Louis Charles Jean Courajod (22 February 1841 – 26 June 1896) was a French

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

, museum curator and

connoisseur A connoisseur (French language, French Reforms of French orthography, traditional, pre-1835, spelling of , from Middle-French , then meaning 'to be acquainted with' or 'to know somebody/something') is a person who has a great deal of knowledge ...

-collector, who was born and died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

.''Dictionary of Art historians'': "Courajod, Louis"
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Biography

Courajod was trained as a lawyer, then as an historian at the

École Nationale des Chartes The École Nationale des Chartes (; ) is a French ''grande école'' and a constituent college of Université PSL, specialising in the auxiliary sciences of history, historical sciences. It was founded in 1821, and was located initially at the A ...

(1864–67), then served an apprenticeship at the Cabinet des estampes of the

Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a p ...

, under chief curator Henri Delaborde, while he pursued his studies at the

École Pratique des Hautes Études École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

. His first publication (1867) was an article on the

Plantagenet The House of Plantagenet ( /plænˈtædʒənət/ ''plan-TAJ-ə-nət'') was a royal house which originated from the French county of Anjou. The name Plantagenet is used by modern historians to identify four distinct royal houses: the Angev ...

tombs at Fontevrault In 1874 he began his career at the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, developing at first his special interest in the

Gothic sculpture Gothic sculpture was a sculpture style that flourished in Europe during the Middle Ages, from about mid-12th century to the 16th century,The chronology of the period varies significantly according to the source consulted evolving from Romanesque ar ...

of the 14th and 15th centuries, then turning to the '' art franc'', of the

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty ( ; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid c ...

s. In 1887, he was appointed a professor at the

École du Louvre The École du Louvre () is a selective institution of higher education and prestigious ''grande école'' located in the Aile de Flore of the Louvre Palace in Paris, France. It is dedicated to the study of archaeology, art history, anthropology ...

, teaching Medieval and Renaissance sculpture; he was director of the department from 1893. Among his students were André Michel, who succeeded him at the Louvre, and . Courajod was a regular contributor to the '' Gazette des Beaux-Arts''. He served on the Commission des monuments historiques and was a member of the Société des Antiquaires de France. Courajod introduced the term "

International Gothic International Gothic is a period of Gothic art that began in Burgundy, France, and northern Italy in the late 14th and early 15th century. It then spread very widely across Western Europe, hence the name for the period, which was introduced by the ...

" to describe the Late Gothic movement expressed in sculptures and other media. A commemorative memoir, ''Louis Courajod, un historien de l'art français'', was published by Courajod's former pupil, Albert Marignan, in 1896.

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* __NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Courajod, Louis French art historians People associated with the Louvre Writers from Paris 1841 births 1896 deaths École Nationale des Chartes alumni French male non-fiction writers

Biography

Further reading

Notes

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