#Rome 1770 – Paris 1837

[pinkstarlightcomputer]

François Gérard Flore caressée par Zéphyr (Flora caressed by Zephyr) 1802 oil on canvas 169x105 cm. Musée de Grenoble 

[the-paintrist]

Thomas Lawrence - Portrait of François Pascal Simon, Baron Gérard (1770–1837) aged 54 - 1824

oil on canvas, height: 70 cm (27.5 in); width: 58 cm (22.8 in)

Palace of Versailles, Paris, France

Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA FRS (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was a leading English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. Lawrence was a child prodigy. He was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at the Bear Hotel in the Market Square. At the age of ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his pastel portraits. At eighteen he went to London and soon established his reputation as a portrait painter in oils, receiving his first royal commission, a portrait of Queen Charlotte, in 1790. He stayed at the top of his profession until his death, aged 60, in 1830.

Self-taught, he was a brilliant draughtsman and known for his gift of capturing a likeness, as well as his virtuoso handling of paint. He became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1791, a full member in 1794, and president in 1820. In 1810 he acquired the generous patronage of the Prince Regent, was sent abroad to paint portraits of allied leaders for the Waterloo chamber at Windsor Castle, and is particularly remembered as the Romantic portraitist of the Regency. Lawrence's love affairs were not happy (his tortuous relationships with Sally and Maria Siddons became the subject of several books) and, in spite of his success, he spent most of life deep in debt. He never married. At his death, Lawrence was the most fashionable portrait painter in Europe. His reputation waned during Victorian times, but has since been partially restored.

François Pascal Simon Gérard (4 May 1770 – 11 January 1837),[1] titled as Baron Gérard in 1809, was a prominent French painter. He was born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador, and his mother was Italian. After he was made a baron of the Empire in 1809 by Emperor Napoleon, he was known formally as Baron Gérard.

François Gérard was born in Rome to J. S. Gérard and Cleria Matteï. At the age of twelve, Gérard obtained admission into the Pension du Roi in Paris. From the Pension, he passed to the studio of the sculptor Augustin Pajou, which he left at the end of two years for the studio of the history painter Nicolas-Guy Brenet, whom he quit almost immediately to place himself under Jacques-Louis David.

In 1789, he competed for the Prix de Rome, which was carried off by his comrade Girodet. In the following year (1790), he again presented himself, but the death of his father prevented the completion of his work and obliged him to accompany his mother to Rome. In 1791, he returned to Paris, but his poverty was so great that he was forced to forgo his studies in favor of employment which would bring in immediate profit. David at once availed himself of his help, and one of that master's most celebrated portraits, of Louis-Michel Le Pelletier de Saint-Fargeau, may owe much to the hand of Gérard. This painting was executed early in 1793, the year in which Gérard, at the request of David, was named a member of the revolutionary tribunal, from the fatal decisions of which he, however, invariably absented himself.

In 1794, he obtained the first prize in a competition, the subject of which was The Tenth of August, that is, the storming of the Tuileries Palace. Further stimulated by the successes of his rival and friend Girodet in the Salons of 1793 and 1794, Gérard (aided by Jean-Baptiste Isabey, the miniaturist) produced in 1795 his famous Bélisaire. In 1796, a portrait of his generous friend (conserved today in the Louvre) obtained undisputed success, and the money received from Isabey for these two works enabled Gérard to execute in 1797 his Psyche et l'Amour (illustration). At last, in 1799, his portrait of Madame Mère established his position as one of the foremost portrait-painters of the day.

In 1808, as many as eight (and in 1810, no less than fourteen) portraits by him were exhibited at the Salon, and these figures afford only an indication of the enormous numbers which he executed yearly. All of the leading figures of the Empire and of the Bourbon Restoration, and all of the most celebrated men and women of Europe, sat for Gérard. This extraordinary vogue was due partly to the charm of his manner and conversation, for his salon was as much frequented as his studio. Madame de Staël, George Canning, Talleyrand and the Duke of Wellington have all borne witness to the attraction of his society.

Rich and famous, Gérard was stung by remorse for earlier ambitions abandoned; at intervals, he had indeed striven with Girodet and other rivals to prove his strength at history painting, still a more prestigious genre than portraiture. His Bataille d'Austerlitz (1810) showed a breadth of invention and style which was even more conspicuous in L'Entrée d'Henri IV à Paris (at Versailles), the work with which in 1817 he paid homage to the returned Louis XVIII. After this date, Gérard declined, watching with impotent grief the progress of the Romantic school.

Loaded with honors – baron of the Empire in 1809, member of the Institut on 7 March 1812, officer of the Légion d'honneur, first painter to the king – he worked on, sad and discouraged. The revolution of 1830 added to his disquiet, and on 11 January 1837, after three days of fever, he died.

Gérard is best remembered for his portraits. The color of his paintings has suffered, but his drawings show in uninjured delicacy the purity of his line, and those of women are specially remarkable for a virginal simplicity and frankness of expression. His students included Heinrich Christoph Kolbe.

[solitaryfossil]

GÉRARD, François French painter (b. 1770, Rome, d. 1837, Paris) Romanticism Belisarius 1797 Oil on canvas, 91 x 74 cm Private collection

The story of Belisarius was that of a loyal and successful general in the service of the Byzantine emperor Justinian. He had won major victories against the Vandals, Goths and Bulgarians, but he then became implicated in political intrigues, was accused of treason and disgraced. He became an outcast and was even reduced to begging; one version of the story also said that his eyes were put out.

Belisarius was Gérard's first great success. Pressured by his friends to exhibit at the Salon of 1795, the artist chose as his subject one that his master David had painted fifteen years earlier, but in a very different mood. Painted in six weeks, the Belisarius met with critical acclaim and eclipsed the paintings of his contemporaries.

The present painting is a smaller version, produced in 1797 in response to the criticism of commentators on the 1795 Salon. While Belisarius was typically depicted in the act of begging, Gérard shows him standing and erect, his muscular form in sharp contrast to his guide's weakening body. The prominent helmet hanging from Belisarius's belt emphasizes the general's heroic past and underscores the injustice of his fall from favor.

[bitterbianco]

Baron François Gerard (Rome, 1770 - Paris, 1837) Flore caressée par Zéphyr, 1802

[todayclassical]

March 31 in Music History

1675 FP of Stradella's oratorio Saint John the Baptist at San Giovanni di Fiorentini church in Rome.

1684 Birth of Italian composer Francesco Durante.

1717 Birth of composer Florian Wrastill.

1732 Birth of Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn. 

1745 FP of J. P. Rameau's opera-ballet, Platée at Versailles.

1747 Birth of German composer Johann Abraham Peter Schulz.

1770 Birth of composer John Wyeth in Cambridge, MA. 

1784 FP of W. A. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 16 in D, K. 451. 

1791 Birth of composer Franciszek Wincenty Mirecki.

1794 FP of F. J. Haydn's Symphony No. 100 Military, conducted by the composer on his 62nd birthday in the spacious Queen’s Concert Rooms, Hanover Square in London.

1809 Birth of composer Otto Jonas Lindblad.

1837 "Dueling Pianists benefit" Popular virtuosos Franz Liszt and Sigismond Thalberg perform at a concert at the Parisian salon of Princess Cristina Belgiojoso-Trivulzio.

1841 FP of Robert Schumann's Spring Symphony No. 1 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Mendelssohn conducting.

1847 Birth of composer Jarolslaw Zielinski.

1848 Birth of composer John Henry Roberts.

1874 Birth of French composer and violinist Henri Marteau. 

1876 Death of soprano Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield. 

1880 Death of Polish composer Henri Wieniawski in Moscow.

1881 FP of Cesar Franck's Le Chasseur Maudit in Paris.

1882 Birth of Austrian soprano Fritzi Massary.

1887 Birth of Spanish composer Jose-Maria Usandizaga. 1890 Birth of Belgian tenor Jose di Trévi in Liège. 

1893 Birth of Austrian conductor Clemens Kraus in Vienna.

1897 Birth of American composer J. Murray Barbour.

1899 Birth of German tenor Franz Völker in Neu-Isenburg. 

1901 Death of English composer Sir John Stainer at age 60, in Verona, Italy.

1901 FP of Dvorak's opera Rusalka in Prague.

1906 Birth of composer Lauri Saikkola.

1911 Birth of German soprano Elisabeth Grümmer.

1913 FP of Anton Webern's Six Pieces for orchestra, in Vienna.

1915 Birth of composer Eliseo Morales Pajaro.

1922 Birth of American baritone Richard Kiley in Chicago.

1924 Birth of American bass Frederick Guthrie in Pocatello, Idaho.

1931 FP of Alaleona's "Mirra" in Rome.

1932 Birth of English tenor John Mitchinson.

1932 FP of the ballet H. P. by Mexican composer and conductor Carlos Chavez, in Philadelphia. Leopold Stokowski conducted the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company.

1937 Birth of Italian tenor Peyo Garazzi.

1940 Birth of American tenor John Stewart in Cleveland, OH. 1941 Birth of American composer and pianist Jake Heggie.

1946 Birth of American soprano Christine Weidinger in Springville NY. 

1947 FP of Ulysses Kay's Short Overture in NYC.

1949 FP of William Grant Still's The Troubled Island, a three-act opera, by NYC Opera.

1955 Birth of American tenor Robert Gambill in Indianapolis.

1951 FP of Richard Strauss' Munich Waltz written for 1939 film and performed posthumously in Vienna.

1952 Birth of Roumanian soprano Nelly Miriciouiu.

1954 Birth of Hungarian tenor Dénes Gulyás in Budapest. 

1961 FP of Jean Françaix's L'Horloge de Flore 'The Flower Clock' with oboist John de Lancie, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting.

1969 Birth of American composer Thomas Herlin in Salt Lake City, UT.

2001 FP of Peter Lieberson's Piano Quintet, with pianist Peter Serkin and the Orion String Quartet, at Carnegie Hall in NYC.

[hzaidan]

François Gérard; Portrait de Juliette Récamier 05 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Madame Récamier, with Footnotes. #55

François Gérard; Portrait de Juliette Récamier 05 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Madame Récamier, with Footnotes. #55

François Gérard, (1770–1837) Portrait de Juliette Récamier, c. 1805 Oil on canvas 225 × 145 cm (88.5 × 57 ″) Musée Carnavalet, Paris

François Pascal Simon, Baron Gérard (4 May 1770 – 11 January 1837), was a French painter born in Rome. At the age of twelve Gérard obtained admission into the Pension du Roi in Paris. From the Pension he passed to the studio of the sculptor Augustin Pajou which…

[vincentdelaplage]

LA BELLE HORTENSE... aussi séduisante qu'intelligente, eut un destin hors norme. Reine de Hollande de 1806 à 1810, mère du futur empereur Napoléon III, épouse malheureuse de l'irascible Louis Bonaparte, elle fut aussi l'amoureuse éperdue du beau Duroc, ou de Charles de Flahaut, fils naturel de Talleyrand. Elle fut le mère du Duc de Morny père fondateur de la ville de Deauville. Son âme sensible et passionnée, souvent déçue en amour, ne l'empêcha jamais de rester fidèle à ses devoirs. Témoignage de cette grâce toute particulière qui l'habitait, un magnifique diamant de 20 carats des joyaux de la couronne de France fut rebaptisé le Diamant Hortense. "François-Joseph Gossec - L'Offrande à la Liberté (1792)" sur YouTube https://youtu.be/yQE8ByLFX9Y Portrait de François Gérard, né le 4 mai 1770 à Rome et mort le 11 janvier 1837 à Paris, un peintre d’histoire, portraitiste et illustrateur néo-classique français. (Élève de Jacques-Louis David, il fut l'un des principaux peintres du Premier Empire et de la Restauration.) #culturejaiflash https://www.instagram.com/p/Ccr603rsIvt/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[solitaryfossil]

François Gérard French painter (b. 1770, Rome, d. 1837, Paris) Romanticism The Coronation of Charles X 1827 Oil on canvas, 514 x 972 cm Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chartres

[vincentdelaplage]

LES LUMIÈRES DE VERSAILLES #leslumièresdeversailles « J’aimerais mieux scier du bois que de régner à la façon du roi d’Angleterre. » CHARLES X (1757-1836) roi de France (1824-1830) 1--UNE IDÉE DE PEINTRE Portrait du roi Charles X, représenté en tenue de sacre par François Gérard (1825). François Gérard, né le 4 mai 1770 à Rome et mort le 11 janvier 1837 à Paris, est un peintre d’histoire, portraitiste et illustrateur néo-classique français. 2--UN PEU D'HISTOIRE En mars 1830, après un discours provocateur à la Chambre, on proclame, sous la direction de Royer-Collard, dans une adresse signée par 221 députés (sur 402) les droits intangibles de la représentation nationale. La Chambre est dissoute, et de nouvelles élections ont lieu en juillet 1830, qui renforcent encore l'opposition libérale. Paris se soulève et, après les combats des 27, 28 et 29 juillet, Charles X, réfugié à Rambouillet, abdique en faveur de son petit-fils, le duc de Bordeaux (2 août 1830), mais le 7 août, la Chambre des députés déclare le trône vacant et y appelle Louis-Philippe Ier. Le souverain déchu gagne l'Angleterre, vit à Holyrood (Écosse) puis à Praguet avant de mourir à Görz (aujourd'hui Gorizia), ayant connu, en tout, plus de trente ans d'exil. 3--UNE MUSIQUE D'UN BONHEUR CONTAGIEUX Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Fantaisie pour violon et piano en ut majeur D. 934 https://youtu.be/YO94vUybWEk Franz grandit dans le faubourg de Vienne. Sur quatorze enfants (dont seulement cinq survivent), il est le douzième petit Schubert à naître dans la maison Au crabe rouge. La légende raconte qu’il entend son premier concert à l’âge de 76 jours, alors que la musique militaire des troupes autrichiennes passe sous sa fenêtre. Il est en tout cas entre de bonnes mains durant ses premières années puisque son père lui apprend le violon et son frère Ignaz le piano-forte. https://www.facebook.com/groups/716146568740323/?ref=share_group_link https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch2KgT5Kvfp/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[todayclassical]

February 02 in Music History

1594 Death of Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina in Rome at age 68. 

1669 Birth of French composer and organist Louis Marchand, in Lyons.  1673 Death of German composer Kaspar Forster, at age 56 in Oliva. 

1687 FP of Pallavicino's La Gierusalemme Liberata at the Hoftheater in Dresden.

1714 Birth of German organist and composer Gottfried August Homilius in Rosenthal. 

1727 FP of J. S. Bach's Sacred Cantata No. 52 Ich habe genug on the Feast of the Purification, was part of Bach's third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig.

1731 FP of Handel's opera Porus, King of India which ran for sixteen performances.

1748 Birth of German composer Christian Gottfried Thomas.

1750 Death of German composer Johann Graf, at age 65.

1762 Birth of castrato Girolamo Crescentini in Urbino. 

1770 Birth of bass Giuseppe Naldi in Bologna. 

1773 Birth of composer Vincenc Tomas Vaclav Tucek.

1779 Death of German composer Georg Philipp Kress, at age 59.

1780 Birth of American composer Ananias Davisson

1785 Birth of mezzo-soprano Isabella Colbran in Madrid.

1789 Death of French composer and organist Armand-Louis Couperin, at 63.

1790 Birth of tenor Domenico Donzelli in Bergamo. 

1794 Death of soprano Marie Fel.

1795 FP of Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 102 in B.

1804 Birth of composer Leopold Eugen Mechura.

1817 Birth of composer Jose Maria de la Purificación Ventura.

1822 Death of French composer and violinist Jean-Baptiste Davaux, at age 79 in Paris.  1827 Death of composer Johann Nepomuk Kalcher, at age 62. 1837 Birth of German-Bavarian conductor and composer Max Zenger in Munich.  1840 Birth of French composer Louis Bourgault-Ducoudray.  1844 Birth of Dutch composer and Haarlem music school director, Leander Schlegel, in Oegstgeest.

1847 Birth of pianist and composer Jules Francois Blasini, in Curacaos. 1850 Birth of composer Makar Grigori Yekmalyan.

1869 Birth of baritone Jean Perier in Paris. 

1873 Birth of Austrian operetta composer Leopold Fall in Olmütz. 1875 Birth of Austrian-American violinist Fritz Kreisler in Vienna. 

1875 Death of bass Luigi Agnesi. 

1877 Birth of tenor Frantisek Krampera in Prague.  

1882 Birth of soprano Evgeniya Bronskaya in St Petersburg.  

1882 Death of Italian composer Fabio Campana, at age 63. 1883 Birth of Russian composer Mikhail Fabianovich Gnesin in Rostov on Don.  1883 Birth of Mexican composer Candelario Huízar in Jerez, Zacatecas, Mexico. 

1887 Death of tenor Georg Unger. 

1888 Birth of English pianist Irene Scharrer in London. 

1890 FP of Antonin Dvorák's Symphony No. 8, Op. 88, in Prague. Composer conducting. 

1893 Birth of soprano Jeanne Dusseau in Glasgow. 

1900 FP of Gustave Charpentiers opera Louise at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

1900 Birth of soprano Anni Frind in Nixdorf, Czech.

1901 Birth of Russian-American violinist Jascha Heifetz in Vilnius. 

1901 Birth of German baritone Gerhard Hüsch in Hanover. 

1902 Death of composer Emanuil Mandlov, at age 42. 1904 Birth of composer Jose Enrique Pedreira. 1908 Birth of Slovenian composer Pavel Sivic in Slovenia. 

1908 Birth of Italian composer Renzo Rossellini.

1909 Death of German composer Johann Georg Herzog, at age 86. 1911 Birth of French organist and composer Jean-Jacques Grunenwald. 

1914 Birth of tenor Donat Antonovich Donatov in Pietrovich.  

1919 Birth of Swiss soprano Lisa Della Casa in Berne. 

1919 Death of composer Xavier Henry Napoleon Leroux, at age 55. 

1920 FP of Igor Stravinsky's ballet, The Song of the Nightingale at the Paris Opéra with choreography by Massine. 

1921 FP of Luis Bretan's opera Luceafarul 'The Evening Star', in Cluj, Romania. 

1923 Death of baritone Robert Leonhardt. 

1926 FP of Henry Cowell's String Quartet No. 1 Quartett Pedantic at Aeolian Hall by the Ralph Henkle String Quartet in NYC.

1921 Death of composer Luigi Mancinelli, at 72.

1925 Birth of composer Michel Paul Philippot.

1927 Birth of composer Richard Vance Maxfield in Seattle, WA. 

1928 Death of English composer Frederick Iliffe in Oxford.

1929 Birth of composer Reiner Bredeemeyer.

1929 Birth of tenor Waldemar Kmentt in Vienna.

1930 Birth of bass Reiner Suss in Chemnitz. 

1930 Birth of American composer Herbert Bielawa.

1933 Birth of baritone Patrick McGuigan in Dublin. 

1934 Birth of mezzo-soprano Maura Moreira in Brazil. 

1937 Birth of American soprano Martina Arroyo in NYC.  1941 Birth of French-American composer Serge Tcherepnin near Paris. 1944 Birth of English conductor Andrew Frank Davis in Ashbridge. 1944 Birth of American pianist Ursula Oppens in NYC. 1951 Birth of American composer Andrew Gelt in Albuquerque, NM.

1952 Death of German composer Gustav Strube, at age 85. 1954 Death of composer Theodor Rogalski, at age 52. 1956 Death of mezzo-soprano Marie Klanova-Panznerova. 

1960 Birth of American composer Harold Colin Cowherd.

1960 Death of composer Jeno Huszka, at age 84. 1961 Death of composer Adolf Vogl, at age 87. 1965 Death of composer Richard Wurz, at age 79. 1968 Birth of English composer Simon Wickham-Smith in Rustington.

1969 Death of MET Opera tenor Giovanni Martinelli at age 83.  1970 Death of composer Jaroslav Vogel, at age 76.

1971 Death of soprano and coach Franziska Martiensson-Lohmann. 

1974 Death of Belgian composer Jean Absil in Brussels at age 80. 1976 Death of composer Maurice Jacobson, at age 80. 1977 FP of Ned Rorem's A Quaker Reader for organ, in NYC.

1979 Birth of composer Marcus Hoffman.

1981 Death of soprano Xenia Belmas. 

1984 Death of soprano Margherita Perras.

1985 Death of bass Marco Stefanoni.

1986 Death of coach Margaret Krauss. 1987 Death of English composer and conductor Spike Partick Hughes.

1988 Death of British pianist Solomon Cutner.

1993 FP of Liebermann's Quintet for Piano & Strings, Peter Orth, piano; the Franciscan Quartet. 1993 Death of baritone Gino Bechi.

2000 Death of tenor Marcel Vercammen. 

2002 FP of Philip Glass' Symphony No. 6. American Composers Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies at Carnegie Hall in NYC.

2003 Death of American composer Lou Harrison at age 85 in Lafayette, Indiana.