Guillaume Fouace (22 May 1837,

Réville Réville () is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France. See also *Communes of the Manche department The following is a list of the 446 communes of the Manche department of France. The communes cooperate in the ...

- 7 January 1895, Paris) was a French painter. He produced over 700 paintings in a realist style, mainly portraits, still lifes and landscapes - the

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 ...

has some of them, whilst 40 are displayed in a 'Salle de Fouace' at the Musée Thomas-Henry in

Cherbourg-en-Cotentin Cherbourg-en-Cotentin () is a city in the department of Manche, Normandy, northwestern France, established on 1 January 2016.

Life

Born to farmers in

, a hamlet of Jonville, he took over the family farm aged 24 after his father's death. He had produced drawings since he was a child and his talent was recognised by the museum curator in Cherbourg (

Cherbourg-en-Cotentin Cherbourg-en-Cotentin () is a city in the department of Manche, Normandy, northwestern France, established on 1 January 2016.

since 2016), who gained Fouace two municipal bursaries from Cherbourg to study art in Paris (as had his predecessor from Cotentin, Jean-François Millet). There he studied under Adolphe Yvon before setting up a studio as a portrait painter. He then fought in the Franco-Prussian War. In 1870, three years after arriving in Paris, he exhibited at the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

. In 1873 he exhibited his first still lifes. After the war he moved permanently to Paris with his wife, the daughter of a pharmacist in Cherbourg who he had married in 1874. However, he did not forget the Cotentin - in 1878 he painted 19 canvases of biblical scenes such as the Annunciation, Flight from Egypt and the journey of the Magi for the vaults of the church at Montfarville, while for its choir he painted a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's ''Last Supper''. He died in 1895 of a pulmonary disease after receiving the medal of a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. His tomb in Réville features a recumbent white marble statue of his daughter Beatrix (1875–1888).

Gallery

File:Fouace - départ pour jersey.jpg, ''Le Départ pour Jersey'' (''Leaving for Jersey''), circa 1883, Musée de Cherbourg. File:Bouquet de Lilas, Fouace.jpg, ''Bouquet de Lilas'' File:Déjeuner de carême, Fouace.jpg, ''Déjeuner de carême'' File:Fouace, Guillaume - Femme au noeud.jpg, ''Femme au noeud'' File:L'Ascension de Guillaume Fouace, église Notre-Dame, Montfarville, France.jpg, ''L'Ascension'', église Notre-Dame, Montfarville, France File:La dernière Fileuse de mon village, Fouace.jpg, ''La dernière Fileuse de mon village'' File:La Marche des Rois Mages de Guillaume Fouace, église Notre-Dame, Montfarville, France.jpg, ''La Marche des Rois Mages''

Bibliography

* Éric Lefèvre. ''Peintres de Normandie'', Orep Éditions, 2007. * Maurice Lecoeur "Autour de Guillaume Fouace", Editions Isoète, 2010

External links

* Colette Delaite
''Guillaume Fouace : Une seule ombre aux tableaux'' on the city site of Cherbourg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fouace, Guillaume 1837 births 1895 deaths 19th-century French painters French male painters People from Manche Knights of the Legion of Honour 19th-century French male artists