Théodore Chassériau (; ; September 20, 1819 – October 8, 1856) was a Dominican-born French Romantic

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

noted for his

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

s, historical and religious paintings, allegorical murals, and Orientalist images inspired by his travels to

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

. Early in his career he painted in a Neoclassical style close to that of his teacher

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( ; ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassicism, Neoclassical Painting, painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic ...

, but in his later works he was strongly influenced by the Romantic style of

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...

. He was a prolific draftsman, and made a suite of prints to illustrate

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's ''

Othello ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...

''. The portrait he painted at the age of 15 of Prosper Marilhat makes Chassériau the youngest painter exhibited 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 ...

museum.Jean-Baptiste Nouvion, ''Chassériau Correspondance oubliée'', preface by Marianne de Tolentino, Paris, Les Amis de Théodore Chassériau, 2014

Life and work

Chassériau was born in El Limón, Samaná, in the Spanish colony of

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

(now the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

). His father Benoît Chassériau was a French adventurer who had arrived in Santo Domingo in 1802 to take an administrative position in what was until 1808 a French colony. Theodore's mother, Maria Magdalena Couret de la Blagniére, was the daughter of a

mulatto ( , ) is a Race (human categorization), racial classification that refers to people of mixed Sub-Saharan African, African and Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the ...

landowner born in

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colonization of the Americas, French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1803. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the isl ...

(now

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

). In December 1820 the family left Santo Domingo for

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where the young Chassériau soon showed precocious drawing skill. He was accepted into the studio of

in 1830, at the age of eleven, and became the favorite pupil of the great

classicist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

, who regarded him as his truest disciple. (An account that may be apocryphal has Ingres declaring "Come, gentlemen, come see, this child will be the Napoleon of painting.") Theodore chasseriau Samana

After Ingres left Paris in 1834 to become director of the French Academy in Rome, Chassériau fell under the influence of

, whose brand of painterly colorism was anathema to Ingres. Chassériau first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1836, and was awarded a third-place medal in the category of

history painting History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and B ...

. In 1840 Chassériau travelled to Rome and met with Ingres, whose bitterness at the direction his student's work was taking led to a decisive break. While in Italy, Chassériau made landscape sketches and studied Renaissance

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es.Rosenthal. Among the chief works of his early maturity are ''Susanna and the Elders'' and ''

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

Anadyomene'' (both 1839), '' Diana Surprised by

Actaeon In Greek mythology, Actaeon (; ''Aktaiōn'') was the son of the priestly herdsman Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia, and a famous Thebes, Greece, Theban Greek hero cult, hero. Through his mother he was a member of the ruling House of Cadmus. Like ...

'' (1840), '' Andromeda Chained to the Rock by the Nereids'' (1840), and '' The Toilette of Esther'' (1841), all of which reveal a very personal ideal in depicting the female nude. Chassériau's major religious paintings from these years, ''

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

on the Mount of Olives'' (a subject he treated in 1840 and again in 1844) and ''The Descent from the Cross'' (1842), received mixed reviews from the critics; among the artist's champions was

Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...

. In 1843, Chassériau painted murals depicting the life of Saint Mary of Egypt in the Church of Saint-Merri in Paris, the first of several commissions he received to decorate public buildings in Paris. Portraits from this period include the ''Portrait of the Reverend Father Dominique Lacordaire, of the Order of the Predicant Friars'' (1840), and '' The Two Sisters'' (1843), which depicts Chassériau's sisters Adèle and Aline. Throughout his life he was a prolific draftsman; his many portrait drawings executed with a finely pointed graphite pencil are close in style to those of Ingres. He also created a body of 29 prints, including a group of eighteen etchings of subjects from

's ''

'' in 1844. He exhibited the colossal portrait '' Ali-Ben-Hamet, Caliph of Constantine and Chief of the Haractas, Followed by his Escort'' in the Salon of 1845, where it received equivocal reviews. In 1846, Chassériau made his first trip to Algeria. From sketches made on this and subsequent trips he painted such subjects as ''Arab Chiefs Visiting Their Vassals'' and ''Jewish Women on a Balcony'' (both 1849, now in the

). A major late work, ''The Tepidarium'' (1853, in the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

), depicts a large group of women drying themselves after bathing, in an architectural setting inspired by the artist's trip in 1840 to

Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

. His most monumental work was his decoration of the grand staircase of the

Cour des Comptes The ''Cour des Comptes'' (, "Court of Accounts") is France's supreme audit institution, under French law an administrative court. As such, it is independent from the legislative and executive branches of the French Government. However, the 1946 ...

, commissioned by the state in 1844 and completed in 1848. He followed the example of Delacroix in executing this work in oil on plaster, rather than in fresco. This work was heavily damaged in May 1871 by a fire set during the Commune, and only fragments could be recovered; these are preserved in the Louvre. After a period of ill health, exacerbated by his exhausting work on commissions for murals to decorate the Churches of Saint-Roch and Saint-Philippe-du-Roule, Chassériau died at the age of 37 in Paris, on October 8, 1856. He is buried in the

Montmartre Cemetery The Cemetery of Montmartre () is a cemetery in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France, that dates to the early 19th century. Officially known as the Cimetière du Nord, it is the third largest necropolis in Paris, after the Père Lachaise Cemet ...

Technique and style

Chassériau's art has often been characterized as an attempt to reconcile the classicism of Ingres with the romanticism of Delacroix. In composing his narrative paintings, his concern for the decorative arrangement of figures and the creation of a mood took precedence over narrative coherence. His preferred method of working was to study his model carefully and then draw from memory. He favored the serpentine pose, especially for his female figures. Art historian Jonathan P. Ribner calls "the inclined neck and bent knee" Chassériau's "signature motif" and says that "his command of foreshortening and three-dimensional composition remained uneven to the end, and this limitation is reflected in the tenacity of his ... inclination toward flattened, stylized poses." According to Léon Rosenthal, Chassériau was "much less concerned with bringing heroes to life or developing characters than desirous of producing subtle and infinitely rich impressions suggested to him by the themes he chooses".Ribner, Jonathan P. (1994). "Chassériau’s Juvenilia: Some Early Works by an 'Enfant du Siècle'". ''Zeitschrift Für Kunstgeschichte'', 57(2), 219–238.

Legacy

His work had a significant impact on the style of Puvis de Chavannes and

Gustave Moreau Gustave Moreau (; 6 April 1826 – 18 April 1898) was a French artist and an important figure in the Symbolist movement. Jean Cassou called him "the Symbolist painter par excellence".Cassou, Jean. 1979. ''The Concise Encyclopedia of Symbolism ...

, and—through those artists' influence—reverberations in the work of

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...

and

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

.Guégan et al. 2002, p. 287. There is in Paris a Society for the painter: ''Association des Amis de Théodore Chassériau''. Works of Chassériau are in the

Musée du 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 ...

where a room is dedicated to him, in the

, and in the Musée de

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 ...

. Collections in the United States holding works by Théodore Chassériau include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Fogg Art Museum of

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

University, the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an 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 charge, the museum was privately established in ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has list of largest art museums, one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it cove ...

, the Museum of the Art Rhode Island School of Design, The J. Paul Getty Museum and the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

Exhibitions

* ''Théodore Chassériau: Parfum exotique'',

National Museum of Western Art The is the premier public art gallery in Japan specializing in art from the Western tradition. The museum is in the Ueno Park in Taitō, central Tokyo. It received 1,162,345 visitors in 2016. History The NMWA was established on June 10, 1959 ...

of Tokyo, Japan, February 28 – May 28, 2017 * ''Théodore Chassériau: Obras sobre papel'', Galerie nationale des beaux-arts de

and Centro cultural León de

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros ("James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights"), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the capital of ...

, 2004 * ''Théodore Chassériau (1819–1856): A Different Romanticism'', Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (United States), Galeries nationales du Grand Palais in Paris (France) and Musée des beaux-arts de

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

(France), 2002 * ''Chassériau (1819–1856): exposition au profit de la Société des amis du Louvre'', Galerie Daber, Paris, France, 1976 * ''Theodore Chassériau (1819–1856)'', Musée des beaux-arts de

Poitiers Poitiers is a city on the river Clain in west-central France. It is a commune in France, commune, the capital of the Vienne (department), Vienne department and the historical center of Poitou, Poitou Province. In 2021, it had a population of 9 ...

, France, 1969 * ''Théodore Chassériau'', Musée national des beaux-arts d'Alger, Algeria, 1936 * ''Retrospective Théodore Chassériau (1819–1856)'', Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France, 1933 * ''Aquarelles et dessins de Chasseriau (1819–1856)'', Galerie L. Dru, Paris, France, 1927 * ''Les Peintres orientalistes français - 4e exposition: Rétrospective Théodore Chassériau'', Galerie

Durand-Ruel Paul Durand-Ruel (; 31 October 1831 – 5 February 1922) was a French art dealer associated with the Impressionism, Impressionists and the Barbizon school, Barbizon School. Being the first to support artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, ...

, Paris, France, 1897

Selected works

* ''

Self-Portrait Self-portraits are Portrait painting, portraits artists make of themselves. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, the practice of self-portraiture only gaining momentum in the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century ...

'' -

* '' Aline Chassériau'' -

* '' Battle of Arab Horsemen Around a Standard'' (1854) - Dallas Museum of Art * '' The Caliph of Constantine'', also known as ''Ali Ben-Hamet, Caliph of Constantine and Chief of the Haractas, Followed by his Escort'' * '' Arab Chiefs Challenging each other to Single Combat under the Ramparts of a City'' * '' Andromeda Chained to the Rock by the Nereids'' * '' Arab Chiefs Visiting their Vassals'' * '' Christ on the Mount of Olives'' * '' The Descent from the Cross'' * '' Diana Surprised by Actaeon'' * '' Jewish Women on a Balcony'' * '' Othello and Desdemona in Venice'' * '' Portrait of the Father Dominique Lacordaire, of the Order of the Predicant Friars'' * '' Susanna and the Elders'' * ''

Venus Anadyomene ''Venus Anadyomene'' (, "Venus, Rising from the Sea") is one of the iconic representations of the goddess Venus (mythology), Venus (Aphrodite), made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in Natural History (encycl ...

'' * '' The Tepidarium'' * '' The Toilette of Esther'' * '' The Two Sisters''

Gallery

File:Chassériau - Comtesse de La Tour-Maubourg (née Marie-Louise-Charlotte-Gabrielle Thomas de Pange, 1816–1850).jpg, alt= Portrait de la comtesse de La Tour Maubourg par Théodore Chassériau., ''Portrait de la comtesse de La Tour Maubourg'', 1841, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York File:Théodore Chassériau - Peace - WGA4804.jpg, ''Peace, Protector of the Arts and of the Tilling of the Soil'', 1844–1848, oil on plaster transferred to canvas. A surviving fragment of the Cour des Comptes decorations. File:Othello and Desdemona in Venice by Théodore Chassériau.jpg, ''

and Desdemona in Venice'', 1850, oil on wood, 25 x 20 cm,

, Paris. Another work inspired by

File:'Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine' by Théodore Chassériau, 1851.jpg, alt=Deux jeunes juives de Constantine berçant un enfant par Théodore Chassériau., ''Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine'', 1851, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York File:Théodore Chassériau - Orientalist Interior - Nude in a Harem - WGA04803.jpg, ''Orientalist Interior'', ca. 1851–1852, oil on wood, 49 x 39 cm File:Théodore Chassériau - Tepidarium - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Tepidarium'', 1853, oil on canvas,

File:Théodore Chassériau - Portrait of Mme Borg de Balsan.JPG, alt=Portrait of Mme Borg de Balsan, ''Portrait of Mme Borg de Balsan'', 1847, pencil on paper,

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, 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 ...

File:CHASSERIAU Théodore,1844 - Portrait de Lamartine - drawing (dessin, disegno).jpg, alt=Portrait d'Alphonse de Lamartine, ''Portrait d' Alphonse de Lamartine'', 1844, pencil on paper File:L'Enfant & la poupée, portrait de Laure Stéphanie Pierrugues par Théodore Chassériau (1836).jpg, alt=The Child & the doll, ''The Child and the Doll'', portrait of Laure Stéphanie Pierrugues, 1836, oil on canvas, 79,5 x 57 cm

Notes

References

* Fisher, Jay M. (1979). ''Théodore Chassériau: Illustrations for Othello''. Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art. . * Guégan, Stéphane; Pomarède, Vincent; Prat, Louis-Antoine (2002). ''Théodore Chassériau, 1819-1856: The Unknown Romantic''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. . * Miller, Peter Benson (2004). "By the Sword and the Plow: Théodore Chassériau's Cour des Comptes Murals and Algeria," ''The Art Bulletin'' vol. 86, no. 4 (Dec. 2004), pp. 690–718. * Prat, Louis-Antoine. n.d. ''Theodore Chassériau, 1819-1856: dessins conserves en dehors du Louvre''. Paris: Galerie de Bayser 989? . * Rosenblum, Robert (1989). ''Paintings in the Musée d'Orsay''. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang. . * Rosenthal, Donald A. "Chassériau, Théodore". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University Press. Web.

External links

Website of the 'Amis de Théodore Chassériau' (France)

Website
of the

Institut de France The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately ...

(

Académie des Beaux-Arts The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect. Background The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...

) - Prix de Gravure Chassériau - Last prize was given in 2011 to Dominique Vaillier.
Famille Chasseriau, Généalogie d'Haiti et de Saint-Domingue
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chasseriau, Theodore 1819 births 1856 deaths 19th-century French painters French male painters French romantic painters French portrait painters Burials at Montmartre Cemetery Theodore French Orientalist painters 19th-century painters of historical subjects People from New Spain 19th-century French male artists