Joseph de La Nézière
{{short description|French painter}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Joseph de La Nézière
| image = Joseph de La Neziere photo portrait 1910.png
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Portrait of Joseph de La Nézière, 1910
| native_name =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = 5 August 1873
| birth_place = Bourges, France
| death_date = 15 April 1944
| death_place = Casablanca, Morocco
| resting_place =
| nationality = French
| education = Beaux-Arts Academy
| alma_mater =
| known_for = Painter and illustrator
| notable_works =
| style =
| movement = Orientalist
| spouse =
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}}
Joseph de La Nézière (1873–1944)Akoun 2004 was a French painter noted for painting Orientalist scenes and for his work with the French Colonial Office and its program to reform the arts industries in colonial France.
Biography
Joseph de La Nézière was born in Bourges, France in 1873 and was born into a talented family. His brother, Raymond de La Nézière (1865-1953) became an illustrator.L'Étang, G. and Arsaye, J-P., La Peinture en Martinique, HC, 2007, p.18 His younger brother, Georges de la Nézière was killed in action in the first World War. As a child, Joseph was a very good student and learned piano, violin and Latin-Greek. He studied painting with artist, Alfred Roll, a member of the Beaux-Arts Academy.
La Nézière traveled extensively in North Africa and the Far East and became a well-known Orientalist artist. He was a member of the Geographic Society.
He held various administrative roles with the French Colonial office which had embarked on a sophisticated program to reform the arts industries in colonial France. La Nézière employed many Orientalist painters to assist him and also employed both men and women in equal numbers.Benjamin, R., Orientalist Aesthetics: Art, Colonialism, and French North Africa, 1880-1930, University of California Press, 2003, pp 203-04 In around 1919, he headed a project based in Rabat, Morocco to produce some 300 Oriental rugs under the auspices of the Office des Industries d'Artes Indigenes. Destined for sale on the French market, these rugs were sold immediately and were enormously popular. They became known as the "Middle Atlas" rug.Pouillion, F. and Vatin, J-C. (eds), After Orientalism: Critical Perspectives on Western Agency and Eastern Re-appropriations, BRILL, 2014, p. 225; Benjamin, R., Orientalist Aesthetics: Art, Colonialism, and French North Africa, 1880–1930, University of California Press, 2003, pp 203-04
He was a member French Society of Orientalist Painters and regularly exhibited at their Paris exhibitions.Benjamin, R., Orientalist Aesthetics: Art, Colonialism, and French North Africa, 1880-1930, University of California Press, 2003, p. 204; Jay, M and Ramaswamy, S., Empires of Vision: A Reader, Duke University Press, 2014, p. 128
As the official painter for the French Colonial Office,L'Étang, G. and Arsaye, J-P., La Peinture en Martinique, HC, 2007, p.18 he was commissioned in 1910 to illustrate the stamps for the postal service of French North African colonies. He also created a series of famous posters for the Paris Colonial Exposition of 1931.
In 1943, he returned to France with his student, Henri Marie-Rose, but before long he once again travelled to Morocco where he died on April 15, 1944, in Casablanca, Morocco.L'Étang, G. and Arsaye, J-P., La Peinture en Martinique, HC, 2007, p.23
Work
He has worked as a portrait painter, landscape painter, poster artist, travel journalist in far-off countries, painted dioramas and made postage stamps in France, the Middle East and Africa. He illustrated the book, Siamese Life Scenes, by Louis P. Rivière. He also authored a number of books which were richly illustrated with his artwork. His principal medium was watercolour.
Selected artwork
File:Joseph-de-la-neziere-vue-de-gennevilliers-en-1910.jpg|Vue de Gennevilliers, 1910
File:Korea-Far.East-de.la.neziere-02.jpg|Korea, Far East (lithograph), 1903
File:Gojong-King.of.the.Korean.Empire-1903.jpg|Gojong, King of the Korean Empire, 1903
File:Exposition of Moroccan Art 1917.png|Exposition of Moroccan Art, (poster), 1917
File:Affiche Simplon-Orient-Express Alep.jpg|Simplon-Orient-Express poster
File:Joseph-de-la-neziere-femmes-en-blanc-aux-abords-de-rabat.jpg|Women, wearing white on their way to Rabat, Morocco, painting by La Nézière, 1916
Books
- L'Extrême-Orient en images: Sibérie, Chine, Corée, Japon Paris, 1904
- Les Monuments Mauresques du Maroc, Volume 1, A. Lévy, 1922
- La Décoration Marocaine A. Calavas, 1924
See also
Notes
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Sources
{{commonscat}}
- Akoun 2004, la Cote de l'Amateur publishing, p. 470
- The Globe Trotter, 1912. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=rks2AQAAMAAJ&dq=neziere&pg=RA1-PA92 New Stamps for the French Colonies]", p. 92
- the French Post Museum website, France
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110713180857/http://www.ladressemuseedelaposte.com/Chercheurs/Dossiers_Philateliques/Joseph_de_La_Neziere.htm the French Post Museum website, France]
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Category:19th-century French painters
Category:20th-century French painters
Category:20th-century French male artists
Category:French stamp designers
Category:French Orientalist painters