Biography of Frederic Bazille

Virtue the Impressionist

6 December 1841 28 November 1870 Jean Frédéric Bazille was born on 6 December 1841 to Montpellier, France, son of a Protestant family of wealthy economic condition. He moved to Paris to study medicine, he soon decided to leave the University, despite the dissent of parents, to devote himself entirely to painting. Impressed by the works of Eugène Delacroix, in the first half of the sixties has the opportunity to get in touch with the likes of Sisley, Renoir and Monet, all met in the studio of Charles Gleyre, his teacher of painting.

Impressionism at Batignolles

Frédéric Bazille also opened his own studio, at Batignolles, that within a short time becomes a point of call and a meeting place for many French artists (including Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, Paul Verlaine and Berthe Morisot): not surprisingly, the partnership that will be born between them, and then evolve in the Impressionist movement, will be called "School of Batignolles ".

Famous paintings by Bazille

In 1864, during one of his stays in the family villa on the banks of the Lez, at Meric, Bazille painting "La robe Rose" (currently housed in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris), where attempts to combine the rules of classical painting with Impressionist theses; in later years, creates "Autoportrait" (in 1865, now at The Art Institute of Chicago), "Réunion de famille" (in 1867, now in the Musée d'Orsay), "Porte de la Reine à Aigues-Mortes" (in 1867, now at the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York) and "Le pécheur à l ' épervier" (in 1868, today in Zurich). Always at Meric, in this period, Bazille gives birth to "La vue de village: Castelnau", work away not much different than "La robe Rose". Between 1869 and 1870 he painted "Scène d ' été" (today in Cambridge), "the toilet" (now in the Musée Fabre of Montpellier), "l'atelier de la rue La Condamine" (now in the Musée d'Orsay) and "Paysage au bord du Lez" (now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art).

Private life

On the Privacy front, Bazille does not marry, while it maintains many ties with men: such relationships help to raise doubts about his sexual orientation (in those days, homosexuality is not well regarded, and is almost universally suppressed, particularly in higher social classes, to which the family of Bazille belongs).

The decision to enlist to go to war

In 1870, the outbreak of the franco-Prussian war turns out to be an obstacle to the Organization of the first Impressionist Exhibition independent: Frédéric Bazille chose to enlist in a regiment of Zouaves as a volunteer, in spite of attempts at deterrence operated by his artist friends. Bazille falls in battle, and was killed a few days before he turned twenty-nine years old during his first sortie on the front: 28 November 1870 died at Beaune-la-Rolande. In 1874, four years after his death, held the first exhibition of the Impressionists, where were exhibited many of his works.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.