Thomas Couture

Life

Early life and education

Couture was born at Senlis, Oise, France. When he was 11 his family moved to Paris, where he would study at the industrial arts school (École des Arts et Métiers) and later at the École des Beaux-Arts.

Art and teaching career

He failed the prestigious Prix de Rome competition at the École six times, but he felt the problem was with the École, not himself. Couture finally did win the prize in 1837.

In 1840 he began exhibiting historical and genre pictures at the Paris Salon, earning several medals for his works, in particular for his masterpiece, Romans During the Decadence (1847). Shortly after this success, Couture opened an independent atelier meant to challenge the École des Beaux-Arts by turning out the best new history painters.

Couture's innovative technique gained much attention, and he received Government and Church commissions for murals during the late 1840s through the 1850s. He never completed the first two commissions, and the third met with mixed criticism. Upset by the unfavorable reception of his murals, in 1860 he left Paris, for a time returning to his hometown of Senlis, where he continued to teach young artists who came to him. In 1867 he thumbed his nose at the academic establishment by publishing a book on his own ideas and working methods called Méthode et entretiens d'atelier (Method and Workshop Interviews). It was also translated to Conversations on Art Methods in 1879, the year he died.

Asked by a publisher to write an autobiography, Couture responded: "Biography is the exaltation of personality—and personality is the scourge of our time."

Death

In 1879 he died at Villiers-le-Bel, Val-d'Oise, and was interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.

Selected paintings

File:Augustins - La soif de l'or, 1844 - Thomas Couture 2004 1 98.jpg|The Love of Gold, 1844 File:THOMAS COUTURE - Los Romanos de la Decadencia (Museo de Orsay, 1847. Óleo sobre lienzo, 472 x 772 cm).jpg|The Romans in their Decadence (1847) File:Portrait of a Seated Woman by Thomas Couture.jpg|Portrait of a Seated Woman (1850-1855) File:Thomas Couture-Anselm Feuerbach 1852.JPG|Anselm Feuerbach (1852) File:Thomas Couture - The Supper after the Masked Ball.jpg|The Supper after the Masked Ball [1857] File:Le Duel après le bal masqué - Thomas Couture - Wallace Collection.jpg|The Duel After the Masked Ball (1857) File:Thomas Couture - Daydreams - Walters 3744.jpg|Daydreams (1859). File:Thomas Couture - Lawyer Going to Court - Walters 371204.jpg|A Lawyer Going to Court (1860s) File:Thomas Couture, The Thorny Path (1873).jpg|The Thorny Path (1872)

Nazi-looted art in the Gurlitt collection

Couture’s Portrait of a Seated Woman, (c.1850-1855), discovered in the Gurlitt trove, was identified as having belonged to French politician Georges Mandel from a small hole in the canvas. It was restituted to Mandel's heirs in 2019.

References

References

1. Wilkinson, Burke. ''The Life and Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens'', Dover Publications, Inc., New York. p. 79.
2. "Portrait of Thomas Couture (1815-1879) on His Deathbed".
3. "Artist Info".
4. (2020-09-24). "Nazi-Looted Thomas Couture Painting Returned to Heirs of French Jewish Leader Georges Mandel - Artsy News".
5. "Germany returns Nazi-looted work to French Jewish collector's heirs".
6. "The Void at the Heart of 'Gurlitt: Status Report'".