Jean-Louis FORAIN, Hon RAFrench, 1852-1931 |
Self Portrait, 1906
© Musée d'Orsay, Paris
French Impressionist painter, lithographer, watercolorist and etcher who was frequently compared to Rembrandt for his emotional power as an etcher and is widely considered to have had a remarkable artistic influence on Édouard Manet
Jean-Louis Forain was born in Reims in 1852, the son of an ornamental sign painter. His family moved to Paris when he was eight. In 1866 he became a pupil of Jacquesson de la Chevreuse (French, 1840-1903) and began his career working as a caricaturist for several Paris journals but, wishing to expand his horizons, he enrolled at the École des Beaux Arts, studying under the painter Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824-1904) and the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, 1827-1875).
He fought in the Franco-Prussian War, returning to Paris in 1875, when he started to produce satirical illustrations for newspapers and periodicals such as Le Scorpion, Le Monde Parisien, Le Rire Satirique and Le Café Concert. He came into contact will all aspects of the Parisian demi-monde and started to paint the characters he encountered. In the early 1870s his friend Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917), introduced him to Édouard Manet (French, 1832-1883) on whom he is widely considered to have had a remarkable influence: it has been suggested that his small gouache Café Scene (Brooklyn Museum, New York) was the inspiration for Manet’s famous painting, Un bar aux Folies-Bergère/A bar at the Folies-Bergère (Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 1882).
Forain became a member of the Impressionist group that met at the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes at the Place Pigalle (c.1876) a group which included Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919), Camille Pisarro (French, 1830-1903), Alfred Sisley (British/French, 1839-1899), Marcellin Gilbert Desboutin (French, 1823-1902), Jean-Francois Raffaëlli (French, 1850-1924), and occasionally Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926) and Paul Cezanne (French, 1839-1906). Manet’s interest in scenes of contemporary life and his depiction of women influenced Forain’s style in painting and printmaking by reinforcing Forain’s own interest in representing café life and portraying contemporary women in contemporary settings.
The critic Gustave Geoffroy called him, “A talent capable of expressing worldly elegance” and Octave Maus wrote in Art Moderne in 1886, “He is the poet of corruption in evening clothes, of dandyism in the boudoirs, of high life masking empty hearts”.
Forain was taken on by Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939), the pioneer dealer, patron, and publisher who played a key role in promoting and shaping the careers of many of the leading artists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Cézanne, Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903), Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890), Aristide Maillol (French, 1861-1944), Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973), Georges Rouault (French, 1871-1958), Raoul Dufy (French, 1877-1953) and many others.
Following his marriage to the painter Jeanne Bosc in 1891, Forain left behind his Bohemian ways and focused his work on the more serious matters of the French legal system and other Parisian institutions, as well as creating social satires on late 19th and early 20th century French life, his images becoming increasingly acerbic with age and success. Fourain was elected a member of the Royal Academy in London shortly before his death in 1931, at which time his lifelong friend, Edgar Degas, owned 14 of his drawings and one painting.
© Albany Fine Art
TEXT REFERENCES (listed sequentially)
PAINTINGS (listed chronologically)
The Widower (1852), Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Court Scene (1852), Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
In the Criminal Court (1852), Musée Arthur Rimbaud, Musée de l'Ardenne, France
A dancer behind the scenery backstage (1852), Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
The Studio (1852), Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Behind the Scenes (c.1880), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
The Tub (c.1886-87), Tate Collection, UK
The Artist's Wife Fishing (1896), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
The Race Track (c.1891), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
Music Hall (1895-96), Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
Legal Assistance (c.1900-12), National Gallery, London, UK
The Tribunal (c.1902-3), Tate Collection, UK
Self Portrait (1906), Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
The Pleading (1907), Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Counsel and Accused (1908), Tate Collection, UK
The Stockade (probably c.1908), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
The Petitioner (c.1910), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
The Recovered Home (1918), Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
The Requisition (c.1919), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
Rest (Before 1921), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dunkerque, France
Artist and Model (1925), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
The Charleston (1926), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
Recess of the Court (Date Unknown), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
WORKS ON PAPER (listed chronologically, thereafter alphabetically)
The Pink Dancer (1852), Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Joris-Karl Huysmans (1873), Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Two Waiters (c.1876), Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum, USA
Standing Woman with a Fan (c.1880-90), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
Dancer Tying Her Slipper (c.1891), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
Finally Alone! (c.1895), Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum, USA
The Supper at Emmaus (possibly c.1912-1913), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
Ballerina Seated in a Chair (Date Unknown), Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum, USA
Ballet Dancer (Date Unknown), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
Seated Nude (Date Unknown), Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum, USA
Woman Putting On Her Stockings (Date Unknown), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
OTHER LINKS (listed alphabetically)
Arts Review: ‘The Dancer’ as Impressionist Subject, OregonLive, USA, 4th February 2008
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA (11 of 49 works to view)
Culture.fr (614 works)
Forain, A Painter Turned Cartoonist, International Herald Tribune, 30th March 1996
Forain, Time Magazine, 7th December 1931
French Ministry of Culture, Joconde, Catalogue of the Collections of the Museums of France (541works) (> FIGE - FORE > FORAIN Jean-Louis)
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel (11 works)
New York Public Library, New York, USA (3 works)
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