Edouard-Henri Girardet (21 July 1819,

Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...

- 5 March 1880,

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

) was a Swiss-born French painter and engraver.

Life and work

He was born to the engraver, Charles Samuel Girardet. His brothers,

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

and

Karl Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...

, also became engravers and painters, as did his sons,

Henri Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry (given name), Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the 'List_of_rulers_named_Henry#France, List of rulers named Henry ...

, Pierre (1850–1884), Robert (1851–1900) and Max (1857–1927). In 1822, his family moved to Paris. He was already involved in

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

ting around 1828. Three years later, he took classes in ornamental sculpting at the "

École Royale Gratuite de Dessin École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

" in Paris. From 1836, he worked on creating drawings for ''Les Galeries Historiques de Versailles'', by . During this time, he took painting lessons from his brother, Karl. In 1839, he went back to Switzerland, where he created scenes from the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland ( en, Bernese Highlands, german: Berner Oberland; gsw, Bärner Oberland; french: Oberland bernois), the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern, is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context ...

; the first in a long series of rural

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 ...

paintings. In 1842, he and Karl took trip to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, where he produced some Orientalist works. Following their trip, he went to live in

Brienz Brienz ( , , ) is a village and municipality on the northern shore of Lake Brienz, at the foot of the Brienzer Rothorn mountain, and in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. Besides the village of Brienz, the municipality includes the sett ...

, and was married there in 1845. His family grew rather large so, to secure their livelihood, from 1855 he was engaged in making reproductive engravings for the French art dealer and publisher,

Adolphe Goupil ''Adolphe'' is a classic French novel by Benjamin Constant, first published in 1816. It tells the story of an alienated young man, Adolphe, who falls in love with an older woman, Ellénore, the Polish mistress of the Comte de P***. Their illicit ...

; a commission which had been secured through Karl's mediation. In 1857, he went back to Paris, where he focused on engravings of works by well-known artists, including

Paul Delaroche Hippolyte-Paul Delaroche (17 July 1797 – 4 November 1856) was a French painter who achieved his greater successes painting historical scenes. He became famous in Europe for his melodramatic depictions that often portrayed subjects from English ...

Horace Vernet Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (30 June 178917 January 1863), more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French Painting, painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalism, Orientalist subjects. Biography Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another ...

and

Jean-Léon Gérôme Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living artist by 1880." The ran ...

. In 1866, he was made a Knight in 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 ...

. During the Franco-Prussian War, he lived in Brienz. Beginning in the mid-1870s, he took up painting again, and made lengthy trips to

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

, Italy and North Africa, to provide himself with motifs.

Selected paintings

File:Girardet-Bear.jpg, Bear Hunting File:Girardet-Village.jpg, A Lively Village Scene File:Le Defenseur de la couronne 2.jpg, The Defender of the Crown File:Edouard Girardet - Entering the city.jpg, Entering the City

Sources

* M.Tripet: "Girardet, Édouard". In: Carl Brun (Ed.): ''Schweizerisches Künstler-Lexikon'', Vol.1: A–G. Huber & Co., Frauenfeld 1905, pg.583
Online
* "Girardet, Edouard". In: Ulrich Thieme, Fred. C. Willis (Eds.): ''Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart'', Vol.14: Giddens–Gress. E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1921, pg.165
Online
*

External links

More works by Girardet
@ ArtNet * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Girardet, Edouard 1819 births 1880 deaths French painters French engravers French genre painters Swiss emigrants to France People from the canton of Neuchâtel