Pierre Emmanuel Damoye (20 February 1847 – 23 January 1916) was French artist who was regularly recognized by a broad range of art critics as one of the most significant heirs to the

Barbizon school The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement towards Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its name f ...

tradition. He studied his craft 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 went on to become a renowned and influential landscape artist noted for his sweeping skies, tree studded-plains, and vibrant farmlands.

Teachers & Influences

Pierre Emmanuel Damoye - Landscape in Summer

Damoye studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in the studio of

Léon Bonnat Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (20 June 1833 – 8 September 1922) was a French painter, Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur and professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Early life Bonnat was born in Bayonne, but from 1846 to 1853 he lived in M ...

, one of the foremost figure painters and portraitists of the late nineteenth-century. Damoye, however, seems to have committed himself to landscape art from the beginning of his career. His earliest dated works from the late 1860s also clearly reveal the influence of both

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 ...

and

Charles-François Daubigny Charles-François Daubigny ( , , ; 15 February 181719 February 1878) was a French painter, one of the members of the Barbizon school, and is considered an important precursor of impressionism. He was also a prolific printmaker, mostly in etchin ...

, from whom he acquired both a brighter range of colors and a looser, more ‘impressionist’ brush style. And, although he was cognizant of the example of Corot and Daubigny, he built his repertoire of compositions and favored sites quite independently of the two ‘old masters’ of river landscape, thus developing a very personalized color scheme. He is also one of the principal artists associated with the ‘school of Pontoise’, a group of young landscapists who painted primarily along the riverbanks of the Seine and Oise Rivers, north of Paris, often establishing homes in Pontoise. He also painted the river banks and upland plateaus of the Oise and Seine basins, worked frequently in Picardy and throughout the great Loire valley. He also made at least one trip to the Normandy coast.

Exhibitions & Recognition

Landscape with Thatched Cottage by Pierre Emmanuel Damoye

Damoye began to exhibit at the Salon of 1875 with a landscape titled L’hiver, and by 1879 he had won his first medal, a bronze or third class honor, beginning an unusually rapid rise for a landscape painter. In 1884 he received a second class medal, followed by a very prestigious gold medal at the grand, centennial

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 ...

. He was inducted into the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

in 1893 and became a member of the Salon jury in 1900. Despite such official recognition, however, Damoye was instrumental in forming the break-away

Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (SNBA; ; en, National Society of Fine Arts) was the term under which two groups of French artists united, the first for some exhibitions in the early 1860s, the second since 1890 for annual exhibitions. 1862 Es ...

, a rival exhibition association, and he continued to be associated with the ‘Salon du Champ-de-Mars’ until his death in 1916.

Death and legacy

Pierre Emmanuel Damoye died in 1916 and is buried in

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (french: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise ; formerly , "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France (). With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figures ...

in Paris. Damoye's works can be seen in the Musée du Louvre, Paris; Musée d'Orsay, Paris; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Troyes, France; and the National Museum of Art, Bucharest, Romania; Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki. Auction results to 2010 include sales at Christie's (New York, $30,000), Osenat (Paris, $11,470), Sotheby's (New York, $10,800), and Beaussant Lefevre (Paris, $10,230).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Damoye, Pierre Emmanuel Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 19th-century French painters French male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists Painters from Paris 1847 births 1916 deaths 19th-century French male artists