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Frédéric Bazille - French Impressionist

Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) was a talented Impressionist painter whose life was tragically cut short by his death in the Franco-Prussian War. During his 29 years he produced a handful of excellent works, which showcased his skills for displaying light and atmospheric effects. Our collection includes nearly all of his renowned works including Family Reunion, The Pink Dress, The Little Gardener, La Toilette, Negress with Peonies, Summer Scene, and Bazille's Studio. There are also a number of self-portraits, a portrait of Renoir, a portrait of Edouard Blau and a few landscapes.

Jean Frédéric Bazille (December 6, 1841–November 28, 1870) was a highly talented young painter associated with the French Impressionists. He died tragically at a young age, his promising career cut short by the Franco-Prussian war.

The Bazille family was wealthy and cultured. They lived in Montpellier in the south of France and it was at the home of a local art collector in that city that the young Bazille was inspired to paint after seeing two paintings by Eugene Delacroix.

When Bazille was 18, he asked his parents permission to study painting; they agreed on condition that he also study medicine at the same time. In 1859 Bazille began his medical studies and in 1862 moved to Paris to study painting at the Paris art academy under Charles Gleyre, where he met Alfred Sisley, Renoir and Claude Monet. The four young men became good friends and, under the influence of Gleyre, started painting out of doors. This was to be one of the founding principles of the Impressionist movement that would later revolutionize the French art scene.

In 1864, Bazille failed his medical exams after which his parents agreed to let him study painting full time.

At the tender age of 23, Bazille was already producing masterpieces such as The Pink Dress, which depicts a young woman seen from the back silhouetted against a sunlit landscape. Indeed, one of Bazille’s major fascinations was the relationship between the colors found in nature and the delicate tones of flesh tints. Like his fellow Impressionists, Bazille painted the familiar, the everyday, even the banal; an approach that went totally against the established current of the day as set by the official Salon. Bazille’s paintings are dramatic, his brushwork is powerful and his figures are depicted with energy and boldness. Despite his artistic career being so short, Bazille did succeed in winning early recognition. In 1868, the Salon accepted his best-known painting Family Reunion.

Bazille was financially secure and he was also generous; he often helped to support his friends Renoir and Monet, who struggled to make ends meet. He shared his studio with them and even bought one of Monet’s paintings, Women in the Garden, when Monet was in financial difficulty. Indeed, Bazille’s studio became a favorite meeting place for leading artists and writers, including Emile Zola, Manet, Monet and Renoir. Bazille went to the Café Guerbois, a favorite meeting place for intellectuals and artists of the day. Alfred Sisley was a regular patron of the Café and it is recounted that Bazille was among the few artists able to hold his own in the heated discussions with Edgar Degas, who was considered to be both knowledgeable and cutting in his remarks.

In 1870 the Franco-Prussian war broke out. Frederic Bazille volunteered for service in the Zouaves, an elite infantry regiment of the French army formed during the conquest of Algeria. He was killed during the battle of Beaune-la-Rolande. Showing great leadership, he courageously took command when the unit’s commanding officer was injured. He mounted an assault on a German position but the attack failed. Bazille was mortally wounded and died on the battlefield. He was just 29 years old.

As was customary in those days, his bereaved father went to collect Bazille’s body from the battlefield.

Bazille was buried in his native Montpellier. He left behind a collection of work that is moving and powerful, leading the painter Pissarro to describe him as “one of the most gifted among us.”

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