Léon-Henri-Marie Frédéric (26 August 1856 – 27 January 1940) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

painter. His earliest paintings joined

Christian mysticism Christian mysticism is the tradition of mystical practices and mystical theology within Christianity which "concerns the preparation f the personfor, the consciousness of, and the effect of ..a direct and transformative presence of God" ...

with

pantheistic Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ex ...

themes, while his later works increasingly reflected social concerns. Much of his work also shows the influence of fifteenth and sixteenth century

Flemish art The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

and

Renaissance painting Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occ ...

styles.

Biography

His father was a prosperous jeweler. In 1871, he was apprenticed to the architect and decorative painter, and began taking night courses at the

Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels (french: Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts - École supérieure des Arts de la Ville de Bruxelles (ARBA-ESA), nl, Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Brussel), is an art school established in Br ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. In 1874, he found a position in the workshop of

Jean-François Portaels Jean-François Portaels or Jan Portaels (3 April 1818 – 8 February 1895) was a Belgian painter of genre scenes, biblical stories, landscapes, portraits and orientalist subjects. He was also a teacher and director of the Academy of Fine Arts ...

. The following year, he and several other young art students engaged a private studio where they could paint from live, nude models. From 1876 to 1878, he entered the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

, but was not successful. Finally, his father financed a trip for studies in Italy from 1878 to 1879. There. he travelled to Naples, Rome, Florence and Venice. His favorite painters were

Sandro Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th cent ...

and

Domenico Ghirlandaio Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi (, , ; 2 June 1448 – 11 January 1494), professionally known as Domenico Ghirlandaio, also spelled as Ghirlandajo, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence. Ghirlandaio was part of ...

. On his return from Italy, he made his debut at the Brussels Salon, where he came under the influence of

Jules Bastien-Lepage Jules Bastien-Lepage (1 November 1848 – 10 December 1884) was a French painter closely associated with the beginning of naturalism, an artistic style that emerged from the later phase of the Realist movement. His most famous work is his lan ...

, and became a member of the artist group

L'Essor ''L'Essor'' (fr. ''Progress'') is the state-owned national daily newspaper published in Bamako, Mali. Its motto is "''La Voix du Peuple''" ("The Voice of the People"). History ''L'Essor'' was first published in 1949, and from 1953 was the officia ...

. In 1883, he moved to

Vresse-sur-Semois Vresse-sur-Semois (, literally ''Vresse on Semois''; wa, Vresse) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Alle, Bagimont, Bohan, Chairière, Laforêt, M ...

, in the Belgian

Ardennes The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...

, and traveled extensively to England, Germany and the Netherlands. He was awarded a gold medal at the

Exposition Universelle (1889) The Exposition Universelle of 1889 () was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 5 May to 31 October 1889. It was the fourth of eight expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. It attracted more than thirty-two million visitors. The ...

. The young

Alexandre Benois Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Бенуа́, also spelled Alexander Benois; ,Salmina-Haskell, Larissa. ''Russian Paintings and Drawings in the Ashmolean Museum''. pp. 15, 23-24. Published by ...

was a great admirer of his works and, in 1898, arranged for several to be purchased by

Princess Maria Tenisheva Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva (née Pyatkovskaya, in the first marriage - Nikolaeva, (20 May 1858 – 14 April 1928) was a Russian Princess, artist, educator, philanthropist and collector. She was born May 20, 1858, in St. Petersburg. Maria Tenisheva ...

, for an exhibition in St. Petersburg. After his marriage, he moved to his final home in Schaerbeek in 1899, and continued to travel and exhibit his work in international fairs, winning awards in the United States and Germany and another gold medal at the

Exposition Universelle (1900) The Exposition Universelle of 1900, better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate developmen ...

. In 1904, he was appointed a member of the Académie Royale and, in 1929, was created a Baron and a Knight of the Order of Leopold by King Albert I. His works may be seen at the

Museum of Ixelles The Museum of Ixelles (french: Musée d'Ixelles, nl, Museum van Elsene), also called the (Municipal) Museum of Fine Arts of Ixelles (french: Musée (communal) des Beaux-Arts d'Ixelles, link=no, nl, (Gemeentelijk) Museum voor Schone Kunsten v ...

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Muse ...

Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent The Museum of Fine Arts ( nl, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, MSK) an art museum in Ghent, Belgium, is situated at the East side of the Citadelpark (near the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst). The museum's collection consists of some 9000 artworks ...

and the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

. ''The Four Seasons'' is currently on display at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

. ''The Chalks Sellers'' and ''The Stream'' are currently displayed at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels. A street in Schaerbeek has been named after him.

Selected paintings

File:Léon Frédéric - The Morning.jpg, The Golden Age (Morning) File:Frederic leon 21.jpg, The Source of Life File:Leon Frederic, Le goûter du laboureur.jpg, The Plowman's Afternoon Tea File:Léon Frédéric - All Things Die, But All Will Be Resurrected through God's Love - Google Art Project (part 4).jpg, All Things Die, But All Will Be Resurrected through God's Love (center panel) File:Léon Frédéric (1856-1940) Begrafenis van een boer - La Boverie Luik 23-08-2018.jpg, Burial of a Farmer File:Les marchands de craie - Léon Frédéric - Musées Royaux des Beaux-arts - Bruxelles.jpg, The chalk sellers - Triptysh - 1882/1883 File:Le ruisseau - Léon Frédéric - 1890-1899 Musées royaux des beaux-arts - Bruxelles.jpg, The Stream (Le Ruisseau) - Triptysh - 1890-1899 File:Léon Frédéric - Le Triptyque de la légende de Saint François - 1882.jpg, The Triptych of The Legende Of Saint François - 1882 File:Les âges de l'ouvrier - Triptyque - Léon Frédéric - 1895-1897.jpg, The Ages Of Workers - Triptysh - 1895-1897

References

Frédérique Thomas-Maurin, Isolde De Buck, Benjamin Foudral (dir.), ''Léon Frederic (1856-1940), un autre réalisme xposition, Ornans, Musée Gustave Courbet, 6 juillet-15 octobre 2018', Besançon, Editions du Sekoya, 2018, 181 p. () Benjamin Foudral, ''Léon Frederic (1856-1940), « gothique moderne ». Carrière d’un artiste belge dans l’Europe de la fin du XIXe siècle. Essai et Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre'' hèse en Histoire de l'art, Sorbonne Université, soutenue le 3 juillet 2019 Paris, 2019.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frederic, Leon 1856 births 1940 deaths Belgian Symbolist painters 19th-century Belgian painters 19th-century Belgian male artists 20th-century Belgian painters Pantheists