François-Auguste Biard

He was born in Lyon. Although his parents intended for him to join the clergy, he spent most of his time learning to paint, beginning at a wallpaper factory in Lyon.Jean Lacambre and Isabelle Julia, Les Années romantiques. La peinture française de 1815 à 1850, Catalog for the Exposition Itinérante, Paris, 1995 Eventually, he was able to attend the École des Beaux-Arts, where he worked with Pierre Révoil until 1818, then studied with Fleury François Richard, after he took over as Director. His studies were, however, sporadic and much was learned on his own. He is, therefore, often referred to as "self-taught".

He also travelled to Italy, Greece and the Middle East. His first Salon exhibition at the Salon of 1824 was well received. That same year, the Archdiocese commissioned four paintings from Révoil's former students, including Biard. In 1827, he travelled again, visiting Malta, Cyprus and Egypt. He later obtained the support of the July Monarchy, which acquired several of his works. In 1838, he was decorated with the Legion of Honor.[http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/leonore_fr?ACTION=RETROUVER&FIELD_1=NOM&VALUE_1=BIARD&NUMBER=6&GRP=0&REQ=%28%28BIARD%29%20%3aNOM%20%29&USRNAME=nobody&USRPWD=4%24%2534P&SPEC=9&SYN=1&IMLY=&MAX1=1&MAX2=1&MAX3=100&DOM=All Listing] @ the Base Léonore

In 1839, he participated in a scientific expedition, led by Joseph Paul Gaimard, that went to Spitsbergen and Lappland.Catalogue rédigé par Geneviève Lacambre, Le Palais du luxembourg en 1874. He was joined by his fiancée, the writer Léonie d’Aunet, who published an account of the trip in 1854, entitled Voyage d’une femme au Spitzberg.Dictionnaire des artistes de langue française en Amérique du Nord, peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs, Karl David, Ed. Presses de l’Université Laval, Canada, (1992), 1 November 2002, {{ISBN|978-2-7637-7235-6}}, p.83. His sketches served as inspiration for four large panels at the National Museum of Natural History.

File:The Slave Trade by Auguste Francois Biard.jpg

He married Léonie in 1840. Three years later, she became the lover of Victor Hugo. In 1845, she was caught with him, in flagrante delicto, at a hotel. She was arrested for adultery, but Hugo was not tried because the infuriated King Louis Philippe I did not wish the time of the Chamber of Peers.[http://www.samois-sur-seine.fr/rubrique.php?id=207 Le cimetière de Samois - Personnes célèbres et bienfaiteurs enterrés au cimetière du village] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220131015040/https://www.samois-sur-seine.fr/rubrique.php?id=207 |date=2022-01-31 }} to be taken up with a frivolous matter; Biard was bought off by a stunning commission, to make wall paintings for Versailles.The Novel of the Century, The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables by David Bellos Léonie was taken to the Prison Saint-Lazare, served two months and was then placed in a convent for several months more. Hugo was told to leave town. The marriage was nullified in 1855.

Around 1858, he spent two years in Brazil, where he worked at the court of Emperor Pedro II. Using Rio de Janeiro as a base, he made several excursions into the countryside and to the Amazon, where he was one of the first painters to depict the indigenous people. He was offered a teaching position at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, but declined in favor of continuing his travels. Before returning to France, he detoured through North America and painted some scenes depicting slavery. In 1862, his account of his travels in Brazil, with 180 engravings, was published by Hachette under the title Deux années au Brésil.Biard, Auguste François, 1798-1882. [http://www.brasiliana.usp.br/bbd/handle/1918/00285600#page/633/mode/1up Deux années au Brésil] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923194549/http://www.brasiliana.usp.br/bbd/handle/1918/00285600#page/633/mode/1up |date=2015-09-23 }} (collab.: Édouard Riou. Paris : Librairie de L. Hachette et Cie, 1862. Biblioteca Brasiliana Guita e José Mindlin. Universidade de São Paulo.

His paintings of anecdotal subjects were popular with Salon audiences, and he was sometimes criticized for inserting humor in otherwise serious paintings.

Biard died on 20 June 1882, in Samois-sur-Seine.

File:Biard-FightingPolar Bears.jpg|Fighting Polar Bears (1839)

File:QUATRE HEURES, AU SALON.jpg|Four O'Clook at the Salon (1847)

File:Biard Abolition de l'esclavage 1849.jpg|Proclamation of the Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies, 27 April 1848 (1849)

File:François-Auguste Biard - Mal de mer sur une corvette anglaise (1857).jpg|Seasickness at the Ball, on Board an English Corvette (1857)

File:François Auguste Biard - Amazonian Indians Worshiping the Sun God - Google Art Project.jpg|Amazonian Indians
Worshiping the Sun God (c. 1860)

File:Francois-Auguste Biard - Dans le jardin.jpg|In the Garden

File:Francois-Auguste Biard - La Poste Restante.jpg|At the Post Office

File:The Artists Den by Francois Auguste Baird.jpg|The Artist's Den

File:Sudden Squall.jpg|Sudden Squall at Sea (1860s), Oil on canvas, Clark Art Institute

{{reflist}}

• Ana Lucia Araujo, Romantisme tropical: L’Aventure d’un peintre français au Brésil. Québec, Presses de l’Université Laval, 2008.
• Christine Peltre, Dictionnaire culturel de l’orientalisme, Éditions Hazan, 2008, {{ISBN|978-2-7541-0192-9}}
• Barbara C. Matilsky, "François-Auguste Biard : artist-naturalist-explorer", in La Gazette des Beaux-Arts, February 1985.

{{commons category|François-Auguste Biard}}

• {{Cite Men of the Time|name=Biard, Auguste François|pages=117–118}}
• Biard, Auguste François, 1798-1882. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150923194549/http://www.brasiliana.usp.br/bbd/handle/1918/00285600#page/633/mode/1up Deux années au Brésil] (collab.: Riou, Edouard, 1833-1900) . Paris : Librairie de L. Hachette et Cie, 1862. ([https://digital.bbm.usp.br Biblioteca Brasiliana Guita e José Mindlin]; Universidade de São Paulo).
• [http://www.artnet.com/artists/françois-auguste-biard/ More works by Biard] @ ArtNet
• [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/joconde_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_1=AUTR&VALUE_1=BIARD%20Fran%E7ois%20Auguste Works by Biard] @ the Base Joconde
• [https://eclecticlight.co/2017/10/25/the-artist-as-explorer-francois-auguste-biard-1-spitzbergen/ "The Artist as Explorer"] @ The Eclectic Light Company

{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biard, Francois-Auguste}}

Category:1799 births

Category:1882 deaths

Category:19th-century French painters

Category:19th-century French male artists

Category:Painters from Lyon

Category:French expatriates in Brazil

Category:French genre painters

Category:French male painters