Louis Courajod
Encyclopedia
Connoisseur
A connoisseur is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts, cuisines, or an expert judge in matters of taste.Modern connoisseurship must be seen along with museums, art galleries and "the cult of originality"...
-collector, who was born and died 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...
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Courajod was trained as a lawyer, then as an historian at the École Nationale des Chartes
École Nationale des Chartes
The École Nationale des Chartes is a grand établissement, an elite French university-level educational institution based in Paris. It provides education and training for archivists and librarians and forms part of the University of Paris.-History:...
(1864–67), then served an apprenticeship at the Cabinet des Estampes of the Bibliothèque Nationale, under chief curator Henri Delaborde, while he pursued his studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études
École pratique des hautes études
The École pratique des hautes études is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions....
. His first publication (1867) was an article on the Plantagenet tombs at Fontevrault
In 1874 he began his career at the Musée du Louvre, developing at first his special interest in the Gothic sculpture of the 14th and 15th centuries, then turning to the art franc
Carolingian art
Carolingian art comes from the Frankish Empire in the period of roughly 120 years from about AD 780 to 900 — during the reign of Charlemagne and his immediate heirs — popularly known as the Carolingian Renaissance. The art was produced by and for the court circle and a group of...
, of the Carolingian
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
s. In 1887, he was appointed a professor at the École du Louvre, teaching Medieval and Renaissance sculpture; he was director of the department from 1893. Among his students were André Michel
André Michel
André Michel was a French film director and screenwriter. He directed 15 films between 1947 and 1983. He is the father of novelist Natacha Michel who is also a political activist and militant...
, who succeeded him at the Louvre, and Paul Vitry.
Courajod was a regular contributor to the Gazette des Beaux-Arts
Gazette des Beaux-Arts
The Gazette des Beaux-Arts was a French art review, found in 1859 by Édouard Houssaye, with Charles Blanc as its first chief editor. It was a world reference work on art history for nearly 100 years - one other editor in chief, from 1955 to 1987, was Jean Adhémar...
. He served on the Commission des monuments historiques and was a member of the Société des Antiquaires de France.
Courajod introduced the term "International Gothic
International Gothic
International Gothic is a phase of Gothic art which developed in Burgundy, Bohemia, France and northern Italy in the late 14th century and early 15th century...
" to describe the Late Gothic movement expressed in sculptures and other media.
A commemorative memoir, Louis Courajod, un historien de l'art français, was published by Courajod's former pupil, Albert Marignan, in 1896.