Louis-Auguste Veillon (29 December 1834, in
Bex
Bex (; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, located in the Aigle (district), district of Aigle. It is a few kilometers south of its sister town municipality of Aigle.
History
Bex is first ment ...
– 5 January 1890, in
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
) was a
Swiss
Swiss most commonly refers to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Swiss may also refer to: Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
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* Swiss Café, an old café located ...
painter, noted for his Orientalist works.
Life and career
After obtaining a degree in
Reformed theology
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
in
Lausanne
Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...
, he joined
François Diday at his studio in Geneva, where he primarily painted seascapes and mountain scenes from the
Bernese Oberland
The Bernese Oberland (; ; ), sometimes also known as the Bernese Highlands, is the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern. It is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context it is referred to as ''Oberland'' witho ...
. In 1858, he enrolled at the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. While in Paris, he spent a considerable amount of time in the Louvre, copying the works of the masters, especially the 17th-century Dutch masters and the work of
Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in I ...
. He later reported that this discipline led him to the ''luminism'' characteristic of his paintings.
In Paris, he made the acquaintance of the
Orientalist artist,
Eugène Fromentin
Eugène Fromentin (; 24 October 182027 August 1876) was a French painter and writer.
Life and career
He was born in La Rochelle. After leaving school he studied for some years under Louis Cabat, the landscape painter. Fromentin was one of the e ...
who was his neighbour. This marked a turning point in Veillon's work and aroused his interest in Orientalist subject matter. He traveled to Rome, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Egypt, then lived in Venice for two years, before settling down in Geneva.
[; ''Zeitschrift für schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte.'' ZAK; Organ des Schweizerischen Landesmuseums, des Verbandes der Schweizerischen Altertums-Museen und der Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte, Volume 43, 1986, pp 229-233]
Veillon travelled to Egypt at least four times. In 1873, he stayed there with his friend, the artist, Etienne Duval (1824-1919), for a period of four months. In Egypt, he focussed on producing work with Orientalist themes, featuring landscapes showing the
Nile
The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...
or the
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...
. His works were very popular, especially in Switzerland.
Although he travelled extensively, Geneva remained at the centre of his life and work. He died there on 5 January 1890 at the age of 55 years.
Work
Veillon distanced himself from the Romantic school of his master, Diday, instead pursuing a more realistic approach. He used soft brush strokes and a slightly pastel colour palette.
[Neuweiler, N., ''La peinture à Genève de 1700 à 1900,'' A. Jullien, 1945, p. 96]
Select list of paintings''
* ''Bedouins at Rest''
* ''Bord du Lac à Rivaz'' (Lakeshore at Rivaz)
* ''Les Pêcheurs de la Région de Naples,'' (Fishermen of the Naples Region)
* ''La Punta della Dogana, Venise'' (Dogana Bridge, Venice)
* ''Dutch River Landscape with the town of Dordrecht in the background''
* ''Tunis''
* ''Calm Water''
* ''The Temple of Philae, Aswan''
See also
*
List of Orientalist artists
This is an incomplete list of artists who have produced works on Orientalism#Orientalist art, Orientalist subjects, drawn from the Islamic world or other parts of Asia. Many artists listed on this page worked in many genres, and Orientalist subj ...
*
Orientalism
In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle ...
References
Further reading
*Rudolf Pestalozzi, ''Louis Auguste Veillon,'' 1891
{{DEFAULTSORT:Veillon, Auguste
1834 births
1890 deaths
19th-century Swiss painters
Swiss male painters
Orientalist painters
19th-century Swiss male artists