Circle of Greuze - Portrait of Etienne Jeurat - Private collection

Étienne Jeaurat (9 February 1699, in

Vermenton Vermenton () is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. On 1 January 2016, the former commune of Sacy was merged into Vermenton.Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

) was a French painter, above all remembered for his lively street scenes.

Early life

Born in Vermenton near

Auxerre Auxerre ( , , Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Auchoirre'') is the capital (Prefectures in France, prefecture) of the Yonne Departments of France, department and the fourth-largest city in the Burgundy historical region southeast of Par ...

, Jeaurat became an orphan at an early age. His brother, the engraver

Edme Jeaurat Edme Jeaurat (1688–1738) was a French engraver from Vermenton, near Auxerre. Jeaurat was the son of an engraver and the elder brother of painter Etienne Jeaurat. His father took young Edme to Paris and apprenticed him to Bernard Picart. After ...

, entrusted him to Nicolas Vleughels, a friend of

Antoine Watteau Jean-Antoine Watteau (, , ; baptised 10 October 1684died 18 July 1721) Alsavailablevia Oxford Art Online (subscription needed). was a French Painting, painter and Drawing, draughtsman whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour ...

, who was appointed director of the Académie de France in Rome in 1724. Vleughels took Jeaurat to Rome for an extended stay, exerting considerable influence on his work."Turquerie - Etienne Jeaurat"
''Ville de Namur''. Retrieved 26 April 2012.

Career

After returning to Paris, Jearat became a member of the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in 1733. In 1737, he first exhibited at the Salon des Artistes at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, then not a museum but a palace. He continued to exhibit his work on a regular basis there until 1789. At the Academy, Jeaurat was elevated to professor (1737) and ''chancellor'' (1781). He was the guardian of the king's collection of paintings in

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

from 1767.

Work

He achieved considerable success with his historical and mythological works, his portraits and

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s, often emulating the style of

Chardin Chardin is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, (1699–1779), French painter noted for his still life works * Jean Chardin, (1643–1713), French jeweller and traveller, author of ''The Trave ...

. But it was above all his

genre paintings Genre painting (or petit genre) is the painting of genre art, which depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity c ...

which attracted interest. In particular, his

conversation piece A conversation piece refers to a group portrait in a domestic or landscape setting depicting persons chatting or otherwise socializing with each other.Gerard ter Borch">ccessed ..., Gerard ter Borch, Gabriel Metsu, Caspar Netscher and Jacob Ocht ...

s in the style of

David Teniers the Younger David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile artist ...

ensured his popularity. He was in his time referred to as the 'French Teniers'. He was adept at painting lively scenes in the streets of Paris such as ''The girls of pleasure at Salpétrière driven through the Porte St-Bernard'' (1755) showing prostitutes being transported to the Salpétrière prison. He also painted a series of eight works depicting scenes from

La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

's fables as well as religious works.

Selected works

*''Laban Searching his Daughters'' (1737), Oil on canvas, 15x33 cm, Hermitage Museum"Jeaurat"
''Hermitage Digital Collection''. Retrieved 26 April 2012. *''Recovering'' (1744), Oil on canvas, 43.5x32.5 cm, Hermitage Museum *''Interior with two Women'' (c 1740), Oil on canvas; 61 x 51 cm, Ashmolean Museum. *''Bath o Women'' (1741), Oil on canvas, 64.5 x 52,5 cm, Musée de Bordeaux."Etienne Jeaurat"
''Musée de Bordeaux''. Retrieved 26 April 2012. *''The girls of pleasure at Salpétrière driven through the Porte St-Bernard'' (1755), Musée Carnavalet

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jeaurat, Etienne 18th-century French painters French male painters 1699 births 1789 deaths Rococo painters 18th-century French male artists