- Date of birth: 6 Dec 1841
- Date of death: 28 Nov 1870
- Country: France
Biography:
The short life of this remarkable French artist was not allowed to fully develop his talent and have left us such a quantity of work, what you would expect with a longer life. However, his lived for 28 years, Jean Frederic Bazille was able to achieve a extremely much and it was one of the founders of perhaps the most controversial genre of painting — impressionism.
The future master was born in 1841 in the French city of Montpellier. His parents were of the wealthy bourgeoisie of the Protestant faith gave the boy a good education. His father was a winemaker, as the Hérault region has always been famous for its warm climate, perfectly suitable for grape growing and breeding fruit trees. Perhaps a scenic natural environment influenced the artistic perception of the future master became the basis of his peculiar vision of the world reflected in his paintings.
The formation of the talent and creative style of the future master was greatly influenced by the paintings of the classics of French painting — Gustave Courbet and eugène Delacroix. To get acquainted with their works and the works of other great masters Frederick was able due to the presence in Montpellier Fabre Museum, which he frequented during his studies at the Lyceum of the city. This Museum has many paintings and graphic works collected by the artist françois-Xavier Fabre, please.
Despite his hobby of painting, Bazille began studying medicine in 1859. Three years later he went to continue his studies in the capital. There he spent two years studying art from Swiss artist Charles Gleyre. It was during his art student he brought a friendship with Claude Monet met Auguste Renoir and deeply immersed in the process of formation and development of their own artistic vision.
In the years of his life in Paris, Bazil is at the center of contemporary artistic and artistic Bohemia. He meets such famous artists as Paul Cezanne, Armand Hyomin and Alfred Sisley. Each of them, as well as Renoir and Monet, former close friends of Frederick, one way or another has had a major impact on his development as the master. However, he managed to develop and preserve your own writing style, talking about his paintings.
A creative and progressive environment helped the master to master your own style of writing that allows art historians to recognize Basil the founder of impressionism. Later other representatives of this genre of painting, he worked in the open air, i.e. outside, what immediately distinguishes the work of the Impressionists from the classic “sleek” Studio paintings of the old school. Frederick was particularly interesting to capture human nature, to convey its condition and impressions, sensations and emotions. This new painting is radically different from the old academic manner of writing with its formalism, static, or contrived poses and hackneyed plots.
Master wrote for exhibitions in the Paris Salons and also for decoration of the estate of his family in the outskirts of his native city of Montpellier. These paintings have been preserved and are now in major museums of France. Among them the most famous are the “Pink dress”, “village View”, “the artist’s Family on a terrace near Montpellier”.
When did the Franco-Prussian war, the artist found it impossible to refuse the protection of the Fatherland and did your civic duty by going to fight as a volunteer. Unfortunately, the young, talented artist was killed in a battle in Burgundy in the 1870s. He lived only 28 years. Who knows what heights he could have achieved had he remained alive?