COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
Record
AMICA ID:
CMA_.1980.227
AMICA Library Year:
2001
Object Type:
Paintings
Creator Name:
Appian, Adolphe
Creator Nationality:
European; French
Creator Role:
artist
Creator Dates/Places:
1818 - 1898
Biography:
At a young age, Jacques Barthélemy Appian, who changed his first name to Adolphe, began his studies at the École de Dessin et Beaux-Arts in Lyons, which specialized in training artists to decorate luxury fabrics produced by the local silk industry. There he met his teacher, landscape painter Jean-Michel Grobon (1770-1853). Grobon certainly influenced Appian's shift toward the study of nature. Appian's career as a painter began in 1851, when three of his works were exhibited at the Lyons Salon. The following year he settled in Crémieu, a small fortified town in the Dauphiné, where he painted picturesque sites of the region, including views of Optevoz. He met and became friends with Corot (q.v.) and Daubigny (q.v.), whom he recognized as his true teachers. From 1853 he exhibited almost continuously, not only in the Salons of Paris and Lyons but in numerous towns all over France: paintings, charcoal drawings, and prints exclusively devoted to landscapes. In 1854 he made his first excursion to the forest of Fontainebleau, where he would return throughout the following years. He traveled around France but always returned to Crémieu. In 1861 Appian settled in Creys, located twenty-five kilometers from Crémieu and ten kilometers from Morestel. In 1863 he became an active member of the new Société des Aquafortistes founded by Alfred Cadart in 1862. Appian exhibited two works at the 1866 Paris Salon, one of which was bought by Princess Mathilde and the other by the emperor. Two years later he was awarded the gold medal at the Paris Salon, which truly established his reputation. For twenty years, begin-ning in 1871, Appian frequently spent time on the Mediterranean coast, from Collioure to San Remo, visiting Sète, Martigues, Toulon, Carqueiranne, Nice, Beaulieu, Monaco, Menton, and Bodighera and painting in all of these places. Sometimes he traveled as far as Venice and Chioggia, where he found inspiration for several paintings as well. His palette grew lighter. The chorus of grays and greens of the Dauphiné and Bugey paintings is followed by an increasingly golden harmony, enhanced by purer tones. Appian was awarded the gold medal at the Exposition Interna-tionale of Lyons in 1894, but the last few years of his life were not happy ones. His paintings no longer sold and his only son, Louis, a painter as well, died in 1896. Such was the end of a long and mostly successful career. In the nineteenth cen-tury art critics often preferred Appian's charcoal drawings and prints to his paintings, which they found rushed and lacking in finish. His works were pub-lished in several journals, such as Gazette des Beaux-Arts, La revue du Lyonnais, Le Fusain, and Paris Salon.
Gender:
M
Creator Birth Place:
Lyons, 28 August 1818
Creator Death Place:
Lyons, 29 April 1898
Creator Name-CRT:
Adolphe Appian
Title:
Well at the Side of a Road
Title Type:
Primary
View:
Full View
Creation Date:
1860s
Creation Start Date:
1860
Creation End Date:
1869
Materials and Techniques:
oil on fabric
Dimensions:
Unframed: 28.2cm x 45cm
AMICA Contributor:
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location:
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number:
1980.227
Credit Line:
Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
Inscriptions:
Signed lower left foreground: Appian; lower right: Appian [false]
Provenance:
Possibly, Lyons sale, 29 March 1973, Chioggia, 28.2 x 45 cm, ff 4,400 (same dimensions as Cleveland painting). Claude Marumo, Paris. Sold in 1977 to Noah L. Butkin, Cleveland. Bequeathed to the cma on 19 December 1980.
Related Image Identifier Link:
CMA_.1980.227.TIF
