Alfred Émile Léopold Stevens (11 May 182324 August 1906) was a
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
painter, known for his paintings of elegant modern women. In their realistic style and careful finish, his works reveal the influence of 17th-century Dutch
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
painting. After gaining attention early in his career with a
social realist
Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...
painting depicting the plight of poor vagrants, he achieved great critical and popular success with his scenes of upper-middle class Parisian life. He tended to use the same models over and over again, and not all of them were aristocratic. "At least three of his frequent models can be identified in the infamous Book of the Courtesans, a top secret leather bound book containing the surveillance files of the Paris vice squad," writes author Summe Brennan
Family background
Stevens was born in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. He came from a family involved with the visual arts: his older brother
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
(1816–1892) and his son Léopold (1866–1935) were painters, while another brother Arthur (1825–1899) was an art dealer and critic. His father, who had fought in the Napoleonic wars in the army of
William I of the Netherlands
William I (Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau; 24 August 1772 – 12 December 1843) was a Prince of Orange, the King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
He was the son of the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, who we ...
, was an art collector who owned several watercolors by
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...
, among other artists. His mother's parents ran Café de l'Amitié in Brussels, a meeting place for politicians, writers, and artists. All the Stevens children benefited from the people they met there, and the social skills they acquired in growing up around important people.
Education
After the death of his father in 1837, Stevens left middle school to begin study at the
Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels (french: Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts - École supérieure des Arts de la Ville de Bruxelles (ARBA-ESA), nl, Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Brussel), is an art school established in B ...
in Brussels, where he knew
François Navez
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, Kin ...
, the Neo-Classical painter and former student of
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...
who was its director and an old friend of Stevens's grandfather. Following a traditional curriculum, he drew from casts of classical sculpture for the first two years, and then drew from live models. In 1843, Stevens went to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, joining his brother Joseph who already was there. He was admitted to the
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...
, the most important art school in Paris. Although it is said that he became a student of its director
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ...
, this is likely not true. An early picture by Stevens, ''The Pardon'' or ''Absolution'' (Hermitage, St. Petersburg), signed and dated 1849, shows his mastery of a conventional naturalistic style which owes much to 17th-century Dutch
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
painting. Like the Belgian painter and friend with whom he stayed in Paris,
Florent Willems
Florent Willems or Florent Willems van Edeghem (8 January 1823 – 23 October 1905)Florent Willems at the (1823–1905), Stevens carefully studied works by painters such as
Gerard ter Borch
Gerard ter Borch (; December 1617 – 8 December 1681), also known as Gerard Terburg (), was a Dutch genre painter who lived in the Dutch Golden Age. He influenced fellow Dutch painters Gabriel Metsu, Gerrit Dou, Eglon van der Neer and Johanne ...
and
Gabriel Metsu
In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብር ...
.Thomas, Bernadette. "Alfred (Emile-Léopold) Stevens" in ''Oxford Art Online''. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
Career beginnings
Stevens's work was shown publicly for the first time in 1851, when three of his paintings were admitted to the Brussels Salon. He was awarded a third-class medal at the Paris Salon in 1853, and a second-class medal at the
Universal Exposition
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...
, Paris) attracted the attention of
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
who, as a result of the scene in the picture, ordered that soldiers no longer be used to pick up the poor from the streets. Two other paintings he exhibited at the Salon in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
that year, ''Chez soi'' or ''At Home'' (present location unknown) and ''The Painter and his Model'' (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore), introduced subjects from "la vie moderne" for which he became known: an elegant young woman in contemporary dress and the artist in his studio. In 1857, Stevens made his first important sale to a private collector, when ''Consolation'' was bought for a rumored 6,000 francs by the Berlin collector and dealer Ravéné. At the same time, he and his brother were becoming part of the art world of Paris, meeting people such as the
Goncourt
The Goncourt brothers (, , ) were Edmond de Goncourt (1822–1896) and Jules de Goncourt (1830–1870), both French naturalism writers who, as collaborative sibling authors, were inseparable in life.
Background
Edmond and Jules were born to m ...
brothers,
Théophile Gautier
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic.
While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rem ...
, and
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...
at the salons of Princess Mathilde as well as popular cafés.
In 1858, Stevens married Fanny Juliette Albertine Marie Hortense Blan (1836-1891) who came from a rich Belgian family and old friends of the Stevens's. Eugène Delacroix was a witness at the ceremony.
The couple would have four children together—Leopold, Jean, Catherine, and Pierre. Stevens painted his wife's portrait many times, includin Regrets and Memories (at the Clark Institute). When she died, he wrote that he was "foreve inconsolable."
Mature career
During the 1860s, Stevens became an immensely successful painter, known for his paintings of elegant modern women. His exhibits at the Salons in Paris and Brussels attracted favorable critical attention and buyers. An excellent example of his work during this time is ''La Dame en Rose'' or ''Woman in Pink'' (
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Muse ...
, Brussels), painted in 1866, which combines a view of a fashionably dressed woman in an interior with a detailed examination of Japanese objects, a fashionable taste called
Japonisme
''Japonisme'' is a French term that refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design among a number of Western European artists in the nineteenth century following the forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1858. Japon ...
of which Stevens was an early enthusiast. In 1863, he received the
Legion of Honor
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
(Chevalier) from the French government. In 1867, he won a first-class medal at the
Universal Exposition
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
in Paris, where he and
Jan August Hendrik Leys
Henri Leys, Hendrik Leys or Jan August Hendrik, Baron Leys (18 February 1815 – 26 August 1869) was a Belgian painter and printmaker. He was a leading representative of the historical or Romantic school in Belgian art and became a pioneer of th ...
were the stars of the Belgian section, and was promoted to
Officer of the Legion of Honor
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...
. His friends included
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.
Born ...
,
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...
,
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
,
Berthe Morisot
Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (; January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895) was a French painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists.
In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the highly es ...
,
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...
,
Frédéric Bazille
Jean Frédéric Bazille (December 6, 1841 – November 28, 1870) was a French Impressionist painter. Many of Bazille's major works are examples of figure painting in which he placed the subject figure within a landscape painted ''en plein air''.
...
, and
Puvis de Chavannes
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Beau ...
, and he was a regular in the group that gathered at the Café Guerbois in Paris.
Stevens fought for the French during the siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War, but returned to Belgium with his wife and family before the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
. They returned after the war, and Stevens continued to achieve critical acclaim as well as great success with collectors. In 1875, he bought a grand house and garden in Paris on rue des Martyrs, which appeared in his paintings as well as those of other artists, including Édouard Manet's ''The Croquet Party'' (Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main) from 1873. (He had to leave the house in 1880, however, to make way for the construction of a new street, which was named after him.) In 1878, he was made a Commander of the Legion of Honor and received another first-class medal at the Salon.
Despite earning a considerable income through the sale of his paintings, Stevens found that a combination of bad investments and excessive spending caused him great financial difficulties during the 1880s. An additional expense came from summers by the sea, which a doctor told Stevens in 1880 were essential for his health. Thus the artist was glad to agree when the Paris dealer Georges Petit offered him 50,000 francs to finance his vacation in exchange for the paintings Stevens produced during that time. This deal, which lasted for three years, resulted in the sea becoming an important subject for him, and over the rest of his career, he painted hundreds of views of popular resorts along the Normandy coast and the Midi in the south. Many of them are painted in a sketchy style that shows the influence of the Impressionists. Stevens also began to take private students, including
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...
, who became a close personal friend, and
William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...
. Other students were
Berthe Art
Berthe Constance Ursule Art (26 December 1857 – 27 February 1934) was a Belgian still life painter.
Biography
She was born in Brussels as the daughter of Ferdinand Art and Constance Luc. She never married and lived and worked on 28 Blanchestra ...
,
Charles Bell Birch
Charles Bell Birch (28 September 1832 – 16 October 1893) was a British sculptor.
Biography
Birch was born at Brixton in south London, the son of the author and translator Jonathan Birch (1783–1847) and his wife Esther (née Brooke). As a ...
Marie Collart-Henrotin
Marie Collart-Henrotin (5 December 1842 – 8 October 1911) was a Belgian artist who mainly painted landscapes and animals.
Biography
She was born in Brussels. Collart was primarily self-taught as an artist, but benefited from the advice of ...
Georgette Meunier
Georgette Meunier (October 7, 1859 – 1951) was a Belgium, Belgian still life painter.
She was born in Brussels as the daughter of the engraver Jan-Baptiste Meunier, and the older sister of the painter Marc-Henry Meunier. Her father was the ol ...
,
Lilla Cabot Perry
Lilla Cabot Perry (born Lydia Cabot; January 13, 1848 – February 28, 1933) was an American artist who worked in the American Impressionist style, rendering portraits and landscapes in the free form manner of her mentor, Claude Monet. Perry was ...
Fernand Toussaint
Fernand Toussaint (1873–1956) was a Belgian people, Belgian painter and illustrator in the 19th century Belgian School. He was born in Brussels in 1873 in a family of upper-middle class. When his parents discovered his talent in drawing they hel ...
.
Late career
The single most important work from the second half of Stevens's career is the monumental ''Panorama du Siècle, 1789–1889'', which he painted with
Henri Gervex
Henri Gervex (Paris 10 December 1852 – 7 June 1929 Paris) was a French painter who studied painting under Alexandre Cabanel, Pierre-Nicolas Brisset, and Eugène Fromentin.
Biography Early years
He was the son of Joséphine Peltier and Félix N ...
. Stevens painted the women and details and Gervex the men, with the help of fifteen assistants. It was shown to great acclaim at the International Exhibition held in Paris in 1889. He also received several great professional tributes. In 1895, a large exhibition of his work was held in Brussels. In 1900, Stevens was honored by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris with the first retrospective exhibition ever given to a living artist. Supported by patrons led by the Comtesse de Greffulhe, it achieved social cachet as well as popular success. In 1905, he was the only living artist allowed to exhibit in a retrospective show of Belgian art in Brussels. Despite these exhibitions, he was not able to sell enough of his work to manage well financially. Having outlived his brothers and most of his friends, he died in Paris in 1906, living alone in modest rooms, whilst still remaining in touch with his four children.
Honours
* 1881: Grand Officer in the Order of Leopold.Handelsblad (Het) 15-05-1881
Selected works
File:Alfred Stevens - The Painter and His Model - Walters 37322.jpg, ''The Painter and His Model'', 1855
File:Alfred-stevens-will-you-go-out-with-me-fido-1859.jpg, ''Will You Go Out With Me Fido?'', 1859
File:Stevens, Léopold - Lady at a Window Feeding Birds (ca 1859).jpg, ''Lady at a Window Feeding Birds'', c. 1859
File:Alfred Stevens - News from Afar - Walters 37183.jpg, ''News from Afar'', 1860 (Exhibition: " Salute to Belgium, 1980)
File:Stevens, Léopold - The Lady in Pink (1867).jpg, ''The Lady in Pink'', 1866
File:Alfred Stevens-Lighthouse at dusk.jpg, ''Lighthouse at Dusk''
File:Alfred Stevens - (1823-1906) - De Parijse sfinks (1867) - kmska 001 28-02-2010 15-06-35.jpg, '' The Parisian Sphinx'', 1875–1877
Alfred Emile Stevens, 1877c - The Japanese Mask.jpg, ''The Japanese mask'', c. 1877
File:Stevens Alfred Reverie c1878 Oil On Canvas.jpg, ''Rêverie'', c. 1878
File:Alfred Stevens (1823–1906) - Maria Magdalena - 1887 - MSK Gent 17-03-2009 12-18-27.JPG, '' Maria Magdalena'', 1887
File:Alfred Stevens - L'Ètude du Rôle.jpg, ''L'Ètude du Rôle'', 1888
File:1888 Stevens Im Studio anagoria.JPG, ''In the Studio'', 1888
File:StevensBlueRibbon.jpeg, ''The New Blue Ribbon'', 1894
File:Alfred Stevens - Camille Lemonnier in het atelier van de kunstenaar - Camille Lemonnier dans l'atelier de l'artiste - Erfgoedfonds Koning Boudewijnstichting - Fonds du Patrimoine Fondation Roi Baudouin.jpg, ''
Camille Lemonnier in the Artist's Studio
''Camille Lemonnier in the Artist's Studio'' ( French: ''Camille Lemonnier dans l’atelier de l’artiste'', Dutch: ''Camille Lemonnier in het atelier van de kunstenaar'') is an oil on canvas painting by Belgian painter Alfred Stevens. The portr ...
''
Notes
References
* Berko, P. & V. (1981). "Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875", Knokke, pp. 604–607.
* Berko, P. & V. (2011). "19th Century European Virtuoso Painters", Knokke, p. 516, illustrations pp. 136, 398–399 & 429.
* Derrey-Capon, Danielle (2009). "Between Women and Reflections; Alfred Stevens: a biography (Brussels 1823 – Paris 1906)." In ''Alfred Stevens, Brussels 1823-Paris 1906''. Exh. cat. Brussels/Mercatorfonds: Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum. Pp. 11–58.
See also
*
13058 Alfredstevens
13058 Alfredstevens, provisional designation , is a stony Vestian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 3 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by Belgian astronomer Eric Elst at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Nor ...