#Merry-Joseph Blondel

[lux-vitae]

Numa by Merry-Joseph Blondel (1828)

[art-portraits]

Portrait of Félicité-Louise de Durfort, Maréchale de Beurnonville

Artist: Merry Joseph Blondel (French, 1781-1853)

Date: 1808

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Private Collection

Description

Félicité-Louise de Durfort (1782-1870) was the youngest daughter of Count de Durfort, the pre-Revolutionary French Ambassador of France to the Republic of Venice (where died in exile in 1801). She is depicted standing in a simple high-waisted white dress, the splendid cashmere shawl draped over her right arm falling to the ground where the sun streams across it. Her hair is done in the latest fashion, while she is partially shaded by the splendid orange tree against whose large, painted wooden pot she is leaning. To the left we see some steps leading down to a winding path with a distant view of the Château of Balincourt.

[illustratus]

Raymond IV of Toulouse by Merry-Joseph Blondel

[halfabird]

Merry-Joseph Blondel, La mort de Hyacinthe, 1810

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Merry-Joseph Blondel (French, 1781-1853) Aeneas becomes a God, ca.1820 Museo Nacional del Prado

[christliche-kunstwerke]

Moses von Merry Joseph Blondel (1828, Öl auf Leinwand)

[royalty-nobility]

Richard I the Lionheart

Artist: Merry-Joseph Blondel (French, 1781–1853)

Date: 1841

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Palace of Versailles, Paris, France

Richard I of England

Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199), known as Richard Cœur de Lion or Richard the Lionheart because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and Gascony; Lord of Cyprus; Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes; and was overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period. He was the third of five sons of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and was therefore not expected to become king, but his two elder brothers predeceased their father.

By the age of 16, Richard had taken command of his own army, putting down rebellions in Poitou against his father. Richard was an important Christian commander during the Third Crusade, leading the campaign after the departure of Philip II of France and achieving several victories against his Muslim counterpart, Saladin, although he finalised a peace treaty and ended the campaign without retaking Jerusalem.

Though regarded as a model king during the four centuries after his death, and seen as a pious hero by his subjects, from the 17th century onward he was gradually perceived by historians as a ruler who preferred to use his kingdom merely as a source of revenue to support his armies, rather than regarding England as a responsibility requiring his presence as ruler. This "Little England" view of Richard has come under increasing scrutiny by modern historians, who view it as anachronistic. Richard I remains one of the few kings of England remembered more commonly by his epithet than his regnal number, and is an enduring iconic figure both in England and in France

[ariadnethedragon]

The Fall of Icarus by Merry-Joseph Blondel // Winged Victory or Nike of Samothrace // Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss by Antonio Canova // The Gallery D’Apollon // The Virgin Annunciate by Pompeo Batoni // The Sleeping Hermaphroditus

[mythological-art]

Hecuba and Polyxena

Artist: Merry-Joseph Blondel (French, 1781-1853)

Date: After 1814

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, United States

[galleryofart]

Portrait of Felicite-Louise-Julie-Constance de Durfort Marechale de Beurnonville

Artist: Merry-Joseph Blondel (French, 1781–1853)

Genre: Portrait

Date: 1808

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Private Collection

Description

In this elegant, but unpretentious life-sized portrait Merry-Joseph Blondel depicts Félicité-Louise de Durfort (1782-1872), the young wife of Pierre Riel, standing upon a garden terrace. She leans casually with her left arm on the large wooden planter of an orange tree in full fruit, whose selective shade leaves her, for the most part, bathed in a gentle sunlit glow. She wears a simple high-waisted diaphanous white dress trimmed with gold ribbons. An Indian inspired shawl, the height of fashion at this period, in creamy cashmere embroidered with paisleys is draped over her right arm and trails at her feet, which are adorned with white satin slippers with ribbons laced around her tiny crossed ankles. Her black hair is parted, curled at the temples, and gathered simply atop her head with a gold ribbon or diadem. She hold a sprig of pale pink roses in her right hand. Her gaze is calm, demure, but direct. At left, steps guide the eye to a path winding to a distant view of the Château of Balincourt in the background. Pierre Riel, who was some thirty years older than his bride, acquired the house in 1803 just two years before their wedding, and as the new chatelaine, Félicité supervised a complete redecoration of the château in the Empire style at every expense her husband’s considerable fortune afforded.

Unlike his wife’s family, which on both sides, was one of the most illustrious in France, Pierre Riel had risen to the highest rank from very modest origins. Born in 1752, the son of wheelwright from Champignolle, Reil was a good example of the Bonapartist legend that every footsoldier had a marshal’s baton in his knapsack, even if Riel actually received his from Louis XVIII. While stationed on the Island of Reunion in 1778, he married Geneviève Gillon de l’Etang, a lady of slightly higher station, and the widow of an Anglo-Irish merchant named Macfields. When he returned to France she refused to accompany him and they were divorced without issue. In 1789 the citizens of Riel’s home town decided to honor him with the gift of the small property of Beurnonville, for which he nevertheless paid them the sum of 200 francs, almost the entire value of the land. Henceforth he was known as Pierre Riel de Beurnonville, then, under the republic, Citoyen Beurnonville, eventually ending his career as a hereditary Marquis-Peer. It was as a Lieutenant-General and Senator of the Empire that he married the young Mlle de Durfort, a marriage arranged with her widowed mother. Years later, Félicité said to some young cousins, “women are so unfortunate, we are married very young to worn out men, without heart, without love, without strength, whom we do not choose”. As youthful and pretty as Félicité evidently was, she had fortune to speak of, and was therefore in a position to choose her husband. She and Pierre had no children when he died in 1821. Her husband remembered her tenderly in his will as ‘my dear Wife, for whom the tender love that I had for her and her perfect conduct and the touching signs that she never ceased to demonstrate during our marriage.’ He left her the usufruct of almost his entire estate, with the eventual reversion to his nephew, Etienne Martin, Baron de Beurnonville Despite the high rank he held in French freemasonry, the Marshal evidently retained his allegiance to the Church, asking this his widow establish a donation for prayers for the repose of his soul to be said in perpetuity at their parish church in Paris and at their Château of Balincourt.

Now a wealthy widow, the Maréchale fell in love with a retired officer nine years her junior, Joseph Marie Frémiot, a former infantry captain, the son of a regimental musician. As a mark of the favor in which her husband had been held, her second husband received from the King the personal title of Baron (18 May 1825). In 1827, despite her age, she gave birth to a son, Henri, who sadly predeceased both parents, dying in 1868. Félicité died two years later at their Paris home. Joseph followed her two years later. Pierre’s nephew now inherited the splendid Château of Balincourt, where the portrait hung until his death, when it passed to his cousin the Count de Reiset.

[mythologyofthepoetandthemuse]

The message of peace being more imperative than ever. Are external disputes caused solely by external matters, or are they a product of internal battles that humanity often denies, neglects to see so to make an effort to heal? For the wise ones, the answer is obvious. How can we talk of progress if that progress is only technological while our ethics suffer? Has human consciousness evolved the way it could? Of course there are many directions on this earth, from low instincts to uplifted spirits, this is the realm of contradictions, but if only mainstream media had less power and the power of the heart became increased...

No, but like an honest woman, show thyself to thy worshippers, who are worn with regretting thee all these thirteen years. Hush the noise of battle, be a true Lysimacha to us. Put an end to this tittle-tattle, to this idle babble, that set us defying one another. Cause the Greeks once more to taste the pleasant beverage of friendship and temper all hearts with the gentle feeling of forgiveness. Peace by Aristophanes. Peace by Merry Joseph Blondel

[antonio-m]

“Portrait of Maréchal de Bourdillon" by Merry-Joseph Blondel (1781–1853). French historical painter. Château de Versailles, FR. oil on canvas

[centuriespast]

BLONDEL, Merry-Joseph Portrait of Félicité-Louise de Durfort, Maréchale de Beurnonville 1808 Oil on canvas, 194 x 130 cm Private collection

[s-c-r-ee-ch]

Latona punishes the Lycian peasants

By Merry Joseph Blondel

[eddy25960]

Merry-Joseph Blondel (1781-1853) French neoclassical painter.

~Drawings

[halfabird]

Merry-Joseph Blondel (1781-1853), Portrait d'homme, 1835, coll. part.