Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio
Encyclopedia
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
− d. 1871 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
) was a French naval painter, peintre officiel de la Marine, curator of the naval and ethnographic museum of the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
, and mayor of the 20th arrondissement of Paris.
Biography
Morel-Fatio was born to the Morel family, of small nobility. He attended Lycée Louis-le-GrandLycée Louis-le-Grand
The Lycée Louis-le-Grand is a public secondary school located in Paris, widely regarded as one of the most rigorous in France. Formerly known as the Collège de Clermont, it was named in king Louis XIV of France's honor after he visited the school and offered his patronage.It offers both a...
before being expelled in 1824 for making practical jokes, and finished his studies at the collège Bourbon
Lycée Condorcet
The Lycée Condorcet is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's IXe arrondissement. Since its inception, various political eras have seen it given a number of different names, but its identity today honors the memory of the Marquis de Condorcet. The...
.
In 1827, he joined the British commerce Navy to learn navigation, before joining the family bank, and later the bank of Jean-Charles Davillier.
Morel-Fatio traveled in Italy and Orient, learning painting. In 1830, he was with the French fleet during the Expédition d'Alger. He produced a corpus of drawings and paintings that earned him some success at the Salon in 1833. In 1836, Louis-Philippe ordered a painting illustrating the capture of Alger for the historical museum in Versaille.
In 1838, Morel-Fatio was selected by Horace Vernet
Horace Vernet
Émile Jean-Horace Vernet was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist Arab subjects.Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another famous painter, who was himself a son of Claude Joseph Vernet. He was born in the Paris Louvre, while his parents were staying there during the French...
to paint the Battle of San Juan de Ulúa
Battle of San Juan de Ulúa (1838)
The Battle of Veracruz, or the Battle of San Juan de Ulua, was a naval attack of the Pastry War in which French naval forces captured the citadel of San Juan de Ulúa and then occupied the city of Veracruz. Mexican forces were heavily outnumbered and retreated...
. The next year, Morel-Fatio sailed with the fleet under Admiral Lalande. In 1840, he painted the returns of the ashes a Napoléon to France.
Morel-Fatio was made assistant curator of the naval collections of the Louvre (which at the time harboured the Musée national de la Marine
Musée national de la Marine
The Musée national de la Marine is a maritime museum located in the Palais de Chaillot, Trocadéro, in the XVIe arrondissement of Paris. It has annexes at Brest, Port-Louis, Rochefort , Toulon and Saint-Tropez...
), and rose to curator in 1852. In 1850, he created an ethnographical annex to the museum, and a Chinese museum.
Morel-Fatio was made a Peintre de la Marine
Peintre de la Marine
Peintre de la Marine is a title awarded by the minister of defence in France to artists who have devoted their talents to the sea, the French Navy and other maritime subjects...
in 1853.
From 1860 to 1869, he was mayor of the 20th arrondissement of Paris.
Morel-Fatio died of a heart attack on 2 March 1871, allegedly when seeing Prussian soldiers storm the museum.
External links
- Peintres officiels de la Marine - Morel-Fatio
- L'art naval / par Léon Renard,...
- Voyage de Paris à la mer : description historique des villes, bourgs et sites sur le parcours du chemin de fer et des bords de la Seine / par Jules Janin...
- Morel-Fatio, Antoine Leon
- collection Morel-Fatio Culture.fr
- Réunion des musées nationaux