Dordrecht 1795 - Argenteuil 1858
Autoportrait (1830) Oilpainting Musée de Grenoble(IN)
Heavenly and profane love (1850)(WWE)
Ary Scheffer
Dordrecht 1795 - Argenteuil 1858
Autoportrait (1830) Oilpainting Musée de Grenoble(IN)
Heavenly and profane love (1850)(WWE)
Scheffer received his first lessons in art from his parents Cornelia Lamme and Johann-Bernhard Scheffer, both of whom were painters. From 1806 to 1809 he studied at the Academy of Drawing in Amsterdam. In 1808, still only thirteen, he had his first success, exhibiting a picture whose theme was taken from Roman history, painted in a fairly monochrome, Rembrandtesque palette. After his father's death in 1809 his mother took the boy to Paris, where he became a pupil of the neoclassical painter Guérin in 1811.
During the Bourbon restoration monarchy (I814/15-1830) Scheffer took an increasingly active part in politics. A supporter of liberal reform, he was a fierce opponent of the conservative Bourbon regime. He was on friendly terms with General La Fayette, a leading opposition figure, and was involved in the Carbonari plots to overthrow the government. The Greek independence movement excited his imagination and he produced six works inspired by their struggle against the Turks. Of these the Souliot Women (Salon of 1827, where it was purchased by the Nation) and the Greek Women Imploring the Virgin for Assistance are two of the most notable.
Having established as a reputation as both a genre and history painter and as a successful portraitist, he became one of the leaders of the Romantic movement. Scheffer had been drawing master to the Duke of Orléans' children since 1822 and was on friendly terms with the family (painting numerous portraits of them). Orléans had acquired several of Scheffer's early paintings including our Greek Women and proved a loyal patron. Following the July revolution of 1830 the Duke of Orléans became King of the French as Louis-Philippe I, further securing the artist's position. Scheffer is best remembered for his Dante and Virgil Encountering the Shades of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, an icon of nineteenth century painting, of which the finest example may be seen in the exhibition Romance and Chivalry.