Étienne-Joseph-Théophile Thoré (better known as Théophile Thoré-Bürger) (23 June 1807 – 30 April 1869) was a French journalist and

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogu ...

. He is best known today for rediscovering the work of painter

Johannes Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...

and several other prominent Dutch artists.

Biography

Thoré-Bürger was born in

La Flèche La Flèche () is a town and commune in the French department of Sarthe, in the Pays de la Loire region in the Loire Valley. It is the sub-prefecture of the South-Sarthe, the chief district and the chief city of a canton, and the second most popu ...

, Sarthe. His career as art critic started in the 1830s, but he was also active as a political journalist. In March 1848 he founded ''La Vraie République'', which Louis-Eugène Cavaignac soon banned. A year later, in March 1849, he founded another newspaper, ''Le Journal de la vraie République'', which Cavaignac also banned. Consequently, Thoré-Bürger went into exile to

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 ...

and continued publishing articles as Willem Bürger. He returned to France after the

amnesty Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...

of 1859, dying in Paris ten years later. Today, Thoré-Bürger is best known for rediscovering the work of

and several other prominent Dutch artists, such as

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century grou ...

(he was the first to describe the portrait of '' Malle Babbe''),

Carel Fabritius Carel Pietersz. Fabritius (; bapt. 27 February 1622 – 12 October 1654) was a Dutch painter. He was a pupil of Rembrandt and worked in his studio in Amsterdam. Fabritius, who was a member of the Delft School, developed his own artistic style ...

, and others. Thoré-Bürger's interest in Vermeer began in 1842 when he saw the '' View of Delft'' in the

Mauritshuis The Mauritshuis (; en, Maurice House) is an art museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The museum houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 854 objects, mostly Dutch Golden Age paintings. The collection contains works by Johannes Verme ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. Vermeer's name was wholly forgotten at the time; Thoré-Bürger was so impressed with the ''View of Delft'' that he spent the years before his exile searching for other works by the painter. He would eventually publish descriptions and a catalogue of Vermeer's work, although many of the paintings he attributed to the master were later proven to have been executed by others. He lived for more than a decade with Apolline Lacroix, the wife of his collaborator Paul Lacroix, the curator of the

Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal The Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal (''Library of the Arsenal'', founded 1757) in Paris has been part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France since 1934. History The collections of the library originated with the private library of Marc-René, 3rd ...

. On Thoré-Bürger's death, she inherited his valuable art collection, much of which was eventually sold.

Selected publications

*''Dictionnaire de phrénologie et de physiognomonie, à l'usage des artistes, des gens du monde, des instituteurs, des pères de famille, des jurés, etc.'', 1836 Available online
/small> *''La Vérité sur le parti démocratique'', 1840 Available online
/small> *''Catalogue de dessins des grands maîtres, provenant du cabinet de M. Villenave'', 1842 *''Le Salon de 1844, précédé d'une lettre à

Théodore Rousseau Étienne Pierre Théodore Rousseau (April 15, 1812December 22, 1867) was a French painter of the Barbizon school. Life Youth He was born in Paris, France in a bourgeois family. At first he received a basic level of training, but soon displaye ...

'', 1844 *''Dessins de maîtres, Collection de feu M. Delbecq, de Gand'', 1845 Available online
/small> *''Catalogue des estampes anciennes formant la collection de feu M. Delbecq, de Gand'', 1845 Available online
/small> *''La Recherche de la liberté'', 1845 *''Le Salon de 1845, précédé d'une lettre à Béranger'', 1845 *''Le Salon de 1846, précédé d'une Lettre à

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...

'', 1846 Available online
/small> *''Le Salon de 1847, précédé d'une Lettre à Firmin Barrion'', 1847 Available online
/small> *''Mémoires de Caussidière, ex-préfet de police et représentant du peuple'', with

Marc Caussidière Marc Caussidière (; 18 May 1808 – 27 January 1861) was a significant personality of the French republican movement of the first half of the nineteenth century. Biography Caussidière was born in Geneva. Employed at Saint-Étienne, he too ...

, 2 vol., 1849 Available online: 12
/small> *''La Restauration de l'autorité, ou l'Opération césarienne'', 1852 *''Dans les bois'', 1856 *''En Ardenne, par quatre Bohémiens. Namur, Dinant, Han, Saint-Hubert, Houffalize, La Roche, Durbuy, Nandrin, Comblain, Esneux, Tilf, Spa'', in collaboration with other writers, 1856 *''Trésors d'art exposés à Manchester en 1857 et provenant des collections royales, des collections publiques et des collections particulières de la Grande-Bretagne'', 1857 *''Amsterdam et La Haye. Études sur l'école hollandaise'', 1858 *''Çà & là'', 1858 *''Musées de la Hollande'', 2 vol., 1858–1860 *''Études sur les peintres hollandais et flamands. Galerie d'Arenberg, à Bruxelles avec le catalogue complet de la collection'', 1859 *''Musée d'Anvers'', 1862 *''Trésors d'art en Angleterre'', 1862 *''Van der Meer (Vermeer) de Delft'', 1866

Published posthumously

*''Les Salons : études de critique et d'esthétique'', 3 vol., 1893 *''Thoré-Bürger peint par lui-même : lettres et notes intimes'', 1900 Available online
/small>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thore-Burger, Theophile 1807 births 1869 deaths People from La Flèche French art critics Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 19th-century journalists Male journalists French male writers Johannes Vermeer scholars Scholars of Dutch art French art collectors