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Jean Béraud | Windy day on the Concorde, 1890

A fashionably dressed woman carries a purple hatbox across a Paris square, the pavement wet with rain.
She clutches her hat to avoid the fate of the man behind her, whose hat has been blown from his head by a gust of wind.
Béraud designed a horse-drawn studio to shield him from the elements so he could capture such detailed, playful scenes of contemporary Parisian life. | The Clark Art Institute

Jean Béraud | Windy day on the Concorde, 1890 | The Clark Art Institute


Jean Béraud (1849-1935), French painter and illustrator, born in St. Petersburg, son of a French sculptor. Studied law in Paris, then turned to painting after the Franco-Prussian War and studied for two years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Bonnat.
Exhibited at the official Salon 1873-89, then from 1890-1929 at the Salon de la Société Nationale. Member of the Société des Pastellistes Français 1885.


Frequented fashionable salons and received many commissions for portraits, but was chiefly known for his genre paintings of late 19th century Parisian life, which often combined truthfulness of observation with a note of humour.
Also made a few paintings of religious subjects c.1891-1901, which aroused controversy because of his practice of depicting biblical scenes in contemporary dress. Awarded a gold medal at the 1889 Paris International Exhibition.
Died in Paris. | Published in: Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby's Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.49



Style

Béraud was popular in France, and was appreciated by Guy de Maupassant who called him "adorable's adversaries" (Le plus charmant des fantaisistes).
However, his work is completely ignored by art historians of the period. After the Revolution, Russian artists received Béraud's work with irony, seeing them as the embodiment of Western commercial consumption, indulging, in their opinion, in the bourgeois tastes of the rich middle-class.
Painting style gradually shifted from academic towards impressionism. However, while the major Impressionists fled the chaotic milieu of Paris and painted landscapes of the surrounding areas, Béraud – like his friend Édouard Manet (1832–1883), and in some of his paintings, Edgar Degas (1834–1917) – depicted the busy environment of late-nineteenth-century urban life.
Artistic techniques used by Béraud, in particular, when drawing the so-called À la salle Graffard, were later adopted by other artists.
The upper part of the picture is hidden in a light haze, the spectators are depicted in the foreground enthusiastically responding to the speech, while the Anarchist speakers stand out against a darker background. | Source: © Wikipedia








Jean Béraud nacque a San Pietroburgo con la sorella gemella Melania, poiché suo padre, scultore, lavorava probabilmente alle opere della cattedrale di Sant'Isacco. Nel 1853 suo padre morì ed il giovane Béraud rientrò a Parigi con la madre, Geneviève Eugénie Jacquin, e le tre sorelle.
Dopo gli studi al liceo Condorcet di Parigi, seguì la via dell'arte e fu allievo di Léon Bonnat all'École des beaux-arts.
Fu ammesso al "Salon" per la prima volta nel 1872, ma conobbe il successo solamente nel 1876, grazie al suo quadro Il ritorno dalla sepoltura.

Divenne quindi uno dei principali pittori e testimoni della vita parigina durante la Belle Époque, ma realizzò anche circa 200 ritratti.


Nel 1890 fondò la "Société nationale des beaux-arts", assieme a Rodin, Joseph Meissonnier e Puvis de Chavannes, e ben presto ne fu eletto vicepresidente.

Béraud fu un attento osservatore. Il suo stile è caratterizzato da un vivo realismo, che gli permise di rappresentare con acume e talvolta con fine ironia l'ambiente ovattato della borghesia parigina, i piccoli mestieri, l'ambientazione dei bistrot e le scene quotidiane nelle strade della città.
Béraud fu uno dei testimoni di Marcel Proust nel duello svoltosi a Meudon contro Jean Lorrain nel febbraio del 1897 a causa di un articolo giudicato ingiurioso su Les Plaisirs et les Jours.

Ricevette le insegne di Cavaliere della Legion d'Onore nel 1887, per poi essere promosso Ufficiale nel 1894.
Béraud non si sposò mai e non ebbe figli. Mori a Parigi all'età di 86 anni e venne sepolto nel Cimitero di Montparnasse, Divisione 1. | Fonte: © Wikipedia