The Painters Archives - Page 6 sur 9

Pierre Théophile Thomas-E

Auxerre, October 10th 1846 – June 18th 1916, Ecouen

Pierre Théophile Thomas was first, passionately and successfully, a theater costume designer. He began working for the theater in 1871 and owes his luck to being noticed by Victorien Sardou (1831-1908), who immediately detected his talent, the finesse of his line and the subtlety of his colors.
From 1871, thanks to the influence of Victorien Sardou, he collaborates with the Renaissance Theater and the Opera-Comique. He created numerous costume models: for « the Marriage of Figaro » on 29/5/1882, the cape of « Theodora » for Sarah Bernhardt around 1884 and, in 1874, costumes for « the youth of Louis XIV » by Alexandre Dumas.
Models can be found in the Opera library, including costumes for the peasant girls in Molière’s « Dom Juan« .
It is reported during the representation of » L’Attaque du moulin « , lyric drama in 4 acts drawn from the short story of E. Zola, who takes part in the libretto of L. Gallet.
To point out on the site Mascarille, photos of Emile Zeizig, a very beautiful photo of costume of Théophile Thomas for « Le roi s’amuse » of Victor Hugo (1882).
Reminder :
1873 : Joan of Arc by Jules Barbier
1880: Michel Strogoff by Adolphe Ennery
1882 : Ninetta ; Journey through the impossible by Adolphe Ennery ; Mères ennemies
1887 : La Tosca
1890 : Cleopatra by Victorien Sardou

For further information, please read the book “L’Ecole d’Ecouen, une colonie de peintres au XIXe siècle” (bilingual French-English).

Paul Constant Soyer-E

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Paris 2°, February 24th 1823 – May 17th 1903, Chanteloup-les-vignes

One of the most Ecouenian painters of the Colony is undoubtedly Paul Soyer, since his mother, Mrs. Landon Pauline, already known in the world of engraving, had come to Ecouen in 1856, with her son, born in Paris on February 24, 1823, at 11 boulevard de Clichy.
Widower of Françoise Roque (sometimes written Roch), he married in Ecouen, on August 9, 1877 Joséphine Charlotte Steiger, professor of music at the Legion of Honor, with Emmanuel Duverger and Charles Edouard Frère as witnesses. Like many, he was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and soon exhibited, from 1847, with the portrait of his own mother, in Paris, at the Salon des artistes français, until 1901. He was awarded a first medal after the 1870 Salon and a second class medal in 1882, and finally a bronze medal at the Universal Exhibition in 1889.
His paintings sometimes take on impressive proportions: the one exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1870 showing blacksmiths at work is between three and four meters high and five to six meters wide. It is one of the artist’s favorite subjects, very attached to represent the hardness of the work, conditions at the limit of the bearable which will even lead him to paint them in the middle of a strike, inspired by a work of François Coppée. About this painting, Nicolas Pierrot analyzes that the painter adopts « a pyramidal composition. At the base are represented several groups of workers (from the laborers to the molders), while the top, in the center of the painting, merges with the figure of the master founder ». (A Painter in the Factory). While many artists at that time chose this topical subject for their painting, the critic of the Paris Moderne of 1882 recognized that the one who « succeeded best, although he got a little lost in wanting to render elusive light effects », was Paul Soyer.
Another critic, Mr. Lambert, about his two paintings exhibited at the Salon of 1887 indicates that « the science of the arrangement competes with the research of the harmony. Everything is just, fine, precise. As a man who knows a lot, he has no failings…that charm in the honest calm of these good people. »
His « Dentellières d’Asnières-sur-Oise« , a charming painting with a vigorous color, was also very successful, to the point of being acquired by the State in 1865; after its exhibition at the Salon; thereafter, it enchanted the visitors of the Universal Exhibition of 1867, then that of the Fine Arts of Munich in 1879, before charming for a long time the regulars of the Museum of Luxembourg, between 1866 and 1892; the painting was then deposited at the Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honor. Restoration work would later keep it in the Louvre between 1958 and 1967, before it was finally offered to the public in all its beauty at the Musée d’Orsay. It was noted in « Le Temps » of June 6, 1865, that the parish priest of Ecouen could be seen in it, but « whose hands are barely outlined ». It was Abbé Chevallier, who wrote a well-documented book on the town of Ecouen, and who recovered the base of the equestrian statue of the Constable, melted down during the Revolution, to have it placed in the foundations of the new porch of the Ecouen church of Saint-Acceul.

Pour plus d’informations, nous vous invitons à lire le livre « L’Ecole d’Ecouen – une colonie de peintres au XIXe siècle »

Parish priest_Dedicated to Leon Dansaert

Guillaume Seignac-E

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Rennes, September 25th 1870 – 1924, Paris

The youngest son of Paul Seignac, he was born in Rennes where the family had retreated with its first four children to be safe from the events of 1870. His childhood in Ecouen, in contact with his father and in the midst of this group of talented and fulfilled artists, must have naturally guided his choice to become a painter in his turn.
His training was acquired successively in three workshops: that of Tony Robert-Fleury, Gabriel Ferrier and finally – and this apprenticeship had a considerable influence on his career – he studied with William Bouguereau. The latter is one of the best painters of human anatomy.
Guillaume Seignac also specialized in nude painting, which became less traditional, to gain in frivolity. Nevertheless, it continues to be referred to as academic painting, sometimes called « pompous art » and it reserves a primary place for drawing, which takes precedence over color. Some of his works go beyond this framework: a little unexpected, this « Jesus among the doctors« . This other one during the 1914-1918 war, where he illustrates a poster intended to raise a loan to finance the purchase of weapons, or this young Alsatian woman shouting a joyful « At last » at the time of the 1918 victory.
In 1906, he donated to the town of Ecouen a painting entitled « The Muse« , with a familiar expression and which seems to owe to the accentuated antiquity only the drape of its clothing.

For further information, please read the book “L’Ecole d’Ecouen, une colonie de peintres au XIXe siècle” (bilingual French-English).

Paul François Seignac-E

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Bordeaux, February 12th 1826 – 1904, Paris

Like Duverger and Dargelas, Paul Seignac was born in Bordeaux. In Paris, he became a student of Edouard Picot, a history painter who carried out a number of commissions for Parisian churches. After considering various avenues, he specialized in genre painting, attracted in particular by the depiction of rural scenes and paintings of children. In 1849, he exhibited three portraits at the Paris Salon and received an honorable mention in 1889.
After living for some time in the village of Sarcelles, he arrived in Ecouen where he joined the colony of painters. He settled in a large house surrounded by a beautiful garden, which still has its studio glass roof and bears the motto « Labor » on its facade, which could not be more appropriate for the tireless worker that Paul Signac was.
When he joined the colony of painters gathered around Pierre Edouard Frère, it was already numerous. This group of artists seems to have been particularly linked by friendship. Some children married each other. Two or three times a week, each one has his reception evening where friends and acquaintances come to chat and have fun around glasses of wine and some cakes.
At that time, this choice to paint the real life of ordinary people also aspires to offer a painting accessible to all, which, for the artists, is equivalent to giving a social meaning to their art. Seignac was successful very early on. Eulogistic articles gradually built his reputation, including abroad, since in 1885, the « New York Times » praised his talent.
How did Paul Seignac spend the last years of his life? In the archives, a certificate of September 5, 1892 attests that the soldier of the class of 1890, No. 58 (this is Guillaume Seignac, the 22-year-old painter), is the sole and indispensable support of the family which is composed of his father, Paul Seignac, 66 years old, married and paralyzed, Augustine Salemke, 54 years old, and a sister, Marie Adeline 29 years old. In 1894, he sold his house in Écouen to the painter William Bouguereau, his son’s teacher.
Paul Seignac was and still is one of the most appreciated artists of the Ecouen School.

For further information, please read the book “L’Ecole d’Ecouen, une colonie de peintres au XIXe siècle” (bilingual French-English).

Auguste Frédéric Albert Schenck-E

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Glückstadt, Germany, April 23rd 1821 – December 28th 1900, Ecouen

He was born in Glückstadt, a Danish town later annexed by Prussia, province of Schleswig-Holstein. He is the son of Jakob and Christine Granso. He began his career as a merchant and tried to make his fortune in England and then in Portugal where he stayed for five years, selling wine in Porto. Ruined, he sold his cellars and arrived in France, first in Paris, then in Villiers-le Bel, in 1861, and finally in Ecouen, around 1862. Later, even at the time of his glory, as a painter, he remained a businessman by associating with a man named Jean Théodore Coupier, domiciled in Paris, specializing in the manufacture of dyes for dyeing, derived from coal tar, and this between 1875 and 1882. In Warsaw, on August 23, 1850, he married Louise Emilie Stapaczjuska.
He then devoted himself to painting, as an amateur to begin with, and became a pupil, like many others, of Léon Cogniet, who taught him the realistic reproduction of animals on canvas, which earned him a medal in 1865, and a few compliments from Emile Zola, in his criticisms of the Salon of 1866, who was surprised to see how much the models resembled those depicted on canvas. That year, and exceptionally, it was deer that he represented: « The deer of Mr. Schenck are well drawn, they group themselves very nicely in an ingenious composition. I only wonder if their bodies should not be removed with more vigor on a snowy background. » He is a little more severe with other models: « The herd of the same artist obliges me to repeat the reproaches that I addressed earlier to the German painters. Too much process, a work too agreed and too easy. One has thirteen to the dozen of these sheep ».
His trademark became over time the painting of sheep. It is said, and many have witnessed it, that in his vast property, which has since disappeared, at the top of the rue de la Beauvette, which today bears his name, he raised animals and in particular sheep, models that he had on hand, those that Emile Zola, in person, saw during his visit to Ecouen: « The fence of a stable was pushed in front of us, where Mr. Schenck fed some of his models. It was a tough test for a painter to get close to his work: he had succeeded brilliantly. The spectacle of the stable was the counterpoint of the painting ». Nice compliment from the leader of the naturalist movement. Journalists visit his estate. Louis Enault, wrote in « The Press » of May 28, 1880: « Thus, he knows better than anyone else their usual gaits, their preferred attitudes and the mobile play of their physiognomies ». Long stays in the Auvergne inspired him to paint many pictures of sheep, most often caught in a snowstorm, « the fleeces shivering and lifted, very moving, very pathetic and very true », concludes the same journalist.

For further information, please read the book “L’Ecole d’Ecouen, une colonie de peintres au XIXe siècle” (bilingual French-English).

Henry Robecchi-E

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Milan, April 5th 1827 – October 25th 1889, Ecouen

He became French and made his career in France as a decorative painter (Opera, Opéra-Comique, Comédie-Française, La Gaîté, Théâtre Lyrique, etc.). He had his studio on rue de Lauzun in Belleville. In 1859, while working for the direction of the theater in Soisson (Aisne), he executed a gouache project for a mural he intended to paint in the church of the faubourg Saint-Waast: « The Baptism of Clovis« .
On September 21, 1872, Henry Robecchi, painter, and Germaine Peviani, his wife, acquired a house in the rue de la châtaigneraie, a first floor divided into seven rooms, with a right of way on the small square in front of the house.
From January 1, 1890, Henry Robecchi granted the Butel et Valton company, for the creation of sets, a lease for a large workshop and outbuildings, 9-11, rue de Lauzun, in Paris, for nine years in return for a rent of 6,000 F per year. On July 21, 1898, a judgment of seizure is exercised against them.
Robecchi is the father-in-law of Charles Edouard Frère who married his daughter, Giulia Augustina Maria Robecchi. Henry and Giulia Robecchi are buried in the Frère family grave (father and son).

For further information, please read the book “L’Ecole d’Ecouen, une colonie de peintres au XIXe siècle” (bilingual French-English).