Achille Jacques-Jean-Marie Devéria (6 February 180023 December 1857) was a French painter and

lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

known for his

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this ...

s of famous writers and artists. His younger brother was the Romantic painter

Eugène Devéria Eugène François Marie Joseph Devéria (22 April 1805, in Paris – 3 February 1865, in Pau) was a French Romantic history painter, portraitist and muralist. Biography He was one of five children born to François-Marie Devéria, a Bureau C ...

, and two of his six children were

Théodule Devéria Théodule Charles Devéria (; 1 July 1831 – 31 January 1871) was a French photographer and Egyptologist who lived in the 19th century. He is known for his collaboration with Auguste Mariette. His younger brother was Gabriel Devéria. Life Thé ...

and

Gabriel Devéria Jean-Gabriel Devéria (8 March 1844 – 12 July 1899), known as Gabriel Devéria, was a French diplomat and interpreter who worked for the French diplomatic service in China from the age of sixteen. He was also a noted sinologist and pioneer Ta ...

Achille_Devéria_Les_petits_jeux_innocens

Early life

His father was a civil employee of the navy. Devéria became a student of

Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (or ''de Roucy''), also known as Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson or simply Girodet (29 January 17679 December 1824),Long, George. (1851) ''The Supplement to the Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of ...

and Louis Lafitte. In 1822, he began exhibiting 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 ar ...

. At some point, he opened an art school together with his brother Eugène, who was also a painter.

Artistic works

By 1830 Devéria had become a successful

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complic ...

and had published many lithographs in the form of notebooks and albums (e.g., his illustrations to

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

's ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...

'', 1828) and romantic novels. He also produced many

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

s of

libertine A libertine is a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which they see as unnecessary or undesirable, and is especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour o ...

contents.

Style

Devéria's experience in the art of the vignette and

Mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonal ...

influenced his numerous lithographs, most of which were issued by his father-in-law, Charles-Etienne Motte (1785–1836). Most of his work consisted of "pseudo-historical, pious, sentimental or erotic scenes". (Wright) Since he rarely depicted tragic or grave themes, he appears less Romantic than many other artists of the time. His paintings were mainly done using

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

s. The French poet and critic

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fr ...

referred to his portrait series as showing "all the morals and aesthetics of the age".

Subjects

Devéria was also known for doing

s of artists and writers, whom he entertained in his Paris studio on Rue de l'Ouest. The list of his sitters includes

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...

Prosper Mérimée Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, and one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, and a ...

, Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away f ...

Alfred de Musset Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay (; 11 December 1810 – 2 May 1857) was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.His names are often reversed "Louis Charles Alfred de Musset": see "(Louis Charles) Alfred de Musset" (bio), Biography.com, 2007 ...

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic. Early life He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris (1824–27). In 1828, he s ...

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...

Théodore Géricault Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French Painting, painter and Lithography, lithographer, whose best-known painting is ''The Raft of the Medusa''. Although he died young, he was one of the pi ...

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

Marie Dorval Marie Dorval (6 January 1798, Lorient, Morbihan – 20 May 1849) was a French actress in the Romantic style. Early life and first marriage Marie Thomase Amélie Delauney was born on 6 January 1798 to Marie Bourdais, who was sixteen yea ...

Alphonse de Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869), was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. ...

Alfred de Vigny Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny (27 March 1797 – 17 September 1863) was a French poet and early French Romanticist. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare. Biography Vigny was born in Loches (a town to which he never r ...

Jane Stirling Jean ("Jane") Wilhelmina Stirling (15 July 1804 – 6 February 1859) was a Scottish amateur pianist who is best known as a student and later friend of Frédéric Chopin, who dedicated Nocturnes, Op. 55 to her. She took him on a tour of England a ...

, and

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

TKM 4497G 01, Lamav akt, Achille Devéria

Late life

In 1849 Devéria was appointed director of the

Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

's department of engravings and assistant curator of the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

ian department. In the following years, he taught drawing and lithography to his son,

, and both worked on a family portrait album from 1853 until his death. They applied ink wash to several of the portraits in the album, possibly in preparation for printing lithographs from the photographs. The album photographs by Théodule Devéria are dated 1854. Devéria spent his last days traveling in Egypt, making drawings and transcribing texts. He died in 1857. Ann Zingha

Legacy

Works by Devéria are in the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, the

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the

Norton Simon Museum The Norton Simon Museum is an art museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known as the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum and displays numerous sculptures on its grounds. Overview The Norton Si ...

, and the Université de Liège collections.

Gallery

File:Balzac1820s.jpg,

, c. 1820 File:Par Achille DEVÉRIA d'après Théodore Géricault - Une caricature de N.T. Charlet.jpg, Une caricature de N.T. Charlet (d'après

), vers 1825 File:Achille Devéria, Victor Hugo, 1829, NGA 208390.jpg, alt=Image of Victor Hugo, Victor Hugo in 1829, lithograph in the collection of the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

File:TKM 4498G 02, Lamav akt kannuga, Achille Devéria.jpg, "Lying nude with a jug" Lamav akt kannuga File:OttomanCunnilingusOrientalism.jpg, An Orientalist depiction of

cunnilingus Cunnilingus is an oral sex act performed by a person on the vulva or vagina of another person. The clitoris is the most sexually sensitive part of the human female genitalia, and its stimulation may result in a woman becoming sexually aroused ...

File:Achille Devéria erotism.jpg, A libertine watercolor (after, or attributed to Achille Devéria) File:Achille Devéria, L'Inquietude, 1829, NGA 60974.jpg, L'Inquietude (1829), lithograph from the collection of the

File:Achille Devéria - Reverie - 1940.1101 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif, Reverie File:Jean-Baptiste Say by Achille Devéria.jpg, Portrait de Jean-Baptiste Say. Gravure de Godefroy Engelmann d'après un dessin d'Achille Devéria. Source : Les graveurs du 19e siècle : guide de l'amateur d'estampes modernes, volume IX, p. 28 File:Auguste-Marie Panseron by Achille Devéria.jpg, French songwriter and composer Auguste-Marie Panseron (1796-1859) by Achille Devéria (1800-1857). File:Henri Herz by Achille Devéria 1832.jpg, Austrian pianist and composer Henri Herz, 1832. File:David d'Angers par Achille Devéria.jpg, Pierre-Jean David d'Angers, 1838. File:Achille Devéria, Carnevale, 1830, NGA 207780.jpg, ''Carnevale'' File:Alexandre Dumas par Achille Devéria (1829).png, Alexandre Dumas, (1829). File:Klementyna Tańska lit. Achille Devéria.jpg, Klementyna Hoffmanowa: A litograph originally published in: Straszewicz J., ''Die Polen und die Polinnen der Revolution vom 29 November 1830'', Stuttgart 832–1837 File:Achille Devéria, Jeanne de Bourgogne, NGA 111288.jpg, ''Jeanne de Bourgogne''

References

* * * Stephen Bann, 'Achille Deveria and French Illustration in the Romantic Period', ''Print Quarterly'', vol. XXIX, no. 3, September 2012, pp. 288–299.
Works by Achille Devéria
at the

External links

*
Works by Achille Devéria
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deveria, Achille 1800 births 1857 deaths 19th-century French painters French male painters French printmakers French lithographers French erotic artists Painters from Paris Sibling artists 19th-century French male artists