Simon Clément Louis Théophile Silvestre (12 October 1823 – 20 June 1876) was a French

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

and

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

. He is known for creating ''History of Living Artists, French and Foreign: Studies from Nature'', a collection of contemporaneous biographical studies of European artists of the mid-19th century.

Early life and education

Théophile Silvestre He was born on 12 October 1823 in Le Fossat, Ariège, France, to a bourgeois Catholic family. He was the son of the tax collector of

Artigat Artigat is a commune in the Ariège department in the Occitanie region of south-western France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Artigatois'' or ''Artigatoises'' Geography Artigat is located some 10 km west by north-west of ...

. He studied at the seminary in

Pamiers Pamiers (; oc, Pàmias ) is a commune and largest city in the Ariège department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is the most populous commune in the Ariège department, although it ...

. He then studied medicine in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

, law in Paris and attended courses at the

École Nationale des Chartes The École Nationale des Chartes (, literally National School of Charters) is a French ''grande école'' and a constituent college of Université PSL, specialising in the historical sciences. It was founded in 1821, and was located initially at ...

. Silvestre was appointed but not installed as sous-commissaire of Saint-Girons, Ariège. He was installed '' commissaire adjoint'' of Ariège on 5 April 1848, and resigned the next day. While he was a committed republican during the

Revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...

, he later became aligned with the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Empire, Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the French Second Republic, Second and the French Third Republic ...

Critic and historian

Portrait de Théophile Sylvestre (journaliste critique d'art), by Philippe Auguste Jeanron

In 1852, Silvestre began writing ''History of Living Artists, French and Foreign: Studies from Nature'' (), a collection of biographical studies of living painters, sculptors, architects, engravers, photographers and composers. The work was published in a series of booklets beginning in 1853. Silvestre commissioned photographers

Édouard Baldus Édouard Baldus (June 5, 1813, Grünebach, Prussia – 1889, Arcueil) was a French landscape, architectural and railway photographer. Biography Early life Édouard-Denis Baldus was born on June 5, 1813, in Grünebach, Prussia. He was originally ...

and

Henri Le Secq Jean-Louis-Henri Le Secq des Tournelles (18 August 1818 – 26 December 1882) was a French painter and photographer. After the French government made the daguerreotype open for public in 1839, Le Secq was one of the five photographers selected ...

to produce portraits of his subjects and reproductions of their work to include in his studies. The first series, in order of appearance in the 1856 edition, included profiles of

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassicism, Neoclassical Painting, painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic ...

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875), or simply Camille Corot, is a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast ...

Paul Chenavard Paul-Marc-Joseph Chenavard (9 December 1808 – 1895, Paris) was a French painter. Life Entering the École des beaux-arts en 1825, he studied in the studio of Ingres alongside his friend Joseph Guichard, then in the studios of Hersent and De ...

, Alexandre Gabriel Decamps,

Antoine-Louis Barye Antoine-Louis Barye (24 September 179525 June 1875) was a Romantic French sculptor most famous for his work as an ''animalier'', a sculptor of animals. His son and student was the known sculptor Alfred Barye. Biography Born in Paris, France, B ...

Narcisse Virgilio Díaz Narcisse Virgilio Díaz de la Peña (20 August 180718 November 1876) was a French painter of the Barbizon school. Early life Diaz was born in Bordeaux to Spanish parents. At the age of ten, Diaz became an orphan, and misfortune dogged his early y ...

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...

Antoine-Augustin Préault Antoine-Augustin Préault (6 October 1809 – 11 January 1879) was a French sculptor of the "Romantic" movement. Born in the Marais district of Paris, he was better known during his lifetime as Auguste Préault. Biography A student of David d ...

, and

François Rude François Rude (4 January 1784 – 3 November 1855) was a French sculptor, best known for the ''Departure of the Volunteers'', also known as ''La Marseillaise'' on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. (1835–36). His work often expressed patriotic the ...

. The second series, which began publication in 1857, stopped after only the first issue on

Horace Vernet Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (30 June 178917 January 1863), more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French Painting, painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalism, Orientalist subjects. Biography Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another ...

who sued Silvestre to stop him from continued publication of Vernet's letters.

Later life and death

Silvestre died on 20 June 1876 in Paris at the home of

Léon Gambetta Léon Gambetta (; 2 April 1838 – 31 December 1882) was a French lawyer and republican politician who proclaimed the French Third Republic in 1870 and played a prominent role in its early government. Early life and education Born in Cahors, Ga ...

, following a lunch marking their reconciliation.

References

{{Reflist 1823 births 1876 deaths French art critics French art historians