Jean Preudhomme or Preud'ho(m)me or Prudhomme (baptised on 23 November 1732 in Rolle; buried on 20 July 1795 in

La Neuveville La Neuveville (; german: Neuenstadt) is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland, located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura (''Jura Bernois''). History La Neuveville is first mentioned ...

) was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

painter. He was a contemporary of the Swiss painters

Anton Graff Anton Graff (18 November 1736 – 22 June 1813) was an eminent Swiss portrait artist. Among his famous subjects were Friedrich Schiller, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Heinrich von Kleist, Frederick the Great, Friederike Sophie Seyler, Johann Gottf ...

Johann Jakob Schalch Johann Jakob Schalch (23 January 1723 – 21 August 1789) was a Swiss painter. He was a contemporary of the Swiss painters Anton Graff, Jean Preudhomme, Angelica Kauffman, Jakob Emanuel Handmann, Johann Caspar Füssli. His son Johann Heinr ...

Angelica Kauffman Maria Anna Angelika Kauffmann ( ; 30 October 1741 – 5 November 1807), usually known in English as Angelica Kauffman, was a Swiss Neoclassical painter who had a successful career in London and Rome. Remembered primarily as a history painter, K ...

, Jakob Emanuel Handmann, Johann Caspar Füssli and his son Johann Heinrich Füssli.

Life and work

Jean Preudhomme was a pupil of the well known painters Jean Baptiste Le Prince and Jean-Baptiste Greuze in

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 ...

. He was a

landscapist Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composi ...

and an animal painter. However, his speciality was

portrait painting Portrait Painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commission, for public and pr ...

. In

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

he was very popular with the

landed gentry The landed gentry, or the ''gentry'', is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. While distinct from, and socially below, the British peerage, th ...

and the patricians in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

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), ...

and Berne. In a Swiss publication, published between 1782 and 1786, he was described as a “portraitist à la mode”.Staatsarchiv Bern: Schweizerisches Künstlerlexikon, Band I, S. 574 Preudhomme's paintings, especially the portraits, are rare on the art market. His portrait of

Franz Rudolf Frisching Franz Rudolf Frisching (1733–1807) was a Bernese patrician, officer, politician and industrialist. Life and career Franz Rudolf Frisching was the son of Vinzenz Frisching (1689–1764) who was Master of Schlosswil. In 1748 Franz Rudolf Fri ...

is one of his best known paintings.

Paintings in public collections

Preudhomme's portrait of Douglas, 8th Duke of Hamilton, on his

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

with his Physician Dr John Moore and the latter's son John, with a view of

in the distance, is in the collection of the

National Museums of Scotland National Museums Scotland (NMS; gd, Taighean-tasgaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. It runs the national museums of Scotland. NMS is one of the country's National Collections, ...

.Art Fund UK: This painting was acquired with the help of the

Art Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as ...

for the

in 1992. The Art Fund paid £ 10.000. The total price of the painting was £ 125.000 On his Grand Tour the Duke and his companions stayed for two years in Geneva.J. C. Moore: Life of Sir John Moore, London, 1834 (James Carrick Moore (1763–1834) was another brother of Sir John Moore) A portrait of a Lady is in the collection of the

Musée Rath The Musée Rath is an art museum in Geneva, used exclusively for temporary exhibitions. Its building is the oldest purpose-built art museum in Switzerland, and the original home of Geneva's Musée d'Art et d'Histoire. It is located on Place Neu ...

Literature

* Brun, Schweizerisches Künstlerlexikon

References

External links

*
Portrait of Douglas, 8th Duke of Hamilton, and his companions during their stay in Geneva
Painted by Jean Preudhomme in 1774 {{DEFAULTSORT:Preudhomme, Jean 1732 births 1795 deaths 18th-century Swiss painters 18th-century Swiss male artists Swiss male painters Swiss portrait painters People from Rolle