Hendrik Scheffer (The Hague, 25 September 1798 – Paris, 15 March 1862) was a Dutch painter in the Romantic tradition who lived in France for most of his life. In France he is usually known as Henri Scheffer.
Personal life
Scheffer was the younger brother of painter
Ary Scheffer
Ary Scheffer (10 February 179515 June 1858) was a Dutch-French Romantic painter. He was known mostly for his works based on literature, with paintings based on the works of Dante, Goethe, and Lord Byron, as well as religious subjects. He was als ...
Arie Lamme
Arie Lamme (8 January 1748 – 18 March 1801) was a Dutch landscape painter and poet.
Early life and education
Lamme was born at Heerjansdam and studied under Joris Ponse at Utrecht; he practiced in the style of Aelbert Cuyp. He was much engage ...
. When his father died in 1809, his mother first moved to
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 ...
and in 1811 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 ...
.
His daughter Cornélie married French philosopher
Ernest Renan
Joseph Ernest Renan (; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, expert of Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote influe ...
. Their son
Ary Renan
Cornelius Ary Renan (1857–1900) was a French Symbolist painter and anti-clerical social activist.
Career
Renan was the son of the Breton scholar Ernest Renan, who pioneered modern secular study of the life of Jesus. His mother was the daug ...
also became a painter.
Work
Scheffers, like his brother Ary, was a pupil of
Pierre-Narcisse Guérin
Pierre-Narcisse, baron Guérin (13 March 1774 – 6 July 1833) was a French painter born in Paris.
Background
A pupil of Jean-Baptiste Regnault, he carried off one of the three ''grands prix'' offered in 1796, in consequence of the competition ...
.
His work was much sought after in his lifetime. He mainly painted genre pieces and portraits which were finely crafted. His work was exhibited at the
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
from 1824 onwards and was heavily criticised by Charles Baudelaire and
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 ...
.
Scheffers best known work is probably a picture portraying ''the arrest of
Charlotte Corday
Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont (27 July 1768 – 17 July 1793), known as Charlotte Corday (), was a figure of the French Revolution. In 1793, she was executed by guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, who w ...
'' (now in the
Musée Lambinet
The Musée Lambinet is a municipal museum in Versailles telling the history of the town. Since 1932, it has been housed in the hôtel Lambinet, a hôtel particulier designed by Élie Blanchard, built in the second half of the 18th century by a part ...
François Arago
Dominique François Jean Arago ( ca, Domènec Francesc Joan Aragó), known simply as François Arago (; Catalan: ''Francesc Aragó'', ; 26 February 17862 October 1853), was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of t ...
, the basis for the well known engraving by Alexandre Vincent Sixdeniers
*
Armand Carrel
Armand Carrel (8 May 1800 – 25 July 1836) was a French journalist and political writer.
Early life
Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Armand Carrel was born at Rouen. His father was a wealthy merchant, and he received a liberal education at the '' Lyc ...
*
Casimir Delavigne
Jean-François Casimir Delavigne (4 April 179311 December 1843) was a French poet and dramatist.
Life and career
Delavigne was born at Le Havre, but was sent to Paris to be educated at the Lycée Napoleon. He read extensively. When, on 20 March ...
Ernest Renan
Joseph Ernest Renan (; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, expert of Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote influe ...
(now in the
Musée de la Vie Romantique
The Musée de la Vie romantique (Museum of Romantic Life, or ''Museum of the Romantics'') stands at the foot of Montmartre hill in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, 16 rue Chaptal, Paris, France in an 1830 ''hôtel particulier'' facing two twin-stu ...
)
*
Augustin Thierry
Augustin Thierry (or ''Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry''; 10 May 179522 May 1856) was a French historian. Although originally a follower of Henri de Saint-Simon, he later developed his own approach to history. A committed liberal, his approach ...
Selected other works:
*''An Inundation in Rome''
*''
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
entering
Orléans
Orléans (;"Orleans" (US) and Madame Roland
Marie-Jeanne 'Manon' Roland de la Platière (Paris, March 17, 1754 – Paris, November 8, 1793), born Marie-Jeanne Phlipon, and best known under the name Madame Roland, was a French revolutionary, salonnière and writer.
Initially she led a ...
''
*''Preaching after the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
The Edict of Fontainebleau (22 October 1685) was an edict issued by French King Louis XIV and is also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted Huguenots the right to practice their religion without s ...
''
*''The Battle of Cassel'' (now in Versailles)
*''The dream of Charles IX in the night of St. Bartholomew'', based on the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre
His work has been copied many times in engravings.
The
Dordrechts Museum
Dordrechts Museum is an art museum in Dordrecht, Netherlands. The museum was founded in 1842 and has a collection of artists of the last 400 years.
Paintings
The museum has works of the following artists:
Gallery
File:Portrait of Cornelis van ...
has a section dedicated to the work of the Scheffers (mainly his brother Ary).
Students
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French people, French Painting, 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 Soci ...
studied with him for a time.
Awards
He was made a Chevalier 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 ...
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet ( he, הַר הַזֵּיתִים, Har ha-Zeitim; ar, جبل الزيتون, Jabal az-Zaytūn; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge east of and adjacent to Jeru ...
'' in the church of Chalifert
File:Scheffer henry joan arc.jpeg, ''
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
entering
Orléans
Orléans (;"Orleans" (US) and Amaury VI de Montfort''
File:Don Juan asleep on Haidée's lap by Henry Scheffer.jpg, ''
Don Juan
Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni (Italian), is a legendary, fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. Famous versions of the story include a 17th-century play, '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra'' ...
asleep on Haidée's lap'', circa 1827
File:Blaise de Montesquieu-Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de Montluc.jpg, Blaise de Monluc, ''1834'' (commissioned by Louis Philippe I)
File:Conseil des ministres (1838), par scheffer.jpg, Conseil des ministres (1838)
File:Henri Scheffer - arrestation de Charlotte Corday.jpg, L'arrestation de Charlotte Corday de Henri Scheffer, 1830