Armand Point

Point was born in Algiers, and died in either Naples, or Marlotte, Seine-et-Marne.

Point's earliest works were orientalist scenes of markets and musicians and the street life of his youth in Algeria. In 1888 he travelled to Paris where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Auguste Herst and Fernand Cormon. He was linked to Numa Gillet. From 1890 he exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

File:Botticelli-primavera.jpg, Sandro Botticelli, c. 1482. Tempera on panel. Uffizi Gallery, Florence]]

File:Leonardo da vinci, Head of Leda.jpg, c. 1506–1508. Royal Library, Windsor]]

Point was influenced by Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and was a member of the first Nabis group. In 1894 he made a trip to Italy with Hélène Linder (1867–1955) (later Mme Berthelot) where he saw Sandro Botticelli's Primavera for the first time outside of an engraving. The experience made a deep impression on him and he wrote that his eyes "first opened up" on seeing it, leading soon after to attempts to establish a movement in France to resurrect the art of the 15th and 16th centuries. The influence of Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci became evident in his work, for instance in the c. 1895 Eternal Chimera. Hélène Linder became an ideal female model for Point who often painted her in a Leonardesque style but dressed like a muse from Botticelli. Leonardo da Vinci's Study for the head of Leda (study for an original painting now lost) seems to have influenced the hair styles that he gave Hélène.Sciortino, Cassandra. (2010) [https://www.academia.edu/2142637/_Armand_Points_Eternal_Chimera_and_Saint_Cecilia_A_French_Quattrocento_Symbolist_Aesthetic_ "Armand Point's Eternal Chimera and Saint Cecilia: A French Quattrocento Symbolist Aesthetic"] in Rosina Neginsky (Ed.) Symbolism, Its Origins and Its Consequences. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2010. {{ISBN|9781443823920}} Hélène married French diplomat Philippe Berthelot just before the start of the First World War. Philippe Jullian described Point as moving, at this time, from a "dreamy realism to a detailed idealism".

Augustins - La promenade du jeudi dans les champs, 1888 Armand Point Inv. 50 3 1.jpg|Thursday's walk in the fields, 1888. Musée des Augustins Toulouse

Ame d’Automne (Autumn Soul) by Armand Point.jpg|Ame d’Automne (Autumn Soul). Pastel on brown paper, c. 1890s. Model probably Hélène Linder[http://www.stephenongpin.com/Armand-Point-French-1860-1932-Ame-dAutomne-Autumn-Soul-DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=6&tabindex=5&objectid=616590&categoryid=15061 Âme d’Automne (Autumn Soul)] Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2014. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140714153415/http://www.stephenongpin.com/Armand-Point-French-1860-1932-Ame-dAutomne-Autumn-Soul-DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=6&tabindex=5&objectid=616590&categoryid=15061 Archived here.]

Armand Point 1893.jpg|Hélène Linder, 1893 drawing

Armand Point 1895 drawing of Madame Berthelot.jpg|A Portrait of Madame Berthelot. Charcoal and coloured chalks, 1895. Private collection

File:Armand Point, Pond.jpg|Remeniscing by the Pond, c. 1900

Woman with cherry blossom Armand Point.jpg|Woman with cherry blossom, undated

File:Poster for the fifth Salon de la Rose+Croix Point Sarluis.jpg

Soon, Point was moving towards fully fledged Symbolism. He made a determined effort to reject the modern world and the realism of Zola and Courbet. He adopted Rosicrucianism and became a friend of "Sâr" Peladan. Edward Lucie-Smith described him as a "medievalizing painter ... whose style mingled the influence of Moreau with that of the Pre-Raphaelites".Lucie-Smith, Edward. (1972) Symbolist Art. London: Thames & Hudson, p. 115. {{ISBN|0500201250}} From 1892 to 1896, Point exhibited at the Salon de la Rose+Croix and with Léonard Sarluis he designed the poster for the fifth salon of that group. It depicted the Ideal in the form of Perseus holding the severed head of Émile Zola in reference to the Greek myth in which Perseus decapitated the Gorgon Medusa. For the Symbolists, Zola exemplified in literature the oppressive Naturalism they rejected.Lucie-Smith, 1972, p. 54.

Subjects at this time were usually mythological, such as his 1897 The Siren which included a typical Symbolist femme fatale figure luring men to their doom.{{cite book|author=Mathews, Patricia.|title=Passionate Discontent: Creativity, Gender, and French Symbolist Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zUe_iyI2EfUC&pg=PA107|date=1999|place=Chicago|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-51018-7|page=107}} Also in 1897, Point contributed an original lithograph titled the Golden Legend (Fr. Légende dorée) to the L'Estampe Moderne. The journal included four original prints in each issue and Point's was issued in Number 5, September 1897. Other artists who contributed included Alphonse Mucha, Henri Fantin-Latour and Edward Burne-Jones.[http://adventuresintheprinttrade.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/lestampe-moderne.html Adventures in the Print Trade] Neil Philip, 26 February 2009. Retrieved 22 June 2014.

File:Ophelia box Armand Point and Atelier de Haute-Claire.jpg

From 1896 to 1901 Point lived in Marlotte, where he founded the Atelier de Haute-Claire not far from the home of the Barbizon school. Around the turn of the century, the distinction between the fine and decorative arts was beginning to break down and Point became increasingly interested in the latter. He sought to emulate William Morris in revolting against nineteenth-century materialismLucie-Smith, 1972, p. 44. and produced applied art, including furniture, jewellery, fabrics, ceramics and wallpaper that harked back to the techniques and styles of the Middle Ages. Everything was hand-made to a very high standard of craftmanship in an effort to avoid the alienating effect of industrial mass production. As a result, however, the products of the atelier were luxury items that could only be purchased by an elite and the project therefore failed to meet one of its key objectives.

The Symbolist journal L'Ermitage criticised the works of the Haute-Claire group for amounting to religious icons fit only for reverence in a case in a museum and having little to do with the France of today. One such ornate object was the Coffret d'Ophélie (Ophelia Box), a box in the form of a medieval reliquary, that referred to the Ophelia of Shakespeare much celebrated by the Pre-Raphaelites. The box included bronze, cabochon, champlevé enamelling, cloisonné, ivory, gold and other expensive materials and techniques.[http://www.histoire-image.org/site/etude_comp/etude_comp_detail.php?i=673 La colonie d'Haute-Claire: artisanat et nostalgie] L’Histoire par l’image, 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014. A number of similar boxes exist from the atelier, including an alternative Ophelia box (1903)[http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/index-of-works/notice.html?no_cache=1&nnumid=003529&cHash=17103742d9 Armand Point Coffret d'Ophélie vers 1903] Musée d'Orsay, 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014. and a Coffret aux serpents (1897–99),[http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/index-of-works/notice.html?no_cache=1&nnumid=003528&cHash=0be6732d6c Armand Point Coffret aux serpents entre 1897 et 1899] Musée d'Orsay, 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014. both in the Musée d'Orsay. The number of different materials and processes involved in making each box meant that production was complex and a number of different craftsmen were required to make each one, for instance, noted ceramicist Charles Virion. Philippe Jullian described the products of the atelier as more Neo-Byzantine than Art Nouveau.Jullian, Philippe. (1973) The Symbolists. Translated by Mary Anne Stevens. London: Phaidon Press, p. 234. {{ISBN|071481590X}}

A diverse group of people visited Haute-Claire, including Oscar Wilde just months before his death in 1900. Wilde was in exile in France following imprisonment in Britain.{{cite book|author=Dorra, Henri. (Ed.)|title=Symbolist Art Theories: A Critical Anthology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vn_M6j7KejAC&pg=PA272|year=1994|place=Berkeley|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-07768-3|pages=272–5}}

File:Armand Point-La Joie des choses-Musée des beaux-arts de Nancy.jpg|La Joie des choses. 1884.{{cite web|url=https://www.cnap.fr/collection-en-ligne#/artwork/140000000045832|title=La Joie des choses|publisher=CNAP|accessdate=15 July 2022}}

File:Market Street by Armand Point.jpg|Market Street.

File:At the water's edge by Armand Point.jpg|At the Water's Edge.

File:Arab Weaver by Armand Point 1886.jpg|Arab Weaver. 1886.[https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/arab-weaver-23343 Arab Weaver by Armand Point] BBC Your Paintings, 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.

File:The Eternal Chimera by Armand Point pastel c. 1895.jpg|Eternal Chimera. Lead pencil and pastel, c. 1895.

File:Armand Point (1861-1932).jpg|Golden legend. (Fr. Légende dorée) Lithograph, 1897.

File:Armand Point - The Siren, 1897.jpg|The Siren. 1897.

File:PointArmandDanceOftheSevenVeils.jpg|Dance of Salome. Oil on canvas, 1898.

File:Egyptian Goddess Armand Point 1909.jpg|Portrait of an Egyptian goddess, probably Isis. Watercolour, 1909.

File:Armand Point - Bust of a Maiden in a Landscape - Walters 372801.jpg|Bust of a woman in a landscape. Pencil on paper, 1910. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.[http://art.thewalters.org/detail/79180/bust-of-a-maiden-in-a-landscape/ Bust of a Maiden in a Landscape] Walters Art Museum, 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2014.

File:Armand Point The Judgement of Paris c. 1910.jpg|The Judgement of Paris. Oil on canvas, 1910 or 1911.[http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/index-of-works/notice.html?no_cache=1&nnumid=020811&cHash=55bc3f9e65 Armand Point Le jugement de Pâris] Musée d'Orsay, 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014.

File:Armand Point, Apollo And Daphne, 1919.jpg|Apollo and Daphne. Oil on canvas, 1919.

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Doré, Robert. (2010) Armand Point: De l'Orientalisme au Symbolisme: 1861–1932. Paris: B. Giovanangeli. {{ISBN|9782758700661}}
• Fort, P., C. Mauclair, S. Merrill et al. "Armand Point et son oeuvre", La Plume, special issue, Paris 1901.
• Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David. (1999) Les Peintres de L'âme, le Symbolisme idéaliste en France. Gent: Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon. {{ISBN|9789053252062}}

{{commons category|Armand Point}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140714171534/http://www.mylearning.org/armand-point-and-islamic-architecture/p-340/ Armand Point and Islamic Architecture], MyLearning.org
• [http://conchigliadivenere.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/armand-point-1861-1932-french/ Armand Point nudes]
• [http://www.tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica.com/2012/09/Armand-Point.html Armand Point ~ Pittore simbolista]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20130218235540/http://www.apophtegme.com/ALBUM/artistes-hauteclaire.htm Logis de Haute-Claire; Quelques Artistes et Visiteurs]}}

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Category:1932 deaths

Category:Artists from Algiers

Category:French Symbolist painters

Category:1860s births

Category:Year of birth uncertain

Category:Rosicrucians

Category:French portrait painters

Category:19th-century French painters

Category:French male painters

Category:20th-century French painters

Category:20th-century French male artists

Category:19th-century French male artists