Simon-Joseph-Alexandre-Clément Denis (14 April 1755, in Antwerp – 1 January 1813, in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

) was a Flemish painter active primarily in Italy.

Life

Denis first studied in his native city of Antwerp, with the

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

and animal painter H.-J. Antonissen. The work of Balthasar Paul Ommeganck also influenced his style. He lived in Paris for ten years where he gained the patronage of

genre painter Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...

and art dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun, whose support allowed him to move to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1786. His paintings there attracted favorable attention, and in 1787 he married a local woman. He remained close to the Flemish community in Rome, and in 1789 was elected to head the Foundation St.-Julien-des-Flamands. He also developed ties within the French artistic community; Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun stayed with him for some days in 1789 and that same year he and she traveled with

François-Guillaume Ménageot François-Guillaume Ménageot (1744–1816) was a French painter of religious and French historical scenes. A pupil of François Boucher (1703–1770), he went on to win the Grand Prix de Rome and become a director of the French Academy in ...

to visit

Tivoli Tivoli may refer to: * Tivoli, Lazio, a town in Lazio, Italy, known for historic sites; the inspiration for other places named Tivoli Buildings * Tivoli (Baltimore, Maryland), a mansion built about 1855 * Tivoli Building (Cheyenne, Wyoming), a ...

. During his period in Rome Denis painted in open air prioritising famous landscapes such as the waterfalls of

in the outskirt of Rome, annotating some of his works. François Marius Granet sought his advice when he arrived in Rome in 1802. In 1803, he was elected to the

Accademia di San Luca The Accademia di San Luca (the "Academy of Saint Luke") is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its f ...

. Simon Denis exhibited several times at the Salon de peinture de Paris : two ''Vue de Rivière. Paysage orné de figures & d’animaux'' in 1791 catalogue number 87 and 740, one ''Paysage'' in 1802 (then purchased by the maréchal Murat) catalogue number 81, one ''Cheval se défendant contre un taureau'' in 1804 catalogue number 127, and ''Des bœufs gardés par des chiens'' in 1808 catalogue number 170. He settled for good in

in 1806, becoming first

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 ...

Joseph Bonaparte it, Giuseppe-Napoleone Buonaparte es, José Napoleón Bonaparte , house = Bonaparte , father = Carlo Buonaparte , mother = Letizia Ramolino , birth_date = 7 January 1768 , birth_place = Corte, Corsica, Republic ...

. From 1809 he became professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti. Landscape painter Prosper Barrigue de Fontainieu (1760-1850) was his pupil. Denis died in 1813.

References

*Valentina Branchini. "Simon Denis (1755–1813) in Italia: dipinti e disegni di paesaggio". PhD diss., Università di Bologna, 2002–3. *Philip Conisbee, Sarah Faunce, and Jeremy Strick. ''In the Light of Italy: Corot and Early Open-Air Painting''. New Haven; Yale University Press, 1996.

External links

Belgian painters Artists from Antwerp 1755 births 1812 deaths Court painters {{Flemish-painter-stub