Jean Frédéric Bazille (; December 6, 1841 – November 28, 1870) was a French Impressionist painter. Many of Bazille's major works are examples of figure painting in which he placed the subject figure within a landscape painted en plein air.

Life and work

thumb|333px|[[Studio in Rue de La Condamine, 1870, Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Among Bazille's friends portrayed are Pierre-Auguste Renoir sitting, and Édouard Manet next to Bazille, who portrays himself painting.]]

Frédéric Bazille was born in Montpellier, Hérault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, into a wealthy wine merchant Protestant family. Bazille grew up in the Le Domaine de Méric, a wine-producing estate in Castelnau-le-Lez, near Montpellier, owned by his family. He became interested in painting after seeing some works of Eugène Delacroix. His family agreed to let him study painting, but only if he also studied medicine. His best-known painting is Family Reunion, painted 1867–1868 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris).

Frédéric Bazille joined a Zouave regiment in August 1870, a month after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. On November 28th of that year he was with his unit at the Battle of Beaune-la-Rolande when his commanding officer was injured. That required him to take command and lead an assault on the German position. He was hit twice in the failed attack and died on the battlefield at the age of twenty-eight. His father travelled to the battlefield a few days later to take his body back for burial at Montpellier in the Protestant cemetery over a week later.

Personal life

Bazille never married, claiming it was because of “an early heartbreak with a woman.” He developed intimate friendships with men, such as Edmond Maître, but was also melancholic and claimed to “hav[e] constant migraines while he was painting his nude men.” This and the homoeroticism of his paintings led to modern suggestions that Bazille may have been gay and conflicted about his sexuality.

Scholars have said that Bazille was the model for "the engaging figure of Félicien d'Hautecœur" in Émile Zola's novel Le Réve.<blockquote>Zola took him as the model for Félicien d'Hautecœur in his fairy tale Le Rêve, and the portrait the novelist paints of his hero seems a true likeness of the images of Bazille that have come down to us: "He resembled a magnificent Jesus, with his curly hair, his light beard, his straight—albeit slightly prominent—nose, and his dark eyes, filled with a haughty gentleness."</blockquote>

Main works

  • La robe rose, (1864) – <small> 147 x 110&nbsp;cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris </small>
  • Studio on Rue Furstenberg, (1865) – <small> 80 x 65&nbsp;cm, Musée Fabre, Montpellier </small>
  • Aigues-Mortes, (1867) – <small> 46 x 55&nbsp;cm, Musée Fabre, Montpellier </small>
  • Self-portrait, (1865) – <small> 109 x72 cm, Art Institute of Chicago </small>
  • Family Reunion, (1867) – <small> 152 x 230&nbsp;cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris </small>
  • Le Pécheur à l'épervier, (1868) – <small> 134 x 83&nbsp;cm, Fondation Rau pour le tiers-monde, Zürich </small>
  • View of the Village, (1868) – <small> 130 x 89&nbsp;cm, Musée Fabre, Montpellier </small>
  • Scène d'été, (1869) – <small> 158 x 158&nbsp;cm, Cambridge, Harvard University </small>
  • La Toilette, (1870) – <small> 132 x 127&nbsp;cm., Musée Fabre, Montpellier </small>
  • L'Atelier de la rue Condamine, (1870) – <small> 98 x 128.5&nbsp;cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris </small>
  • Paysage au bord du Lez, (1870) – <small> 137.8 x 202.5&nbsp;cm, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis </small>

thumb|[[Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frédéric Bazille painting The Heron]]

<gallery widths="154" heights="168" perrow="4">

File:Bazille, Frédéric - Self Portrait.jpeg|Self Portrait, unknown date

File:Frédéric Bazille Study of Trees.jpg|Study of Trees, 1863

File:Jean Frédéric Bazille - Reclining Nude - 1864.jpg|Reclining Nude, 1864

File:Frédéric Bazille - The Pink Dress - Google Art Project.jpg|The Pink Dress (View of Castelnau-le-Lez, Hérault), 1864, oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay

File:Bazille, Frédéric - Chailly.jpeg|Chailly, 1865, Musée Fabre, Montpellier

File:Bazille Sutdio in the rue de Furstenberg.jpg|Studio on Rue Furstenberg, 1865, Musée Fabre, Montpellier

File:Jean Frédéric Bazille - Little Italian Street Singer 1866.jpg|Little Italian Street Singer, 1866

File:Frédéric Bazille - The Little Gardener - Google Art Project.jpg|Le Petit Jardinier (The Little Gardener), c. 1866–67, oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

File:Frédéric Bazille - Nature morte avec du poisson.jpg|Nature morte avec du poisson, Still life with fish, c. 1866–67

File:Renoir by Bazille.jpg|Portrait of Renoir, 1867, oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay

File:Bazille, Frédéric - Aigues-Mortes.jpeg|Aigues-Mortes, 1867

File:Réunion de famille - Frédéric Bazille - musée d'Orsay RF 2749.jpg|The Family Reunion, c. 1867, Musée d'Orsay

File:Bazille-Nature morte au héron.JPG|Nature morte au héron, 1867

File:Jean Frédéric Bazille - Etude pour une vendange (left) 1868.jpg|Etude pour une vendange, 1868

File:Bazille, Frédéric ~ View of the Village, 1868.jpg|View of the Village, 1868, Musée Fabre, Montpellier

File:Bazille - Pêcheur à l'épervier.jpg|Fisherman with a Net, 1868

File:Bazille, Frédéric - Portrait of Alphonse Tissie.jpeg|Portrait of Alphonse Tissie, 1868, Musée Fabre, Montpellier

File:Bazille, Frederic — Flowers — 1868.jpg|Flowers, 1868

File:Frédéric Bazille - Portrait de Paul Verlaine comme une Troubadour.jpg|Portrait of Paul Verlaine, 1868, Dallas Museum of Art

File:Bazille, Frédéric ~ Summer Scene, 1869, Oil on canvas Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts.jpg|Scène d'été, 1869, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts

File:Bazille, Frédéric - Portrait of Edmond Maitre.jpeg|Portrait of Edmond Maître, 1869

File:Bazille, Frédéric ~ La Toilette, 1869-70, Oil on canvas Musee Fabre, Montpelier.jpg|La Toilette, 1870, Musée Fabre

File:Frédéric Bazille, Young Woman with Peonies, 1870, NGA 61356.jpg|Black Woman with Peonies, 1870, National Gallery of Art

File:Frederic Bazille Paysage au bord du Lez.jpg|Paysage au bord du Lez, 1870, oil on canvas, Minneapolis Institute of Arts

</gallery>

See also

  • A Studio at Les Batignolles
  • List of paintings by Frédéric Bazille

Notes

References

  • Pitman, Dianne W. (1998). Bazille: Purity, Pose and Painting in the 1860s. University Park: Penn State University Press. .
  • Rosenblum, Robert (1989). Paintings in the Musée d'Orsay. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang.
  • Frédéric Bazille at the National Gallery of Art
  • Bazille Gallery at MuseumSyndicate
  • Impressionism: a centenary exhibition, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (PDF available online), which contains material on Bazille (p.&nbsp;37–39)
  • Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism 2017 exhibit at the National Gallery of Art