Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Bernard Boutet de Monvel
Summary
Bernard Boutet de Monvel (9 August 1881 – 28 October 1949) was a French painter, sculptor, engraver, fashion illustrator and interior decorator. Although first known for his etchings, he earned notability for his paintings, especially his geometric paintings from the 1900s and his Moroccan paintings made during World War I. In both Europe and the United States, where he often traveled, he also became known as a portrait painter for high society clients.
He was born in Paris's 4th district, the son of the painter and children's illustrator Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel. His brother Roger became a well-known writer. He was raised in both Paris and Nemours, and he set his sights on becoming a painter from the age of sixteen. Starting in 1897, he studied with Luc-Olivier Merson and Jean Dampt.
In 1898, he was introduced to etching by the American painter Louis McClellan Potter (1873–1912) and soon mastered the technique. Boutet de Monvel focused on colour etching using the 'au repérage' method, which required a separate plate for each colour. Some of his earliest etchings were of his brother Roger — L'habitué (The regular, 1902); L'homme aux chiens (Man with dogs, 1905) — and were stylistically reminiscent of James McNeill Whistler's work. He also made work celebrating as the citizens of Nemours and the riverbanks of the Loing; these include L'éclusière (The lock keeper, 1901); Les haleurs (The haulers, 1899); Le chaland (The lighter, 1899); and La péniche (The barge, 1899). The Studio devoted an article to these early works entitled "Coloured Etching in France" in 1901.
Following this, his etchings mainly revolved around dandies of the past. Examples include Le beau (The handsome, 1906); La merveilleuse (The marvellous, 1906); Le lion (The lion, 1907); and Les hortensias (The hydrangeas, 1911). He also took the countryside surrounding Nemours as a subject in works such as L'heure du repos (Hour of rest, 1908). In 1912, The Art Institute of Chicago devoted a retrospective to his colour prints.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.