Jean-Simon Berthélemy (5 March 1743 – 1 March 1811) was a French

history painter History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...

who was commissioned to paint allegorical ceilings for the

Palais du Louvre The Louvre Palace (french: link=no, Palais du Louvre, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Gardens and the ...

, the

Luxembourg Palace The Luxembourg Palace (french: Palais du Luxembourg, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of th ...

and others, in a conservative Late Baroque-Rococo manner only somewhat affected by Neoclassicism.

Biography

Berthélemy was born in

Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The holy district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance. ...

, Aisne, the son of a sculptor, Jean-Joseph Berthélemy,. He trained in the atelier of

Noël Hallé Noël Hallé (2 September 1711, Paris – 5 June 1781, Paris) was a French painter, draftsman and printmaker. He was born into a family of artists, the son of Claude-Guy Hallé. Hallé took the Prix de Rome in 1736. He studied at the Fren ...

, a professor at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture and made his first reputation in the 1760s; after reaching second place in 1763, he won the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

of the Académie in 1767. An early commission was for a suite of decorative paintings under the direction of the architect Jean-Gabriel Legendre for the Hôtel de l'Intendance de Champagne at Châlons-sur-Marne, of which the artist only completed six

overdoor An "overdoor" (or "Supraporte" as in German, or "sopraporte" as in Italian) is a painting, bas-relief or decorative panel, generally in a horizontal format, that is set, typically within ornamental mouldings, over a door, or was originally intend ...

s, much in the manner of François Boucher, and delegated the rest of the commission to a fellow pupil at the Académie. Berthélemy's master Hallé provided cartoons for the royal tapestry manufacture of the Gobelins, where he was appointed superintendent in 1770; Berthélemy was called upon to provide cartoons for the weavers as well. His ''Death of Etienne Marcel'' (1783, on display in the

École de Chirurgie The École de Chirurgie ("School of Surgery") is a historic building located at 10–12 rue de l'École de Médecine in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Today it is the headquarters of the Paris Descartes University. Background In the 18th centu ...

) of which the oil sketch survives, was woven in the series ''Histoire de France''.

Career

Berthélemy was an esteemed painter in his day, chosen to join the entourage accompanying

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

's campaign in Italy, where he was among the experts assigned the task of selecting works of art to be transferred to Paris under terms of the

Treaty of Tolentino {{unreferenced, date=June 2018 The Treaty of Tolentino was a peace treaty between Revolutionary France and the Papal States, signed on 19 February 1797 and imposing terms of surrender on the Papal side. The signatories for France were the French Di ...

, February 1797. He died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. When two monographs on Berthélemy were published in 1979, Philip Conisbee, reviewing them in ''

The Burlington Magazine ''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation s ...

'', observed drily: "Two monographs on Berthélemy is overkill for a painter who could have been dispatched with a single substantial article. The French academic system of art education in the eighteenth century, backed up by the stimulus of church and state patronage, was so efficient and rigorous that even an average talent could be sufficiently conditioned to produce a handful of decent history-paintings, which are sometimes minor masterpieces." File:Death of a Gladiator LACMA M.83.169.jpg, Gladiator Image:Alexander cuts the Gordian Knot.jpg, ''Alexander Cuts the Gordian Knot'' (

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

, Paris) File:Jean-Simon Berthélemy - Les Bourgeois de Calais (1782).jpg, The burgers of Calais File:Jean-Simon Berthélemy - Jupiter and Antiope.jpg, Jupiter and Antiope

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berthelemy, Jean-Simon 1743 births 1811 deaths People from Laon 18th-century French painters French male painters 19th-century French painters Prix de Rome for painting French history painters 19th-century French male artists 18th-century French male artists