Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ (10 June 1842 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

– 19 February 1923 in Paris) was an Orientalist French painter and sculptor. He was strongly influenced by the works and teachings of

Charles Gleyre Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre (2 May 1806 – 5 May 1874), was a Swiss artist who was a resident in France from an early age. He took over the studio of Paul Delaroche in 1843 and taught a number of younger artists who became prominent, including He ...

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 Academic painting, academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living art ...

. Lecomte du Nouÿ found inspiration for his art through extensive travels to Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Romania and Italy. The thematic content of Lecomte du Nouÿ's work was mainly figural, but also spanned over a vast range of imagery throughout his career, including classical, historical and religious.Fox, Diane Michelle. "The Artistic Vision of Jean Lecomte Du Nouÿ." Archaeology Magazine Archive. Archaeological Institute of America, 8 July 2004. Web. 30 March 2014. Lecomte du Nouÿ is known for remaining faithful to his detailed, realistic style throughout the extent of his career, despite the onset of the

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

Fauvist Fauvism ( ) is a style of painting and an art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of (, ''the wild beasts''), a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong col ...

and Constructivist artistic movements during his lifetime. His work is said to have contributed significantly to the establishment of an iconic repertoire representing the Orient in the nineteenth century. A

ian street was named after him in 1932.

Early life and education

Jean-Jules-Antoine was born on 10 June 1842 in Paris. Originally of a

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

ese origin, his family had been settled in France since the fourteenth century and by the time of his birth had reached the status of nobility. Lecomte du Nouÿ showed a strong attachment to visual art from a young age and was reported to have painted portraits of his father and uncle by the age of 6. In 1861, at 19 years of age, the artistic talents of young Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ prompted him to become a pupil at the atelier of Swiss artist, Charles Gleyre. Under Gleyre's guidance Jean-Jules-Antoine learned the significance of individualistic style and gained the foundations of creative visual presentation. Later, Lecomte du Nouy further perfected his knowledge of the artistic form under the mentorship of Jean-Léon Gérôme, who was a renowned painter of the Academicism movement. It was at this time that Jean-Jules-Antoine learned the precision required to depict ''la belle nature''—a style of illustration that aims to create the most beautiful representations of the natural form. This later became one of the main techniques employed in Lecomte du Nouÿ's signature artwork.

Maturity and Travels

In 1865, Du Nouÿ accompanied fellow artist, Félix Auguste Clément, on his travels to Cairo, Egypt. It was after this voyage that the young Lecompte du Nouy sought to portray the opulence of the Orient. In later years, he continued his travels, visiting countries like Italy and Greece. Lecompte du Nouy found inspiration in all social, historical and literary facets of foreign culture.

Artistic style

The Orientalist style is largely characterized by its content, but also by its subdued realism and precision allotted towards depicting the human form. The latter is a prominent characteristic of the 19th century methods upheld by the

Académie des Beaux-Arts The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect. Background The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...

. Du Nouÿ was a prominent figure within the sphere of academic art and thereby adhered to a rule-based artistic style of well-developed skill and formal composition. The artistic composition of his paintings was often complemented by the use of half-light, which added certain dramatic and melancholic qualities to his work. To this day some, like Alan Braddock, consider Du Nouÿ to have been decidedly modern for his time, because his work directly and indirectly broached some of the key issues of his day, albeit from a decidedly conservative perspective: colonialism, international trade, gender, religion, and history. Khalili Collection Enamels of the World GER189

Khalili Collection Enamels of the World GER189

Later life and death

Du Nouÿ spent most of the later years of his life in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. There he painted primarily the royal family and their subjects. However, he returned to Paris right before his death on 19 February 1923.

Selected paintings

* 1864 : ''Le Guet-à-pens'' * 1866 : ''Invocation de

Neptune Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun. It is the List of Solar System objects by size, fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 t ...

'' * 1869 : ''Le souper de Beaucaire'' * 1870 : '' Démosthène s'exerçant à la parole'' * 1871 : ''Chrétiennes au tombeau de la Vierge'' * 1872 : ''Les porteurs de mauvaises nouvelles'' * 1874 : ''Un rêve d'eunuque'' * 1875 : ''Judith'' * 1878 : ''

Adolphe Crémieux Isaac-Jacob Adolphe Crémieux (; 30 April 1796 – 10 February 1880) was a French lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Justice under the Second Republic (1848) and Government of National Defense (1870–1871). Raised Jewish, he ...

'' * 1882
The Reading of the Bible by the Rabbis (A Souvenir of Morocco)
* 1884 : ''Le Marabout prophète'' * 1888 : ''L'esclave blanche'' (The White Slave) * 1889 : ''Le samedi au quartier juif'' * 1890 : ''Le dimanche à Venise'' * 1899 : ''Portrait du Roi et de la Reine de Roumanie'' * 1902 : '' Mademoiselle de Maupin'' * 1904 : ''La Sorcière'' * 1904 : ''Rêve d'Orient'' * 1905 : ''La Péri et le Poète'' * 1913 : ''La dernière ronde'' * 1919 : ''Etude pour la Victoire''

Paris

The rue Lecomte du Nouÿ runs west from the boulevard Murat in arrondissement 16.Denaès, Raymond ''Guide Générale de Paris''. Paris: Éditions l'Indispensable, . 1960/ref>

Gallery

File:Saint Vincent de Paul ramene des galériens à la foi Lecomte de Nouy.jpg, ''Saint Vincent de Paul bringing galley slaves to the faith'', 1876,

Sainte-Trinité, Paris The Église de la Sainte-Trinité () is a Roman Catholic church located on the place d'Estienne d'Orves, at 3 rue de la Trinité, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. It was built between 1861 and 1867 during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III, in ...

. File:Ramsès dans son harem - full tryptic 01.jpg, ''Ramses in his harem'', 1887,

musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

. File:The White Slave.jpg, ''The White Slave'', 1888,

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes The Fine Arts Museum of Nantes (French: Musée d'Arts de Nantes), along with 14 other provincial museums, was created, by consular decree on 14 Fructidor in year IX (31 August 1801). Today the museum is one of the largest museums in the region. ...

. File:Le souper de Beaucaire.png, ''The Supper of Beaucaire, 28th July 1793'', 1869–1894,

Château de Malmaison The Château de Malmaison () is a French château situated near the left bank of the Seine, about west of the centre of Paris, in the commune of Rueil-Malmaison. Formerly the residence of Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais, along with the Tui ...

. File:Rêved'Orient.jpg

Literature

* Roger Diederen, "From Homer to the harem: The art of Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ" (New York:

Dahesh Museum of Art The Dahesh Museum of Art is the only museum in the United States devoted to the collection and exhibition of European academic art of the 19th and 20th century. The collection, located in Manhattan, New York City, originated with Lebanese write ...

, 2004) incl. catalogue raisonné.

References

External links

Artcyclopedia entry for Jean-Jules

Page 6, includes The White Slave and Minaret in Algiers

Art biography and chronology (French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lecomte Du Nouy, Jean Jules Antoine 1842 births 1923 deaths Painters from Paris 19th-century French painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists 20th-century French sculptors 19th-century French sculptors Knights of the Legion of Honour French male painters French male sculptors Members of the Ligue de la patrie française French Orientalist painters Prix de Rome for painting 19th-century French male artists