Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 2014 Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont: Her Inspirations and Innovations Alexandria Samantha Guillory Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Guillory, Alexandria Samantha, "Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont: Her Inspirations and Innovations" (2014). LSU Master's Theses.edu/gradschool_theses/1673 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact gradetd@lsu.
LOUISE JOSEPHINE SARAZIN DE BELMONT: HER INFLUENCES AND INNOVATIONS A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in The School of Art by Alexandria Samantha Guillory B., University of South Alabama, 2012 August 2014 This thesis is dedicated, first and foremost, to my mother, Hollie Guillory, who has supported me in each step of this venture; there are not words to express all that she has done for me. Additionally, I would like to dedicate this work to my grandparents, Wendell and Betty Guillory, who first instilled in me a love of art. To the memory of Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont; it has been an honor. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr.
Darius Spieth, not only for inspiring this topic, but also for providing invaluable resources, and honest feedback throughout this process. I would also like to thank Dr. Matthew Savage and Dr. Susanne Marchand for their editorial contributions.
My father, Sean Guillory, also deserves credit in this endeavor. Without his supportive words and assistance I would never have been able to achieve this milestone. Finally, I wish to thank my fellow graduate students for their constant support, encouragement, and reassurances. Carmen, Brandi, and Carla, you will forever hold a place in my heart.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. iii LIST OF FIGURES. viii CHAPTER 1: LOUISE JOSEPHINE SARAZIN DE BELMONT: HER ARTISTIC EDUCATION AND SALON EXHIBITIONS. 1 Views Taken from Italy: Following the Route of Abbé de Saint Non.
3 Views Taken from France and Switzerland. 10 CHAPTER 2: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTHERN ITALIAN LANDSCAPE. 15 Northern European Beginnings: The Bambaccianti Tradition. 15 Southern Italian Influence: Claude Lorrain.
18 Southern Italian Influence: Nicolas Poussin. 28 CHAPTER 3: SARAZIN DE BELMONT’S TEACHER: PIERRE HENRI DE VALENCIENNES. 36 Life and Artistic Career. 36 Contributions as a Teacher and Theoretician.
40 CHAPTER 4: THE AUCTION RECORDS AND MUSEUM DONATIONS OF SARAZIN DE BELMONT. 47 Auction Records and Related Works. 64 iv LIST OF FIGURES 1. Dambrun, Vue de la ville de Naples prise du Baflion appellé il Torrione del Carmine, c.
Bibliothèque nationale de France. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Vue du Forum romain, avec l'arc de Septim Sévère, 1865. Oil on wood. Lempertz auction house.
Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Vue du forum et du capitole à Rome, c. Oil on wood. Musée Ingres, Montauban. De Ghendt, Vue de l'arc de Trajan à Benevent, c.
Bibliothèque nationale de France. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont. The Roman Theater at Taormina, 1828. Oil on paper mounted on canvas.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D. Gallonberg, Vue générale des ruines de l'ancien théâtre de Taorminum, c. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Vue de couvent de Saint-Savin, 1833.
Bibliothèque nationale de France. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Vue de Paris prise de la galerie d’Apollon, 1835. Oil on canvas. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island………………….
Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Intérieur de la forêt de Fontainebleau, c. Oil on canvas. Musée des beaux-arts, Nantes. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, View of Saint-Pol-De-Léon, c.
Oil on Canvas. Stair Sainty Gallery. Pieter van Laer, The Cake Vendor, c. Oil on Canvas.
Galleria Nazionale, Rome. Nicolaes Berchen, Italianate landscape with fountain and shepherds, c. Oil on canvas, 36. Dulwich Picture Gallery, London.
Claude Lorrain, Coast Scene with Europa and the Bull, c. Oil on canvas, 170. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. Claude Lorrain, Pastoral Landscape with Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo, c.
Oil on copper, 30. The Sydnics of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Claude Lorrain, The Port of Santa Marinella, c. Oil on copper, 28 x 35.
Musée du Petit Palais, Collection Dutuit, Paris. Claude Lorrain, View of Tivoli, c. Pen, brown and red wash 21. British Museum, London.
Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, The Falls at Tivoli, c. Oil on paper laid on canvas, 72. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco. Claude Lorrain, Harbour Scene, c.
Oil on canvas, 96. Private Collection, Paris. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, View of Saint-Pol-De-Léon, c. Oil on canvas, 62.
Sold by the Stair Sainty Gallery, London. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Vue d'Italie, c. Oil on canvas, 31 ½ x 50 cm. Musée Ingres, Montauban.
Nicolas Poussin, Landscape with Polyphemus, 1649. Oil on canvas, 147. The Hermitage, Leningrad. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, The Falls at Tivoli, c.
Oil on paper laid on canvas, 57. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Vue de la Vallée d’Argelles, 1833. Lithograph, 15 in plate.
Bibliothèque municipal de Toulouse, Toulouse. Pierre Henri Valenciennes, Cicero Discovering the Tome of Archimedes, 1787. Oil on canvas. Musée des Augustins, Toulouse.
Pierre Henri Valenciennes, In Rome: Study of a Cloudy Sky, c. Oil on paper mounted on cardboard. Musée de Louvre, Paris. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Le Château de Pau vu du parc, c.
Oil on canvas, 75 x 100. Musée des beaux-arts, Pau. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Château de Pau vu depuis l'Est, c. Lithographic print, 24 x 30 cm.
Musée national du château de Pau, Pau. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Paysage italien, c. Oil on canvas, 81 x 100 cm. Musée Lambinet, Versailles.
Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, View of the Castello di San Giuliano, near Trapani, Sicily, c. Oil on canvas, 22. National Gallery of Art, Washington D. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Scenes from the life of Jeanne of Navarre, duchesse de Bretagne (set of two), c.
Oil on canvas, 54 x 64. Wengraf auction house. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Scenes from the life of Jeanne of Navarre, duchesse de Bretagne (set of two), c. Oil on canvas, 54 x 64.7 cm Wengraf auction house.
Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Vue de Florence, c. Oil on canvas, 140 x 198 cm. Musée des Augustins de Toulouse. Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, Vue de Rome, c.
Oil on canvas, 140 x 198 cm. Musée des Augustins de Toulouse. Sarazin de Belmont, Vue de Naples, c. Oil on canvas, 140 x 198 cm.
Musée des Augustins de Toulouse. Sarazin de Belmont, Vue de Paris, c. Oil on canvas, 140 x 198 cm. Musée des Augustins de Toulouse.
Raphael, Madonna of the Chair, c. Oil on panel, 71. Palazzo Pitti, Florence.58 vii ABSTRACT Mademoiselle Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont (1790-1870) was a landscape painter, born in Versailles, France. A gifted artist with natural talent, she studied under Pierre Henri Valenciennes.
Though not his most remembered pupil, her work was picturesque and popular in the French art market. Sarazin de Belmont had no patrons and relied on auction sales to fund her lifestyle as a traveling artist. Venturing from Naples, Rome, and Sicily to the Pyrénées Mountains of France, she evaluated the romantic vistas of the masters who came before her. After becoming the first female artist to have her works sold in a solo auction, the innovative Sarazin de Belmont promoted her works beyond the auction block.
During her lifetime she donated at least six original paintings to museums throughout France. This generosity served to place her in the collections of established museums and to ensure that her work would be experienced by future generations. More than talent, Sarazin de Belmont possessed an independent spirit and a bold nature which drove her to make her career exactly what she desired it to be. viii CHAPTER 1: LOUISE JOSEPHINE SARAZIN DE BELMONT: HER ARTISTIC EDUCATION AND SALON EXHIBITIONS Introduction Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont was born in Versailles on February 14, 1790.
What is known about her life and career principally relates to her teacher, her artistic style, her sales records, and her museum donations. While she was living in Italy during the first decade of the nineteenth century, Sarazin de Belmont was a student of Pierre Henri Valenciennes (1750-1819).1 Valenciennes strove to revive the great French landscape tradition embodied by Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) and Nicolas Poussin (1594- 1665). Sarazin de Belmont’s paintings and drawings show direct influence from all three men, from her methods of study to her organization of scenery. She perpetuated her teacher’s mission to see the paysage historique genre elevated to the rarified rank of subject matter qualifying for the Prix de Rome.
Valenciennes would not achieve this goal personally, but his students would do so for him.2 One such student, who would be awarded by the Academy for her work in landscapes, was Sarazin de Belmont.3 Although her oeuvre, after the nineteenth century, was widely forgotten in the history of art, the career she established, following the guidelines laid out by the men who painted the Italian landscape before her, is altogether impressive. Sarazin de Belmont was a gifted artist, more than equal to her teacher in talent. Beyond natural abilities, she also possessed a tenacious drive which propelled her 1 Louis Auvray, Dictionnaire Général des Artistes de L’École Française, 1872, s. “Sarazin de Belmont,” 463.
2 Paula Rea Radisich, “Eighteenth Century Landscape Theory & the Work of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes” (Master’s thesis, University of California Los Angeles, 1977), 177-179. 3 Louis Auvray, Dictionnaire Général des Artistes de L’École Française, 1872, s. “Sarazin de Belmont,” 463. As a female artist in a male dominated art world, she struggled with challenges specific to her gender.
Sarazin de Belmont traveled Europe extensively, including Italy, Switzerland, and her motherland of France. She managed to fund her travels through the sale of paintings, drawings, and lithographs taken from the sites she encountered along her routes.4 This period of travel is an important and central point in her career. As a woman, she would generally not have traveled unaccompanied; moreover she would have needed funding for these travels.5 Rather than rely on family members to support her ventures, Sarazin de Belmont took the initiative to directly market her works through auctions. As one of the first artists and probably the first female artist, to do so, her initiative can be praised even more so than her talent.
Beyond promoting her work through auctions, she also donated a number of works to museums throughout France. The donation of these works show the natural resourcefulness of Sarazin de Belmont. Without a patron to support her career, she set about promoting her own work in every possible manner. It is because of this commendable tenacity, along with the intrinsic quality of her work, that Sarazin de Belmont’s life and career deserves more attention from art historians than it has received up to now.
This thesis is an attempt to redress this situation. The present analysis seeks to trace the development of the paysage historique from its beginnings with the art of Netherlandish Bambaccianti painters, active in Italy in the seventeenth century, to the art of Sarazin de Belmont. Bambaccianti painters specialized in painting Italianate landscapes. Pieter van Laer, leader of the group, began 4 D., Department of Painting & Sculpture, (Rhode Island: Rhode Island School of Design, 1987), 31.
5 Daniel Rosenfeld, Eurpoean Painting & Sculpture, c. 1770-1937 in the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 64. 2 this tradition while painting street life in Rome.6 Chapter one focuses on the Salon exhibitions and artistically driven travels of Sarazin de Belmont.