Victor Chocquet (9 December 1821 – 7 April 1891) was a French art collector and an ardent propagandist of

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

. As a senior editor at the

Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes The Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes (french: Direction générale des douanes et droits indirects, DGDDI), commonly known as ''les douanes'' (Customs), is the customs service of the French Republic. It is responsible for levying i ...

, he was present at all the exhibitions where he defended painters confronted with mockery and insults. His collection was huge. It was dispersed after his death in 1899. Many of the paintings are currently in American museums.

Life

Chocquet was born in

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 ...

in a wealthy family of

silk mill A silk mill is a factory that makes silk for garments using a process called silk throwing. Traditionally, silk mills were concentrated in Japan, England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Italy and Switzerland. The silk throwing process Silk is a natur ...

ers. At a very young age, he devoted all his resources to the purchase of works of art: paintings (including those of

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 ...

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 ...

Honoré Daumier Honoré-Victorin Daumier (; February 26, 1808February 10, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second N ...

) porcelain, and furniture. In 1875, when he attended the 1875 Impressionist sale at the

Hôtel Drouot Hôtel Drouot is a large auction house in Paris, known for fine art, antiques, and antiquities. It consists of 16 halls hosting 70 independent auction firms, which operate under the umbrella grouping of Drouot. The firm's main location, called D ...

, he fell in love with the paintings hooted by the audience. He asked Auguste Renoir to paint a portrait of his wife and their little daughter Marie-Sophie who died at the age of five, based on a photograph. During this first sale of the "Société anonyme des artistes" at the Hôtel Drouot on 24 March 1875, the painters' receipts did not cover their expenses, the average price of a painting amounting to 100 fr. That day he was one of the first supports of the artists with

Ernest Hoschedé Ernest Hoschedé (18 December 1837 – 19 March 1891) was a department store magnate in Paris.Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

whose paintings he saw at Père Tanguy's home, he spent a lot of energy verbally defending the painters at the 1876 and 1877 exhibitions to which he lent works from his collection. Despite the quolibets that welcomed Cézanne's presentation of his own portrait and despite violent criticism from the press, he was not discouraged, even when his resources diminished when he took early retirement (1877). From 1882, his mother-in-law's inheritance allowed him to resume his purchases and he acquired a property in

Hattenville Hattenville () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. The most famous reference to Hattenville is in Paul Cézanne's painting 'Farm in Normandy, Summer'. This was painted at the farm of one of C� ...

(Normandy) where a large number of works, including ''Ferme à Hattenville'', by Cézanne, were painted. His collection rivaled those of the greatest collectors: he was often quoted at the same time as Georges de Bellio and Eugène Murer in the press. He owned about 32 paintings by Cézanne. In Paris, Victor Chocquet first lived in an apartment

rue de Rivoli Rue de Rivoli (; English: "Rivoli Street") is a street in central Paris, France. It is a commercial street whose shops include leading fashionable brands. It bears the name of Napoleon's early victory against the Austrian army, at the Battle of R ...

that overlooked the

Tuileries Garden The Tuileries Garden (french: Jardin des Tuileries, ) is a public garden located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. Created by Catherine de' Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in ...

. It is from there that Monet painted several paintings, including ''Vue sur le jardin des Tuileries'' (1876). huile sur toile de 53.97 x 73.2. At the end of his life, he moved to a small 18th-century mansion house, rue Monsigny. Chocquet died in Paris on 7 April 1891 at age 69.

Portraits and paintings

Image:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Madame Victor Chocquet.jpg, Image:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Victor Chocquet.jpg, Image:Pierre-Auguste Renoir 115.jpg, Image:Monet-Tuileries-Marmottan.jpg, Image:Portrait de Victor Chocquet assis, par Paul Cézanne.jpg, Image:Portrait de Victor Chocquet, par Paul Cézanne, Yorck.jpg,

References

Bibliography

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chocquet, Victor 1821 births 1891 deaths Artists from Lille French art collectors French patrons of the arts Impressionism