in Paris.[4] Further retrospectives have followed, and a large traveling show was organized in the United States in 1987-88. [4] Some of his work is held by museums.
Boutet de Monvel is still considered a master of the children's illustration genre for the originality of his work. His style has been praised for its lack of unnecessary detail,[5] and it has been noted that his images provide "a revelation of a subject which the writer has treated only in a fragmentary and superficial manner."[5] He has been ranked alongside
Kate Greenaway and
Randolph Caldecott as a leading figure of the 19th century's golden era of children's book illustration.[7]
Selected books illustrated by de Monvel
Vielles chansons et rondes pour les petits enfants (Old Songs and Rounds for Little Children, 1883)[8]
Chansons de France pour les petits français (Songs of France for French Children 1884)[7]
Quand j'étais petit by Lucien Briart (When I Was Young, 1886)
Pierre Bonnard, the Graphic Art, an exhibition catalog from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel (see index)