Lyon School

The Lyon School (French: École de Lyon) is a term for a group of French artists which gathered around Paul Chenavard. Appearing in the 1810s, this style included in its beginnings in addition to the troubadour genre, floral painters, close to the designers of patterns for the production of silk pieces and landscape painters. At the salon of 1819, where the Lyonnaise school was identified for the first time, it was described as having ” a neat style, with a fine and brilliant craftsmanship “.

It was founded by Pierre Revoil, one of the representatives of the Troubadour style. It included Victor Orsel, Louis Janmot and Hippolyte Flandrin, and was nicknamed “the prison of painting” by Charles Baudelaire. Recognized at the Salon of 1819, the school was consecrated 16 February 1851 by the creation of the gallery of painters from Lyon (galerie des Artistes lyonnais) at the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon.

The Lyon school stood out in the 1830s with a movement inspired by the mystical and illuminist currents of Lyon. This group represented by Victor Orsel, Louis Janmot or Hippolyte Flandrin is described by Charles Baudelaire as “the prison of painting, – the place in the known world where the infinitely small are best worked”. This pictorial current close to British Pre – Raphaelites was mainly inspired by philosophical, moral and religious themes. This trend, which lived for part of the century, ended with Puvis de Chavannes.

Between 1890 and 1909 a younger generation of artists of divers inspirations would become associated with L’École de Lyon (or École lyonnaise) exhibiting at the Le Salon in Lyon (Salon de la Société Lyonnaise des Beaux-Arts): artists such as Joanny Arlin, Philippe Audras, Jean Bardon, Alexandre Baudin, André Baudin, Camille Bouvagne, Marguerite Brun, Jean-Louis Chorel, Anna Dugoin, Marie Saubiez-Euler, Pierre Euler, Étienne Victor Exbrayat, Horace Antoine Fonville, Marie Giron, Georges Glaise, Gustave Karcher, Marthe Koch, Théodore Lévigne, Jules Medard, Hugues Méray, Alphonse Muscat, Henry Oberkampff, Edouard Paupin, Victor-Philippe Flipsen (Philipsen), Louis Piot, Henri Ray, Henri Raynaud, Ernest Roman, Jean Seignemartin, Glaudius Seignol, Gabriel Trévoux, and Louis Vollen.

Definition
Pierre Vaisse insists on the fact that the school of painting of Lyon does not have its own characteristics, and that its very existence is more due to the will of Lyonnese city councilors to put forward a supposed local specificity than to the existence of a real structured and recognizable artistic movement. He explains that the Lyonnais artists of each period have followed the currents which cross the painting and that the possible variations with these last are above all stemming from the styles proper to each artist. He underlines the lack of continuity in the pictorial production of Lyon throughout the century, which could be the touchstone of such a school.

History
The Lyon school of painting was recognized at the Paris Salon of 1819.

The School of Fine Arts in Lyon
The Lyon school of painting was born around the imperial school of fine arts from the flower drawing school built in the revolutionary era. This school, founded in 1807 at the same time as the Museum of Fine Arts and installed with him at the Saint-Pierre palace, has as its first director François Artaud. Its first teachers are Joseph Chinard, Pierre Revoil, Alexis Grognard, Jacques Barraband, Pascal Gay and Antoine Leclerc. Romantic, they have a high idea of Art which is for them a priesthood which must form the taste of the nations.

The beginnings
In its beginnings, this style included, in addition to the Troubadour Style, floral painters in the Dutch tradition, close to the designers of patterns for the production of silk pieces and landscape painters. One of the first representatives of this emerging school was Antoine Berjon, trained in drawing for painting on silk and gradually turning to easel painting. He teaches his knowledge of the floral decoration for many students, giving a lasting fold Lyon painting of the xix th century.

The founders of the troubadour style within the Lyons painting school are Pierre Revoil and Fleury Richard. Trained by Alexis Grognard and supported in their vision of painting by Jean-Jacques de Boissieu and Antoine Berjon, they will perfect themselves in the workshop of Jacques-Louis David, where they implement the precision and clarity of writing that ‘they had been taught in Lyon. The center of their concern is the Middle Ages, with a great concern for historical accuracy, which they most often transcribe on paintings of small formats, with characters a little frozen and a soft light. They are not very successful in Lyon and send their paintings to Paris. The few painters who follow them in their path are Claude Jacquard and Anthelme Trimolet. This movement, which will not last, prepares pre-Raphaelite.

In the city of Rhone, genre painting is much more appreciated. She is represented by Jean-Michel Grobon, Jean-François Bellay, Antoine Duclaux and Alexandre Dubuisson. Sharing the attention to detail with the Troubadour school, this movement focuses on scenes of peasant and craft life, and on landscapes. Grobon, considered as one of the founders of the Lyonnaise school of painting prepares the local fullairism.

Prosperity
The Lyons school stood out in the 1830s with a movement inspired by the mystical and illuminist currents of Lyons. We thus find themes close to Freemasonry. This group is represented by two generations of painters; first by Victor Orsel, then by the Lyonnais from the Ingres workshop, in particular the Flandrin brothers, especially Hippolyte Flandrin, but also Louis Lamothe, Auguste Chavard, Jean-François Montessuy or Pierre-Etienne Perlet, and Michel Dumas. Close to the Pre – RaphaelitesBritish, they are mainly inspired by philosophical, moral and religious themes, drawing from the Nazarene movement (especially for Orsel). They have a great activity in the field of religious painting, the decoration of churches. We can thus cite the work of Orsel at Notre-Dame de-Lorette, that of Flandrin, accompanied by companions from the workshop of Ingres, at the Saint-Séverin church, at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des -Prés, in Paris, or the Saint-Martin d’Ainay church in LyonThis trend continues with Louis Janmot.

This current is completed in the third quarter of the xix th century with Puvis and pre-impressionists like Joseph Guichard, François-Auguste Ravier, François Vernay.

Main Representatives
History painting: Pierre Révoil (1776-1842), Fleury François Richard (1777-1852), Claudius Jacquand (1803-1878)
Flower painting: Antoine Berjon (1754-1843), Déchazelle, Augustin Thierriat (1789-1870), Simon Saint-Jean (1808-1860), Adolphe-Louis Dégrange, dit Castex-Dégrange (1840-1918), Marthe Elisabeth Barbaud -Koch (1862 – after 1928)
Genre painting: Claude Bonnefond (1796-1860), Michel-Philibert Genod (1795-1862)
Religious painting: Victor Orsel (1795-1850), Louis Janmot (1814-1892), Jean-François Bellay (1789-1858), Jean Scohy (1824-1897)
Religious decor: Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864), Paul Chenavard (1807-1895), Jean-Baptiste Frénet (1814-1889)
Romanticism: Joseph Guichard (1806-1880), Jean Seignemartin (1848-1875), Joseph Alfred Bellet du Poisat (1823-1883)
Symbolism: Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898), Alexandre Séon (1855-1917)
Landscape: Hector Allemand (1809-1886), Adolphe Appian (1818-1898), Louis-Hilaire Carrand (1821-1899), François-Auguste Ravier (1814-1895), Nicolas Victor Fonville (1805-1856)