Alexis-François Girard

Alexis-François Girard (8 December 1787[a] - 17 January 1870[1]) was a French engraver. He was also notable as the father of Jules Girard (1825-1902), Hellenist and member of the Institut de France.

Life

According to his death registration he was born in Vincennes but no other evidence backs this. He also does not feature in the reconstituted birth records for Paris. According to Henri Beraldi, François was the son of Romain Girard (1751-18..), another engraver,[2] who was one of those who worked on a set of illustrations after Nicolas Lavreince for an edition of Liaisons dangereuses (1785). Trained by his father, François engraved in his workshop, notably a series of large head studies after famous paintings of his time, all signed "R. Girard et F. Girard" or "Girard et Girard fils". Father and son lived at 29 rue Barthélémy around 1795-1800, next door to the Palais de Justice, at one end of the Pont au Change.[3]

He was admitted to the Beaux-Arts de Paris in Jean-Baptiste Regnault's class, but abandoned painting.[4] He began his solo career reproducing drawings as stipple engravings - his 1817 life size portrait of Louis XVIII gained him recognition from those in power. His stipple Bellegarde after François Gérard's Entry of Henry IV into Paris won him a medal at the Paris Salon of 1819 - from then on he and that painter became friends and Alexis-François was the first engraver to whom the painter would turn.

In Paris on 11 July 1820 Girard married Louise Marthelot[5] (1784-1861)[6] They had had a daughter named Stéphanie Louise on 25 September 1817 (i.e. before their marriage), but she was recognised by Girard and legitimated after the marriage.

Around 1830 he abandoned the burin for the quicker technique of mezzotint. His 1832 standing folio portrait of Louis-Philippe I, his Joseph Récamier after Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin and his 1839 The Moor after a drawing by the English architect Christopher Wren are all representative of his technique in mezzotint. For it he ordered special tools from London, where English artists had long mastered the technique. He became an expert in the technique and was chosen by Paul Delaroche to engrave his paintings. Also around 1830 he trained Joseph Bouchardy in mezzotint, but the two men fell out.

Gustave Bertinot, Octave Tassaert, Élise Prétot (1831-1899[b]), Jules Gabriel Levasseur and Girard's own wife all also trained under Girard.[8] Levasseur made a portrait of Girard after a drawing by Delaroche, whilst Louis painted miniatures, produced stipple engravings signed in her own name at 5 rue Mignon and exhibited at the 1837 and 1848 Salons. Husband and wife were closely linked to the painters Ary and Henry Scheffer and reproduced their paintings.

From 1835 to 1865 his prints were published by the maison Goupil.[9] He was made a knight of the Legion of Honour on 14 August 1866.[10] He died in the 5th arrondissement of Paris and is buried with his wife, his daughter-in-law Laure Girard (née Guigniaut; 1833-1883) and the landscape painter Adolphe Viollet-le-Duc (1817-1878)[c] in a single plot in the first division of the cimetière du Montparnasse.

Works

As well as reproducing history and landscape paintings, Girard was also a portraitist. His works were exhibited at Salons from 1819 to 1866, signed "F. Girard" or "A. F. Girard". During his lifetime an album was gathered containing twelve of his plates at Vignères et Rapilly. Twenty of his engravings are now in the Prints and Drawings Department of the Louvre.

Selected works

  • Young Tobias and Female Saint (1818), lithographs published by Bonnemaison, after Bralle (drawing) and Raphael, Montauban, musée Ingres[11].
  • Bellegarde (1819), engraving after Louis-Édouard Rioult (drawing) and Gérard, Pau, musée national du château de Pau[12].
  • The Soldier's Widow (1824), lithograph published by chez Chardon, after Ary Scheffer, Vendôme, musée de Vendôme[13].
  • Henri IV [portrait] (1827), stipple engraving after Rioult (drawing) and Gérard, Pau, musée national du château de Pau[14].
  • Study for the head of Cérès, after Prud'hon, engraving on paper, Gray, musée Baron-Martin.

Notes

  1. ^ Inscribed on his tombstone
  2. ^ She won several medals at the Paris Salon between 1864 and 1870.[7]
  3. ^ Brother of the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.

References

  1. ^ Acte de décès No. 194 (vue 26/31). Archives en ligne de la Ville de Paris, état-civil du 5e arrondissement, registre des décès de 1870.
  2. ^ (in French) Notice Girard (Romain) 1751- . Les graveurs du dix-huitième siècle by Roger Portalis and Henri Béraldi, 2nd volume, p. 318, Paris, Morgand et Fatout, 1881, available at Gallica.
  3. ^ (in French) Catalogue général de la BNF.
  4. ^ (in French) Notice des archives de l'ENSBA.
  5. ^ (in French) Archives de Paris
  6. ^ (in French) Acte de décès no. 772 (vue 18/19). Archives en ligne de la Ville de Paris, état-civil du 5e arrondissement, registre des décès de 1861.
  7. ^ (in French) Fiche exposant Salon 1864, Base salons du musée d'Orsay.
  8. ^ Jules Gabriel Levasseur (Biographical details)
  9. ^ (in French) Exemple de correspondance entre Girard et Goupil, on traces-ecrites.com
  10. ^ (in French) Promotions et nominations dans l'ordre de la Légion d'honneur. La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, 20 août 1866, page 212
  11. ^ Base Joconde: Ancienne collection du peintre Ingres, French Ministry of Culture. (in French).
  12. ^ Base Joconde: Reference no. 50170002739, French Ministry of Culture. (in French).
  13. ^ Base Joconde: L'adresse du graveur y est mentionnée rue Mignon (Paris), French Ministry of Culture. (in French).
  14. ^ Base Joconde: Reference no. 50170000952, French Ministry of Culture. (in French).

Bibliography (in French)

  • Henri Beraldi (1888). Les graveurs du 19th century : guide de l'amateur d'estampes modernes. Paris: L. Conquet. p. 145-149..
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.