Nicolas Guibal
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Nicolas Guibal (29 November 1725,
Lunéville Lunéville ( ; German : ''Lünstadt'' ; Lorrain: ''Leneinvile'') is a commune in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It is a subprefecture of the department and lies on the river Meurthe at its confluence with the Ve ...
— 3 November 1784,
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
) was an artist, art educator and art gallery director from the
Duchy of Lorraine The Duchy of Lorraine was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire which existed from the 10th century until 1766 when it was annexed by the kingdom of France. It gave its name to the larger present-day region of Lorraine in northeastern France ...
. He worked for most of his career as a
court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...
for
Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg Charles Eugene (German: ''Carl Eugen''; 11 February 1728 – 24 October 1793) was the Duke of Württemberg, and the eldest son, and successor, of Charles Alexander; his mother was Princess Marie Auguste of Thurn and Taxis. Life Born in Bruss ...
. His main works consist of ceiling paintings in the
Solitude Palace Solitude Palace () is a Rococo ''schloss'' and hunting retreat commissioned by Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg. It was designed by and Philippe de La Guêpière, and constructed from 1764 to 1769. It is located on an elongated ridge betwee ...
, Monrepos, and the Hohe Karlsschule.


Life

Nicolas Guibal was the son of Lorraine sculptor Barthélemy Guibal. His father first worked for Duke
Leopold, Duke of Lorraine Leopold the Good (11 September 1679 – 27 March 1729) was Duke of Lorraine and Bar from 1690 to his death. Through his son Francis Stephen, he is the direct male ancestor of all rulers of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, including all Emperor ...
in Lunéville and, from 1733, for
Stanislas Leszczyński Stanislav and variants may refer to: People *Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.) Places * Stanislav, Kherson Oblast, a coastal village in Ukraine * Stanislaus County, ...
in Nancy and the surrounding area. His mother, Marie-Catherine Barthélemy, came from a wealthy local family. He received his initial art training in his father's sculpture workshop. Preferring to train as a painter, he went to Nancy to study with Claude Charles, the former court painter to Duke Leopold of Lorraine. In 1740, he moved to Paris where he enrolled at the
Académie des Beaux-Arts The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect. Background The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...
studying under
Charles-Joseph Natoire Charles-Joseph Natoire (3 March 1700 – 23 August 1777) was a French painter in the Rococo manner, a pupil of François Lemoyne and director of the French Academy in Rome, 1751–1775. Considered during his lifetime the equal of François Bou ...
. In 1749 he was involved in painting the opera house in the Lusthaus in Stuttgart, where he attracted the attention of Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, who was planning the decoration for his residence. Guibal won the favor of the Duke, who sent him to Rome between 1752 and 1754 to continue his training. There he worked with
Anton Raphael Mengs Anton Raphael Mengs (12 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German Neoclassicism, Neoclassical painter. Early life Mengs was born on 12 March 1728, at Ústí nad Labem in the Kingdom of Bohemia, the son of Ismael Mengs, a Danish-born painter wh ...
. Mengs' interest in Renaissance painters such as Raphael and Antiquity and the
eclecticism Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories i ...
of his works had a lasting influence on Guibal's work. After his return to Stuttgart he was appointed court painter and took part in all the important decorative projects of the Duke, such as those for the palaces of Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart. Guibal married Christine Regina Juliana Greber in 1759. The marriage produced five children. From 1774 he taught at the Hohe Karlsschule, where he was appointed professor in 1776.Nicolas Guibal, Painter and Draughtsman
on the site of the Städel Museum
Since the late 1770s, his health had been deteriorating. In 1781, he had to go to Strasbourg for a cure due to recurring severe convulsive attacks. The doctors diagnosed intoxication by paints containing heavy metals. Nicolas Guibal died on 3 November 1784. Among his pupils were Johann Gotthard von Müller, Johann Heinrich von Dannecker,
Reinhard Heinrich Ferdinand Fischer Reinhard Heinrich Ferdinand Fischer (18 June 1746, in Stuttgart – 25 June 1813, in Stuttgart) was a German architect and master builder of Duke Charles Eugene of Württemberg. Life Fischer, officially a son of the Duke's councillor and f ...
, Heinrich Friedrich Füger,
Philipp Friedrich von Hetsch Philipp Friedrich von Hetsch (10 September 1758, Stuttgart - 31 December 1838, Stuttgart) was a German Classicism, Classical painter, known primarily for his portraits, although he also created historical and mythological scenes. Biography Hi ...
, Joseph Nicolaus Peroux,
Ludovike Simanowiz Kunigunde Sophie Ludovike Simanowiz (née Reichenbach; February 21, 1759, Schorndorf - September 3, 1827, Ludwigsburg) was a German portrait painter in the Classicism, Classical style. Biography Her father was a military feldsher and her mother ...
, Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret, among others. As a teacher, he provided an entire generation of artists not only with solid technical skills, but also with a universal education. A theorist of early
Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...
, which he had premiered in Württemberg in its French expression, he conveyed to his pupils the ideals of a new view of art based on Antiquity.


Work

His main works include ceiling paintings for the Solitude Palace and the Hohe Karlsschule (Stuttgart Military Academy) in Germany. With his formal language and allegorical pictorial statements, Guibal's art can be situated in the late Baroque and early Classicism. His work was influenced by that of
Anton Raphael Mengs Anton Raphael Mengs (12 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German Neoclassicism, Neoclassical painter. Early life Mengs was born on 12 March 1728, at Ústí nad Labem in the Kingdom of Bohemia, the son of Ismael Mengs, a Danish-born painter wh ...
which is evident in his portraits and detail studies. In his designs for large-scale ceiling paintings his French training is reflected. Highly regarded by his contemporaries, his art was rejected barely twenty years after his death as outdated and eclectic. Shortly after 1800, court architect Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret had decorations by Guibal and Philippe de La Guêpière in Monrepos Palace destroyed and replaced with
Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 duri ...
decorations. His posthumous critics included Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who accused him of lacking seriousness and a lack of understanding of the “well-understood drawing of beautifully balanced forms”. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
most of his monumental paintings as well as many panel paintings and drawings were destroyed.


Further reading

* * Michael Semff, Wolfgang Uhlig: ''Nicolas Guibal.'' Exhibit catalog,
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (, "State Gallery") is an art museum in Stuttgart, Germany, it opened in 1843. In 1984, the opening of the Neue Staatsgalerie (''New State Gallery'') designed by James Stirling transformed the once provincial galler ...
1989 * François Pupil and Simon Lee.
Guibal
" In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, (accessed December 30, 2011; subscription required).


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Guibal, Nicolas French Baroque painters 1725 births 1784 deaths Academic staff of State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart French emigrants to Germany