Jean Antoine Laurent Explained

Jean Antoine Laurent (Baccarat, 31 October 1763 – Epinal, 11 February 1832) was a French miniaturist and painter.[1]

Biography

He was born in Baccarat, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France into a family of artists. He studied in Nancy, where he was a pupil of Jean-Baptiste Claudot and Jean-Francois Durand. He settled in Paris in 1785 and exhibited in the Salon from 1791 to 1831 obtaining a first class medal in 1808. He lived first in 487, rue Saint Nicaise and then in rue Duphot and in 30 place du Carrousel. In his long career he tried his hand non only as miniaturist but also as history and genre painter. He married Marie Antoinette Gueliot and had four children. Pauline was the elder, Emma was a miniaturist, Paul studied in the Ecole Polytechnique but was expelled in 1814, Jules was a sculptor and director of Epinal Museum.[2] Lauronce refused to work for the House of Bourbon and so was granted protection by Empress Josephine and Queen Hortense de Beauharnais. He was a teacher of drawing in the Ecole forestiere of Nancy, director of the drawing school of Epinal, President of the Societe Academique des Enfants d’Apollon and director of the Epinal Museum, town where he lived in 90, rue de Bourbon. In that period he obtained the Legion of Honour. In 1826 he published a text on lithography. He was one of the few French miniaturists who painted on large surfaces of ivory or parchment. In fact among his subjects there were also equestrian portraits. He painted also with the technique of fixé sous verre, in which the likeness is painted in oils on fine silk fabric and then glued to the inside of a bombé glass.[3]

Artwork

One of the main features of Laurent's works is influenced by the quiet sensitivity propagated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s writings, which repudiated gallantry. The result was soft, sensitive and pensive expression of his sitters in the late 1780s and 1790s. A sort of pre-Romantic style away from the grandeur and austerity toward free expression of emotion. The human inner side becomes the protagonist of his portrait miniatures and we can read it not only in the deep gaze but also in the imperceptible movements of the lips of the many protagonists of his works.[4]

Works

Notes and References

  1. The Miniature in Europe in the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th ... Leo R. Schidlof · 1964
  2. French Painting 1774-1830: The Age of Detroit Institute of Arts, Grand Palais (Paris, France, 1975)
  3. Les peitres en miniature, Nathalie Lemoine-Bouchard, 2008, Les Edition de l’Amateur
  4. La miniature François Pupil, Claire Aptel, Mireille Canet · 1993
  5. Web site: Portrait de Mirabeau. 1791. collections.louvre.fr.
  6. Web site: Portrait of a Young Woman, ca. 1795, Attributed to Jean Antoine Laurent. metmuseum.org.
  7. Web site: Laurent, Jean-Antoine. 1763-1832, Young Woman with the Girl at the Window (Prayer). hermitagemuseum.org.
  8. Web site: Untitled - Jean-Antoine Laurent. useum.org.
  9. Web site: Portrait of a Woman Reclining on a Sofa. 31 October 2018. clevelandart.org.
  10. Web site: The Three Sisters: Finette, Babillarde and Nonchalante (Primary Title). https://web.archive.org/web/20210727224118/https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/6027262-7913933/?pdf=355277&image=355277. 2021-07-27. vmfa.museum.
  11. Web site: Marie-Louise of Austria, Empress of the French. The Tansey Miniatures Foundation.
  12. Web site: Lady with Plumed Straw Hat. The Tansey Miniatures Foundation.