Jean-Baptiste Wicar (22 January 1762 – 27 February 1834) was a French Neoclassical painter and art collector.

Life

The son of a carpenter, Wicar was born in Lille. He studied drawing at the free school in Lille before further honing his talents in the studio of

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

. The drawings Wicar created of ''Tableaux, statues, bas-reliefs et camées de la Galerie de Florence et du palais Pitti'' (''Paintings, statues, bas-reliefs and cameos in the Gallery of Florence and the

Pitti Palace The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

'') were published in Paris in 4 volumes at the Lacombe publishing house from 1789 to 1807. Wicar headed the commission set up to loot artworks from the

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands nl, Oostenrijkse Nederlanden; french: Pays-Bas Autrichiens; german: Österreichische Niederlande; la, Belgium Austriacum. was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The p ...

to enrich museums in France. An initial convoy left

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,

on 11 August 1794, notably with paintings by Rubens, for the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

. Abbeys and castles were systematically emptied of their contents, furniture and works of art. Wicar was also a member of the

commission des sciences et des arts The Commission des Sciences et des Arts (''Commission of the Sciences and Arts'') was a French scientific and artistic institute. Established on 16 March 1798, it consisted of 167 members, of which all but 16 joined Napoleon Bonaparte's conquest ...

on the Italian campaign, in the entourage of Bonaparte. This commission was charged with seizing artworks that could enrich French national museum collections. He finally permanently settled in Rome in 1800 and became a portraitist of European renown. On his death in Rome in 1834, Wicar left the major collection of 1,300 drawings he had accumulated over his lifetime to the Société des Sciences, de l’Agriculture et des Arts de Lille. Mostly from the Italian school, but also in some small measure from the northern schools, it held drawings by artists like

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...

Lucas Cranach Cranach is a German-language surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Augustin Cranach (1554–1595), German painter *Hans Cranach (c. 1513–1537), German painter *Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1472–1553), German artist *Lucas Cranach th ...

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...

and

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 ...

. This legacy initially formed the public "musée Wicar", which in 1866, merged into the Palais des beaux-arts de Lille. Among his pupils was Francesco Giangiacomo.

Works

Boutigny-sur-Essonne Boutigny-sur-Essonne (, literally ''Boutigny on Essonne'') is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. The nearby villages are La Ferté-Alais (aerodrome of Cerny – Jean Baptiste Salis: Annual international m ...

, church, ''St John the Baptist'' and ''Saint Sebastian'' * Naples,

Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte Museo di Capodimonte is an art museum located in the Palace of Capodimonte, a grand Bourbon palazzo in Naples, Italy. The museum is the prime repository of Neapolitan painting and decorative art, with several important works from other Itali ...

, ''Portrait of Marie-Julie Bonaparte and her daughters, Zénaïde and Charlotte''. * Paris,

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, ''Portrait of

'', given to the Louvre in 1998. *

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

, Musée des Beaux-Arts, ''Portrait of general

Murat Murat may refer to: Places Australia * Murat Bay, a bay in South Australia * Murat Marine Park, a marine protected area France * Murat, Allier, a commune in the department of Allier * Murat, Cantal, a commune in the department of Cantal Elsewhe ...

''. * Rome, Museo Napoleonico, '' Carlotta Bonaparte principessa Gabrielli as a young peasant woman''. *

Musée de la Révolution française The Musée de la Révolution française (Museum of the French Revolution) is a departments of France, departmental museum in the French town of Vizille, south of Grenoble on the Route Napoléon. It is the only museum in the world dedicated to the ...

, ''Portrait of First Republic'', first painted representation of the

French Republic France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. *

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, ''Virgil reading the Aeneid to Augustus, Octavia and Livia'' (1790)

Sources

*Fernand Beaucamp : ''Le peintre lillois Jean Baptiste Wicar (1762 1834) son oeuvre et son temps'' (Lille, 1939, 2 vols). *Maria Teresa Caracciolo et Gennaro Toscano : ''Jean-Baptiste Wicar et son temps 1762-1834'' (Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2007).

External links

*http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/wicar_jean-baptiste_joseph.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Wicar 1762 births 1834 deaths French art collectors 18th-century French painters French male painters 19th-century French painters Artists from Lille Pupils of Jacques-Louis David 18th-century French male artists