Paul Adolphe Rajon, by Paul Adolphe Rajon

Paul-Adolphe Rajon (1843 – 8 June 1888) was a French painter and printmaker, who started his career as a photographer.

Early life

Born at

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

, Rajon was the third child of Jean Marie Rajon, a hairdresser, by his marriage with Caroline Jaugey, a shop girl some thirty years younger. They had a daughter, Marguerite, born in 1839, and another son, Charles Henri, born in 1840.PAUL-ADOLPHE RAJON
avictorian.com, accessed 28 November 2020 In 1857, Paul Rajon began to work for Pierre Joseph Meurisse, a photographer in

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

who had married his sister Marguerite, as a retoucher of portraits. From 1859 to 1860 he attended an art course given by

Auguste Migette Charles Joseph Auguste Migette (1802 – 1884) was a French artist. A leader of the Metz School style of painting, he was a painter, stage designer, and art teacher. Life and career Migette was born 18 June 1802 in Trier in what was then the Sar ...

at the school of design in Metz, befriending another student, Émile Boilvin. In 1862, having saved a little money, Rajon went to Paris, aiming to pursue his career as a retoucher and also to deepen his study of painting. There, he and Boilvin were accepted as students at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

and were taught by Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils.

Career

A friend of Philippe Burty,

Félix Bracquemond Félix Henri Bracquemond (22 May 1833 – 29 October 1914) was a French painter, etcher, and printmaker. He played a key role in the revival of printmaking, encouraging artists such as Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro to use th ...

, and Louis-Charles-Auguste Steinheil, Rajon was awarded medals 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 ...

s of 1869, 1870, and 1873, and at the ''Exposition Universelle'' of 1878. During the Franco-German War of 1870, Rajon enlisted in the

National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...

battalion Tirailleurs de la Seine and saw active service in fighting at

La Malmaison La Malmaison () is a Communes of France, commune in the Aisne Departments of France, department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Population See also * Communes of the Aisne department * Battle of La Malmaison References

C ...

. Rajon enjoyed a long and healthy career in Great Britain. He etched both contemporary works and Old Masters, as well as portraits, including ones of

Ivan Turgenev Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (; rus, links=no, Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́невIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 (Old Style dat ...

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 ...

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

, and

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

. He was critically praised in France,

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, through his acquaintance with the New York-based American print dealer

Frederick Keppel Frederick Keppel (19 January 1728 – 27 December 1777) was a Church of England clergyman, Bishop of Exeter. Background Keppel was the fifth and fourth surviving son of Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle and his wife Lady Anne Lenno ...

. Rajon suffered a wasting illness, during which he was looked after by a British friend, Frank Dicey.“Twelve etchings contributed to the ‘Portfolio’ by Paul Adolphe Rajon: with Memoir and Notes by F. G. Stephens”, in ''The Athenæum: A Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music, and the Drama'', No. 3204, March 23, 1889
p. 381
/ref> He died on 8 June 1888 at

Auvers-sur-Oise Auvers-sur-Oise (, literally ''Auvers on Oise'') is a commune in the department of Val-d'Oise, on the northwestern outskirts of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is associated with several famous artists, the most promine ...

, of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

Selected works

File:Félix Bracquemond by Paul Rajon.jpg, Portrait of

(1878) File:Paul Adolphe Rajon - Portrait of Henry Walters - Walters 372545.jpg, portrait of

Henry Walters Henry Walters (September 26, 1848 – November 30, 1931) was noted as an art collector and philanthropist, a founder of the Walters Art Gallery (now the Walters Art Museum) in Baltimore, Maryland, which he donated to the city in his 1931 will f ...

, 1886. File:Paul Adolphe Rajon - Portrait of William T Walters - Walters 372542.jpg, portrait of William T. Walters, 1887.

References

External links

Rajon at the Centre for Whistler Studies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajon, Paul-Adolphe French etchers French printmakers 19th-century French painters French male painters Artists from Dijon 1843 births 1888 deaths 19th-century French male artists

Early life

Career

Selected works

References

Further reading

External links