Jean - Jacques Henner "Femme nue debout"

Henner was born on March 5, 1829 in Bernwiller, in the south of Alsace. He was the youngest of a farmer's six sons.

His artistic career falls into three periods. The first that of his youth, began in 1845 and ended with his winning the Prix de Rome in 1858. His first studies were in his hometown and Strasbourg, and then from 1846 he studied in Paris. During his early years, he painted numerous portraits on his family and other people close to him. The second period is that of his sojourn to Italy, from 1859 until 1864. At the Academie de France in Rome, he painted landscapes and copied works by Italian masters, including Giotto and Correggio. During the third period between 1864 and 1905, Henner was at the height of his powers. He lived in Paris, exhibited a handful of works at the Salon each year and basked in his reputation as an official artist. The painting in the Marubeni collection derives from this last period. In 1873, Henner received the Legion d'Honneur, rising through the ranks until he became grand officier in 1903.

In his third period, Henner borrowed copiously from mythology and religion, finding particular inspiration in the pastoral poetry of Virgil and Ovid, which he delighted in reading. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870 - 71 cast a dark shadow over his life, not least because his native Alsace came under Prussian occupation, and his paintings took on an ironic pessimism. He sometimes portrayed the Alastian landscape at the nostalgic backdrop to a female nude, and in this regard may perhaps be regarded as a symbolist. He did not live to see his beloved Alsace returned to France, dying in Paris on July 23, 1905.

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Jean - Jacques Henner
(1829 - 1905)
Femme nue debout

1877
Oil on canvas
31Å~24cm