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not go to Rome until 1809. Between 1809 and ceiling painting in the Salle Henri II (The Dispute
1812, he was a pensioniere at the Villa Medici in between Minerva and Neptune on the Subject of Athens)
Rome and won a gold medal for his painting Le mort was removed in 1938, while those in the Salles du
de Louis XII surnommé le père sur peuple.3 Upon his Conseil d’Etat, France Victorious at Bouvines (1828) and
return to Paris, Blondel was elected a member of France Receives the Constitutional Charter from Louis XVIII
the Academy of Beaux-Arts and accepted a post at (1827), are still in situ.These monumental allegorical
the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and received several com- compositions belong to the tradition of David and
missions. stylistically by the 1820s Blondel’s work become
almost wholly academic and makes up in erudition
After gaining a gold medal in the Salon of 1817 for what they might lack in originality. Blondel’s royal
the Death of Louis XII (Toulouse, Musée Augustins), commissions also included an extensive series of por-
Blondel established a successful career as official dec- traits depicting French military leaders throughout
orative painter. In addition to the decoration of the her history. These were commissioned by Louis-
Salon and of the Galerie de Diane at Fontainebleau Philippe for the historical museum atVersailles and all
(1822-28) and the ceiling of the Palais de la Bourse were painted between 1834 and 1835. Blondel also
(Justice Protecting Commerce, sketch, 1825; Dijon, produced several important historical subject paint-
Musée Magnin), he received commissions for several ings for Louis-Phillipe including Jean II recoit au Louvre
ceilings in the Louvre, of which the earliest and most la soumission du Roi de Navarre, 1354 (1834), Ptolemais
remarkable is in the vestibule to the Galerie remise à Philippe-Auguste et à Richard, Coeur-de-lion, 13
d’Apollon (The Sun or the Fall of Icarus, in situ). The juillet 1191 (1838), both of which hang in Versailles.
t
3. 1817, oil on canvas, 320 x 385 cm,Toulouse, Musée des Augustins, inv. no. D 1817 1.
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