Ary Scheffer (10 February 179515 June 1858) was a Dutch-French Romantic painter. He was known mostly for his works based on literature, with paintings based on the works of Dante, Goethe, Lord Byron and Walter Scott, as well as religious subjects. He was also a prolific painter of portraits of famous and influential people in his lifetime. Politically, Scheffer had strong ties to King Louis Philippe I, having been employed as a teacher of the latter's children, which allowed him to live a life of luxury for many years until the French Revolution of 1848.

Early life and education

thumb|Statue of Scheffer on the Scheffersplein in [[Dordrecht, made by Joseph Mezzara after a design by Scheffer's daughter, Cornelia]]

thumb|Scheffer's house in [[Paris, now the Musée de la Vie romantique]]

Scheffer was the son of Johan Bernard Scheffer (1765–1809), a portrait painter who was born in Homberg upon Ohm or Cassel (both presently in Germany; the latter has been spelled as Kassel since 1926) and moved to the Netherlands in his youth, and Cornelia Lamme (1769–1839), a portrait miniature painter and daughter of landscape painter Arie Lamme of Dordrecht, for whom Arij (later "Ary") was named. Ary Scheffer had two brothers, the journalist and writer Karel Arnold Scheffer (1796–1853) and the painter Hendrik Scheffer (1798–1862). His parents educated him and he attended the drawing academy in Amsterdam from the age of 11 years. In 1808 his father became the court painter of Louis Bonaparte in Amsterdam, yet his father died one year later. Encouraged by Willem Bilderdijk, Ary moved to Lille, France, for further study after the death of his father.

In 1811, he and his mother, who greatly influenced his career, moved to Paris, France, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts as a pupil of Pierre-Narcisse Guérin. His brothers later followed them to Paris.

Career

Scheffer started exhibiting at the Salon de Paris in 1812. He began to be recognized in 1817, and in 1819 he was asked to make a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette. Perhaps because of Lafayette's acquaintances, Scheffer and his brothers were politically active throughout their lives and he became a prominent Philhellene. Ary Scheffer registered the name of her mother as "Maria Johanna de Nes", but nothing is known of her and she may have died soon after Cornélia's birth. Considering that his grandmother's name was "Johanna de Nes", it has been speculated that he kept the name of Cornélia's mother secret so as not to compromise the reputation of a noble family. Ary Scheffer's mother did not know of her namesake granddaughter until 1837, after which she cared for Cornélia until she died only two years later.

thumb|Portrait of his daughter Cornelia together with Turc the dog Scheffer and his family prospered during the reign of King Louis Philippe, who abdicated on 24 February 1848. Scheffer and Hendrik were inundated with artistic commissions, and they taught numerous students in their workshop in Paris, so many that of the works produced during this period that bear his signature the number that he actually made himself cannot be verified.

thumb|[[Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta Appraised by Dante and Virgil, 1854]]

Scheffer often painted subjects from literature, especially the works of Dante, Byron and Goethe. Two versions of Dante and Beatrice have been preserved at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, United Kingdom, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US. His L'Enterrement du Jeune Pêcheur, illustrating a scene from Walter Scott's The Antiquary and taking inspiration from David Wilkie's Distraining for Rent, was exhibited at the Salon of 1824.

thumb|left|upright|Temptation of Christ, 1854

He now turned to religious subjects: Christus Consolator (1836) was followed by Christus Remunerator, The shepherds led by the star (1837), The Magi laying down their crowns, Christ in the Garden of Olives, Christ bearing his Cross, Christ interred (1845), and St Augustine and Monica (1846).

One of the reduced versions of his Christus Consolator (the prime version today to be found in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), lost for 70 years, was rediscovered in a janitor's closet in Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Dassel, Minnesota, in 2007. It has been restored and is on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

thumb|upright|[[Katarzyna Branicka|Portrait of Katarzyna Potocka, 1850 (National Museum, Warsaw)]]

Scheffer was also an accomplished portrait painter, finishing 500 portraits in total. His subjects included composers Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, the Marquis de la Fayette, Pierre-Jean de Béranger, Alphonse de Lamartine, Charles Dickens, Duchess de Broglie, Talleyrand

The works, first exhibited posthumously, include Sorrows of the earth, and the Angel announcing the Resurrection, which he had left unfinished. By the time of his death, his reputation was damaged and was further undermined by the sale of the Paturle Gallery, which contained many of his most celebrated achievements: though his paintings were praised for their charm and facility, they were condemned for poor use of color and vapid sentiment. She wrote in one letter:

She was married to Louis Viardot at 18 years old, when her husband was a director of an Italian opera house in Paris and a friend of Scheffer. Scheffer was a confidant of Pauline Viardot and a friend of her family until his death.

In 1850 Scheffer became a French citizen and married Sophie Marin, the widow of General Marie Étienne François Henri Baudrand. Marin died in 1856.

thumb|right|Grave in [[Cimetière de Montmartre (Paris)]]

His younger brother Hendrik Scheffer, born in The Hague on 27 September 1798, was also a painter.

<gallery>

File:Ary Scheffer - La Mort de Malvina.jpg|The Death of Malvina, 1811

File:Ary Scheffer - Marée montante 02.jpg|Rising Tide, 1823

File:Lafayette-scheffer.jpg|Portrait of Lafayette, 1823

File:Ary Scheffer - La Mort de Géricault (1824).JPG|The Death of Géricault, 1824

File:Ary Scheffer - mère convalescente.jpg|A convalescent mother and her children, 1824

File:Ary Scheffer - The Retreat of Napoleon’s Army from Russia in 1812 - 2011.136.1 - Yale University Art Gallery.jpg|The Retreat of Napoleon's Army from Russia, 1826

File:Ary Scheffer (1795-1858) - The Sister of Mercy - P616 - The Wallace Collection.jpg|The Sister of Mercy, 1831

File:Ary Scheffer - Franz Liszt.jpg|Portrait of Franz Liszt, 1837

File:Ary Scheffer faust.jpg|Faust and Marguerite in the Garden, 1846

File:Ary Scheffer Le petit atelier 1850.jpg|Le petit atelier, 1850

File:Ary Scheffer, Margarete at the fountain.jpg|Marguerite at the fountain, 1858

File:Lamartine par Ary Scheffer.jpg|Portrait of Lamartine

File:Ary Scheffer - Zelfportret - DM-S-31 - Dordrechts Museum.jpg|Self-portrait

File:Chopin-scheffer.jpg|Chopin by Scheffer

File:Charlotte Rothschild (1807–1859).jpg|Charlotte, wife of Anselm Salomon von Rothschild

File:Louis Ratisbonne.JPG|Louis Ratisbonne

File:Richard Cobden MP.jpg|Richard Cobden

File:Talleyrand, Charles-Maurice - Vieux.jpg|Talleyrand

File:Charlemagne, empereur d'Occident, reçoit la soumission de Wittekind, 785, por Ary Scheffer.jpg|Charlemagne receiving the submission of Widukind at Paderborn in 785, painted

File:Ary Scheffer - Saint Louis visitant les pestiférés (1822).jpg|Saint Louis visitant les pestiférés (1822)

File:The Death of Saint Louis LACMA 81.2.jpg|Death of Saint Louis

File:Ary Scheffer - Bataille de Tolbiac 496.jpg|Battle of Tolbiac 496

File:Charles Dickens by Ary Scheffer 1855.jpg|Portrait of Charles Dickens, 1855

</gallery>

See also

  • Musée de la Vie Romantique, Hôtel Scheffer-Renan, Paris

References

Further reading

  • Ary Scheffer at Art Renewal Center

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