Jean-Charles Cazin, painter and ceramicist, born
in Samer, 25 May 1841 (France), died in Lavandou, 17 March 1901(France).
|
|
The Boatyard, 1875
The Cleveland Museum of Art |
His earliest paintings reveal close affinities
with the realist tradition, while his later compositions (mostly
landscapes of northern France) demonstrate an awareness of Impressionism
and a commitment to recording the changing effects of light and
atmosphere. He was sent to England for health reasons but by 1862
or 1863 was living in Paris and active in avant-garde artistic
circles. In 1863 he exhibited Recollections of the Dunes of Wissant
(untraced), a work based on close observation of the coastline
of northern France, at the Salon des Refusés. He enrolled
at the Ecole Gratuite de Dessin under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran,
where he became friends with Alphonse Legros, Théodule
Ribot, Henri Fantin-Latour and Léon Lhermitte, all of whom
adopted Boisbaudran’s method of developing paintings from
memory as a way of heightening perceptions. During this period
Cazin also met Marie Guillet, whom he married in 1868.
|
|
L'Orage, 1876
Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
By the mid-1860s Cazin had developed a varied
career. He taught for about three years at the Ecole Spéciale
d’Architecture in Paris, then moved to Chailly, near Barbizon,
where he completed studies in the style of the Barbizon artists.
These were shown at the Salons of 1865 and 1866. Later in the
decade he became curator of the Musée des Beaux-Arts and
director of the Ecole de Dessin in Tours. In 1868 he reorganized
the school in accordance with the memory theories of Boisbaudran.
He also valued Tours as a centre of local industry that encouraged
the decorative arts. Both Cazin and his wife were stimulated by
this new environment and began to make and decorate stoneware
ceramics.
|
|
Montreuil sur Mer (Les Misérables)
Hood Museum of Art, New Hampshire |
In 1871, depressed by the ravages of the Franco-Prussian
War, Cazin returned to England and earned a living at the Fulham
Potteries, using salt-glaze in his stoneware and producing ceramics
in the highly fashionable style of Japonisme. Cazin’s commitment
to ceramic decoration continued after his return to France in
1875, when he settled in Equihen, near Boulogne-sur-Mer. This
dedication to the decorative arts was recognized in 1882 when
his large sandstone pieces, shown at the Union Centrale des Arts
Décoratifs, Paris, were admired as significant examples
of the developing renaissance in French pottery.
|
|
Tobie et l'Ange, 1880
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille |
During the same period, Cazin began to paint
again. His studies of the region near Boulogne encouraged him
to execute numerous landscapes. The Boatyard (exh. Salon 1876;
Cleveland, OH, Mus. A.), for instance, demonstrates the affinities
between Cazin’s muted colours and the monochromatic tones
of the region itself. By the early 1880s he had changed direction
to produce large figural compositions intended for the Salon;
such canvases as the Voyage of Tobias (1878; Lille, Mus. B.-A.)
and Judith at Prayer (1883; Tours, Mus. B.-A.) depict biblical
figures in contemporary dress. The tonal, pastel colours are the
product of Cazin’s lighter palette and show the impact of
the murals of Puvis de Chavannes. Cazin’s enthusiasm for
these scenes abated, however, and he returned to pure landscape
painting, inspired by the countryside around the summer cottage
rented by his family at Equihen. He executed a series of impressive
landscape compositions of the dunes near Boulogne and won awards
for some figural compositions at the Salon, most notably for his
Ishmael (1880; Tours, Mus. B.-A.). He was awarded the Légion
d’honneur (for his ceramics and painting) in 1882, a gold
medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 and a Grand Prix at
that of 1900.
© Oxford University Press 2004 -
'(Stanislas Henri-) Jean Charles Cazin', The Grove Dictionary of
Art Online, (Oxford University Press, Accessed October 28th, 2004),
<http://www.groveart.com>
- Museums
- Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington,
DC
Hood Museum of Art, New Hampshire
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Arras
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Musée J. Charles Cazin, Samer
Musée National du Chateau de Versailles
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.
