Patio à l'Alhambra, 1860, Achille Zo, musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau

Achille Zo (born Jean-Baptiste Achille Zo on 30 July 1826, Bayonne -2 March 1901,

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

) was a French painter of Basque origin. He painted in the academic style with many historical works and genre scenes, especially from Spain.

Biography

After losing his father at the age of 14, Zo first became an apprentice house painter while taking drawing lessons at the Bayonne Académie de dessin, receiving many prizes for his work. He then spent a few years working in a theatre decoration studio in

before going to Paris in 1846 where he joined

Thomas Couture Thomas Couture (21 December 1815 – 30 March 1879) was a French history painter and teacher. He taught such later luminaries of the art world as Édouard Manet, Henri Fantin-Latour, John La Farge,Wilkinson, Burke. ''The Life and Works of A ...

, working in his studio for two years and receiving instruction in

academic painting Academic art, or academicism or academism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie ...

. Unable to make a living in the capital, Zo had to return to Bordeaux but was back in Paris in 1852 when he exhibited a painting at the Salon de l'Académie de Peinture titled ''Marchands d'esclaves''. As a result of its success, he was able to undertake a lengthy journey to Spain where he completed sketches as a basis for his future work. He was to return to Spain on several occasions, notably in 1856 (Madrid) and in 1860 (Andalucia)."Achille Zo Bayonne, 1826 - Bordeaux, 1901 - Composition à la théière"
''Auction.fr''. Retrieved 27 April 2012. For a number of years Zo painted historical subjects and Spanish

genre scenes Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. Such representations (also called genre works, ...

. His ''Gitanos du Monte Sagrado à Grenade'' and ''Famille de bohémiens en voyage'' fared quite well at the Salon in 1861. His ''Marchand de fruits à Séville'', picked out by a critic in 1864, was purchased soon after the king of Portugal. In 1868, the ''Tribunal des Rois Mores à l'Alhambra de Grenade'', purchased by the French State, earned him a gold medal at the Salon. In the late 1860s, Zo turned from Spanish scenes to

orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...

, exhibiting ''Rêve du croyant'' (The Believer's Dream) at the 1870 Salon. It showed one of

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

's disciples discovering the splendors of paradise while smoking a hookah, revealing a fanciful approach to

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

and the widely held western view of oriental piety. Upset by the Siege of Paris, in 1871 he returned to Bayonne where he opened a studio while heading the city's Ecole de dessin. He was also appointed custodian of the Musée de Peintures et des Décors de Théâtre. He no longer exhibited in Paris, concentrating on local exhibitions. His son,

Henri-Achille Zo Henri-Achille Zo (2 December 1873, Bayonne9 September 1933, Onesse-Laharie) was a French painter and illustrator of Basque ancestry. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics. Biograp ...

, also became a well known painter and illustrator.

References

External links

More works by Zo
@ ArtNet {{DEFAULTSORT:Zo, Achille 19th-century French painters French male painters 1826 births 1901 deaths People from Bayonne French-Basque people 19th-century painters of historical subjects 19th-century French male artists

Biography

References

Further reading

External links