Jules-Antoine Castagnary by Félix Bracquemond

Jules-Antoine Castagnary (11 April 1830 – 11 May 1888) was a French liberal politician, journalist and progressive and influential

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogu ...

, who embraced the new term "

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...

" in his positive and perceptive review of the first Impressionist show, in ''

Le Siècle ''Le Siècle'' ("''The Age''") is a daily newspaper that was published from 1836 to 1932 in France. History In 1836, ''Le Siècle'' was founded as a paper that supported constitutional monarchism. However, when the July Monarchy came to an end ...

'', 29 April 1874. Born at

Saintes, Charente-Maritime Saintes (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Sénte'') is a commune and historic town in western France, in the Charente-Maritime department of which it is a sub-prefecture, in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Its inhabitants are called ''Saintaises'' and ''Saintai ...

, in the west of France, Castagnary lived in Paris, where he contributed to ''

Le Monde illustré ''Le Monde illustré'' (title translation: ''The Illustrated World'') was a leading illustrated news magazine in France which was published from 1857–1940 and again from 1945 to 1956. It was in many ways similar to its contemporary English ...

'', ''

'' and '' Le Nain jaune'', a political journal of Liberal tendencies. He reviewed the annual

Paris salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial ar ...

s from 1857 to 1879. He organized the provincial Republican press at the time of the Siege of Paris (1870–71). After the collapse of the

French Second Empire The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France. Historians in the 1930s a ...

, Castagnary, who was an anti-clerical republican, developed a secondary political career. He became a member of the municipal council of Paris (1874), was the director of the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French '' grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Scien ...

(1887), and sat on the Conseil d'État (1879) and the Comité des monuments historiques. He was appointed to a ministerial post in the short-lived

Léon Gambetta Léon Gambetta (; 2 April 1838 – 31 December 1882) was a French lawyer and republican politician who proclaimed the French Third Republic in 1870 and played a prominent role in its early government. Early life and education Born in Cahors, Ga ...

cabinet in 1881, but resigned when that ministry fell 1 January 1882. His portrait by his intimate friend

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and ...

(1870), whose art Castagnary championed from the first and whose radical role during the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defende ...

Castagnary defended after Courbet's death, is now in the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French a ...

, Paris. The correspondence between the two men is a fundamental document in analyzing Courbet's life and output.Mary G. Morton, Charlotte Nalle Eyerman, Dominique de Font-Réaulx, ''Courbet And the Modern Landscape'', 2006:18, note 31 At the time of his death in Paris, Castagnary was engaged in a full-length biography of Courbet, left incomplete; he is buried in the

Cimetière de Montmartre The Cemetery of Montmartre (french: link=no, Cimetière de Montmartre) is a cemetery in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France, that dates to the early 19th century. Officially known as the Cimetière du Nord, it is the third largest necropolis ...

, Paris.

Selected works

*''Philosophie du salon de 1857'', 1858 *''Les Artistes au XIX^e siècle : Salon de 1861'', 1861 *''Grand Album des Expositions de peinture et de sculpture. 69 tableaux et statues'', 1863 *''Les Libres Propos'', 1864 *''Le Bilan de l'année 1868, politique, littéraire, dramatique, artistique et scientifique'', (contributor with Paschal Grousset, Arthur Ranc and Francisque Sarcey), 1869 *''Les Jésuites devant la loi française'', 1877 *''Exposition des œuvres de G. Courbet à l'École des Beaux-Arts en mai 1882'', (exhibition catalogue), 1882. Curated and edited by Castagnary. *''Gustave Courbet et la colonne Vendôme : plaidoyer pour un ami mort'', 1883 *''Salons (1857-1879)'', 2 vols, 1892

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Castagnary, Jules Antoine French art critics People from Saintes, Charente-Maritime 1830 births 1888 deaths Burials at Montmartre Cemetery 19th-century French journalists French male journalists French male writers 19th-century French male writers