Victor Mottez
Encyclopedia
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
painter, painter and portraitist.
Life
He was born in LilleLille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
. His father was passionate about art and was himself a painter. Sent to Paris with a pension for some years, Victor was recalled due to the poor state of his father's finances and his studies were cut short. He followed courses at the École de dessin in Lille and worked under the direction of his father and his father's painter friends such as Édouard Liénard
Édouard Liénard
Jean Auguste Édouard Liénard was a French painter. He signed his works E.Liénard or J.Liénard....
, student of Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...
. He returned to Paris from 1828 to 1829 to enter the École des Beaux-Arts
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts is the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris, France.The École des Beaux-arts is made up of a vast complex of buildings located at 14 rue Bonaparte, between the quai Malaquais and the rue Bonaparte, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près,...
and at first studied under the direction of François-Édouard Picot
François-Édouard Picot
François-Edouard Picot was a French painter during the July Monarchy, painting mythological, religious and historical subjects.-Life:Born in Paris, Picot won the Prix de Rome painting scholarship in 1813...
, then as a free student of Dominique Ingres.
The Mottez family was highly religious and devoted to the House of Bourbon
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
, and so the July Revolution
July Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...
in 1830 came as a catastrophe to them. Victor was again recalled to Lille by his father and married shortly afterwards. From there he made many trips, of which the longest and most notable was that to Italy and he came to consider its old masters as the absolute masters of painting. In Rome he met Ingres again - Ingres liked him very much and often gave him advice. His Christ in the Tomb (now in the église Sainte-Catherine de Lille) and The Martyrdom of Saint Stephen (now in the église Saint-Étienne de Lille) date to this era. Also on this trip to Italy he became hugely interested in fresco art—Mottez painted his wife Julie in this medium and, showing Ingres the end result, pulled it off the wall at Ingres' request (it was later given to 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...
by Mottez's two children).
Returning to France in 1838, he set up shop in Paris and exhibited at the Paris Salon
Paris Salon
The Salon , or rarely Paris Salon , beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the Western world...
s, especially turning more and more towards the neglected genre of frescoes, notably religious ones. He also translated the Treatise by the 14th century Florentine painter Cennino Cennini and learned from his techniques. His most remarkable works are those for churches (at Église Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois in the 1840s, and at the Saint-Séverin in the 1850s), which were admired by Ingres and Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
. However, the clergy's hostility to them, the materials used, the saltpeter walls and their situation all meant that they were already deteriorated by the end of the 19th century and are now largely lost (except for Saint Martin cutting his cloak in two at St-Germain l'Auxerrois), though Mottez's cartoon
Modello
A modello, from the Italian, is a preparatory study or model, usually at a smaller scale, for a work of art or architecture, especially one produced for the approval of the commissioning patron. The term gained currency in art circles in Tuscany in the fourteenth century. Modern definitions in...
s for them survive.
During the same years he frequented the Bertins' salon
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
, alongside the main writers and artists of the time (a sketch of his for a portrait of Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
survives). He produced two frescoes for this salon, destroyed in 1854. After the 1848 Revolution
French Revolution of 1848
The 1848 Revolution in France was one of a wave of revolutions in 1848 in Europe. In France, the February revolution ended the Orleans monarchy and led to the creation of the French Second Republic. The February Revolution was really the belated second phase of the Revolution of 1830...
Mottez set out for the United Kingdom, where he produced several portraits of British nobles and personalities and the exiled minister François Guizot
François Guizot
François Pierre Guillaume Guizot was a French historian, orator, and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics prior to the Revolution of 1848, a conservative liberal who opposed the attempt by King Charles X to usurp legislative power, and worked to sustain a constitutional...
, which were exhibited at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
salons. He was an excellent portraitist throughout his career and it was that which mainly occupied him in the last years of his career. He returned to France in 1853 and worked with Delacroix at the Église Saint-Sulpice, at the start of the 1860s, where their highly opposed styles clearly showed the struggle between the neo-classical and romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
visions. Maurice Denis
Maurice Denis
Maurice Denis was a French painter and writer, and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. His theories contributed to the foundations of cubism, fauvism, and abstract art.-Childhood and education:...
considered these frescoes at St-Sulpice (another Saint Martin) as "unforgettable". He designed the stained glass windows at the église Saint-Maurice de Lille.
Marriage and issue
He married three times:- Julie Odevaere, relation of a painter and through her mother related to a Belgian family of artists - she is known via Mottez's portraits in oil and the Italian fresco in Lille
- Georgiana Page, whom Mottez married in the United Kingdom, and with whom he had a son (Henry Mottez, who also worked as a painter but died without issue)
- third wife, with whom he had another son, contre-amiral Jean Mottez (1866-1942), who became director of the fleet's military personnel, commander of the Mediterranean schools and sous-chef d'État-Major général of the NavyChief of Staff of the French Navythumb|Admiral Pierre-François Forissier, CEMMThe Chief of the Staff of the French Navy is the head of the French Navy and responsible to the Minister of Defence for its preparation and deployment.As a naval expert, he assists:...
, and who had many descendents
Victor Mottez died 7 June 1897 in Bièvres
Bièvres
Bièvres may refer to the following places in France:* Bièvres, Aisne, a commune in the department of Aisne* Bièvres, Ardennes, a commune in the department of Ardennes* Bièvres, Essonne, a commune in the department of Essonne...
.
Frescoes
- Fresco portrait of Julie, now in the LouvreLouvreThe 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...
(painted in Rome, 1837) - Frescoes of saint Germain l'Auxerrois" (1839-47)
- Chapel of saint François de Salles, église Saint-Séverin (1853-1857)
- Chapel of saint Martin, église Saint-Sulpice (1859-1863)
- Hunting and Fishing for his former brother-in-law Mr Page's salon in his country house (c 1865)
- Decor for the salon of Urbain le Thierry, at Lille (destroyed in war).
- Decor for M. Bayard
- With Amaury DuvalAmaury Duval (1808-1885)Eugène Emmanuel Amaury Pineux Duval , better known by the pseudonym Amaury Duval, was a French painter. He was one of two sons of Amaury Duval and thus a nephew of the playwright Alexandre Pineux Duval.- Life :He was born in Montrouge...
, the decor of Amaury-Duval's château, the château de Linières (c 1880). - Portrait of Henry Mottez as a child, 1865 Salon, musée Vivenel de Compiègne
Portraits
- Portrait of Madame Mottez (1837)
- François Guizot in London (1849), Royal AcademyRoyal AcademyThe Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
salon (1849), Paris SalonParis SalonThe Salon , or rarely Paris Salon , beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the Western world...
(1853) (private collection) - Mme Armand Bertin (1843), 1845 salon
- Maria, known as Lilie, and Louise Mottez, Victor's sisters (c. 1833-1834) (private collection)
Cartoons
- For stained-glass windows, in collaboration with the Lille-born master glass-stainer Charles GaudeletCharles GaudeletCharles Gaudelet was a French master-glass-maker from Lille. He worked exclusively with the painters Victor Mottez and occasionally with Bruno Chérier. The cartoons from his studio were acquired by the musée des Beaux-Arts de Lille in 1870 at the instigation of the painter and collector Camille...
Other paintings
- The Resurrection of the Dead (1870)
- Medea,
- Ulysses and the sirens