Joseph VIVIEN
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Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800 Online edition VIVIEN, Joseph A second marriage took place in 1693, to the place through the comtesse, but it seems likely Lyon bpt 30.III.1657 – Bonn 5.XII.1734 28-year-old Martine Lestoffé or Létoffé from that the comte d’Albert, Mme de Verrue’s Vivien was born into a Lyon family of négociants Reims (Saint-Germain-Vaux; transcribed Fichier brother, was involved (he played an important teinturiers, a profession that would be pursued by Laborde): role in developing the Kurfürst’s collection of his brother Pierre-François Vivien (1666–1734) Du samedy trente en unieseme Janvier 1693 Joseph French art). According to the extensive Latin at the Gobelins, while another brother, Jacques, Vivien, aagé de trente six ans ou environ, peintre, inscription, Max Emanuel – Alexander to was reçu sculpteur sur bois 1683 by the veuf de Catherine Aumont d’une part; et Martine Vivien’s Apelles – was also instrumental in Académie de Saint-Luc. (He was paid 174 livres Lestoffé, aagée de vingt-huit ans, fille de Jean commissioning the 1699 self-portrait sent to Lestoffé, huissier à Reims, touts deux de cette on 7.XI.1700 by the Bâtiments du roi for the Cosimo III, granduca di Toscana (father-in-law paroisse, sur le quay de l’escole, fiancés et mariés en of Max Emanuel’s sister, Violanta Beatrix) for frames on three portraits of the royal princes by mesme temps, par permission de Monseigneur his brother. Jacques Vivien also worked for the l’archeveque de Paris, en dispense de deux bans, en the collection in the Uffizi. The author abbé duchesse de Nemours, and was owed 1629 presence de … bourgeois, officier de la Reine, Jean-Baptiste Dubos (1670–1740), writing from livres on her death in 1707 (MC VIII/879, …prêtre, bourgeois de Paris. Brussels to another savant, Nicolas Thoynard, 28.IX.1699 (Lettres autographes de la collection de 20.I.1708.) Vivien’s father Pierre was a On 27.I.1693, an inventaire après décès was Troussures, Beauvais, 1912, p. 105), reported– marchand and receveur du domaine du roi in carried out on his first wife’s estate (MC Lyon, while his cousin Claude Josserand, maître XXVIII/19): this indicates that in addition to Vous diré a monsieur Le Maistre que son bon ami tireur d’or, made a complicated will in 1703 Marie-Suzanne, aged 3 (the only child to outlive monsieur Vivien le salue. Il fait ici des merveilles et concerning the hospitals for the poor in the him), there was a 10-year-old son, Michel- ses ouvrages isont goutés et applaudis autant quils le town, owned originally it seems by their méritent. Lelecteur lui a demandé son portrait pour Joseph, who presumably was the son who lenvoier au grand duc et le faire placer dans la galerie grandfather (perhaps Jean Vivien and worth (according to Ratouis de Limay, not confirmed ou ce prince tient ceux de tous les peintres illustres. some 3000 livres to each of his heirs. This led to by other sources) became a pastellist, but died at Ce portrait est fait et le peintre i a réusssi au dela de litigation about the respective interests, decided the age of 30. The document suggests that limagination. in 1717 (Archives de la Charité de Lyon). Vivien’s first marriage took place much earlier Another of Max Emanuel’s sisters, Maria In 1672 Vivien was enrolled as a pupil at the than normally suggested. On 23.X.1715, he Anna Christine, was married to the Grand Académie royale under the virtually unknown leased a “boutique et dépendance” on the rue Dauphin, and five portraits of him and his painter François Bonnemer (1638–1689). He Saint-Honoré for 5 years 9 months at 700 livres family followed (now in Schleißheim with three obtained the second prix de Rome in 1678 with p.a. (MC VII/209); this was probably the same replicas in the Louvre). Vivien was reçu at the a lost L’Expulsion d’Adam et Eve, and three years address as appears in the document of Académie royale in 1701, and two years later later he became a maître peintre. It appears that, 30.VI.1697 cited above (but perhaps this was the was promoted to the level of conseiller, the advised by Charles Le Brun (whom several logement “occupé présentement à Paris, rue highest level open to a portraitist. The accounts sources name as his teacher, following the Saint-Honoré, par le sieur Vivien, peintre” of the Bâtiments du roi show numerous Mercure de France obituary), he specialised in granted by brevet of 20.IX.1715 to Louis payments to him: 12.IX.1700, “à Vivien, peintre, portraiture, but virtually nothing is known of his Courtomer, secrétaire des Bâtiments du roi: pour trois portraits de Messeigneurs les Princes, career over the next twenty years. It may have Newton 2020, p. 2422). Vivien was recorded as qu’il a faits en pastel pour le service du Roy, en included religious altarpieces, such as the living in the cloître Saint-Marcel, 1723; rue XII er 1700, 1200 livres”; 17. .1702, “au sieur Vivien, “tableau votif annuel offert le 1 Mai à la Sainte d’Orléans, 1726; hôtel des Gobelins from 1730 peintre, pour un portrait qu’il a fait en pastel, Vierge par la Confrairie royale de Sainte-Anne et until his death. He was godfather to the repésentant Monseigneur, 500 livres”; 5.IX.1706 Saint-Marcel” for which the commission (400 daughter of a Thomas Guerinot, maître tondeur, “au Sr Vivien, peintre en pastel, par gratification, livres, half on account) is recorded (MC at Saint-Hippolyte, 19.X.1721, when he gave his pour son logement pendant l’année 1705, 200 XXIV/516, 30.VI.1697). He evidently met with titles as “peintre du Roy et de son altesse royalle livres.”, with the same payment a year later, little success, financially at least: when his first duc de Pologne.” Four years later, at the same 10.VII.1707. wife, Catherine Aumont, died in 1690, she was church, he was again parain, to his niece, At the Salon of 1704 Vivien showed an given a pauper’s burial at Saint-Gervais. This daughter of Pierre-François Vivien, a teinturier; astonishing group of 24 portraits. These followed the birth of a daughter, recorded in the this time he appeared as “peintre ordinaire du included not only the princely portraits (in parish registers of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois Roy en la maison royalle des goblins”. In 1734 which the compositions are dominated by (transcribed Fichier Laborde): he used the same description at that brother’s elaborate, full-bottomed wigs) evidencing the Le Lundy 11 Février 1690, fut baptizée Marie funeral (all transcribed Fichier Laborde). The technical brilliance for which he is known today, Suzanne, fille de Joseph Vivien, peintre du roy, et de same church buried his widow in 1742; she was but also a second group of a dozen pastels Catherine Aumont, sa femme, dans la cloistre de still living at the hôtel des Gobelins. showing a quieter side to his genius: portraits of cette Eglise. Le parrain: Mre Jean de Marcelly, Vivien was recorded as working for the fellow artists and their wives. Only three of secretaire des commandements de Madame la Bâtiments du roi from 1696, and he was agréé by duchesse d’Orléans [?]; la maraine: Antoinette Vivien these have so far surfaced: those of Silvestre fille de feu Pierre Vivien, vivant receveur du domaine the Académie royale in 1698 (when the Procès- (presumably Louis le jeune) and his wife, and a du roy. L’Enfant fut née le 8 du pnt mois. verbaux described him as “le sr Joseph Vivien, de more recently discovered pastel of Jacques Lion, Peintre en portraicts de pastèle”); three It must have been before this time that Thuret, horloger du roi. Wigs are banished, years later he presented as his morceaux de Vivien decided to take up pastel, perhaps as a replaced by simple turbans; harmonious colour réception the pastel portraits of Girardon and means of distinguish himself from rival and simpler compositions contribute to a more de Cotte, in place of the requested Coysevox. By portraitists such as Rigaud, Largillierre and de intimate effect. The Thuret and Silvestre this time his style was fully developed, and his Troy. Following the death of Nanteuil in 1678 families were intimately connected with the reputation secure. Writing of the 1699 salon, in the medium was used only by a handful of Berain (Vivien’s portrait of Jean I was engraved which Edelinck exhibited some engravings after artists whose work is now completely unknown. by Duflos and Suzanne Silvestre, published by Vivien, the critic Florent Le Comte called him He was listed as “M. Vivier, quai de l’Ecole” Thuret) and Hérault dynasties (and thereby the “Vandick du siècle pour le pastel”, while among three pastellists practising in Paris in linked to Coypel and Le Moyne as well as minor explaining that he drew his methods from oil 1692 (along with Verselin and a certain pastellists such as Barrère and Marteau). These painting. Desgranges; du Pradel 1692). His portrait of the families also held important offices as His links with Max Emanuel von Bayern, to surgeon Meurisse, known only from an draughtsmen and teachers to the French royal whom he became court painter, had been engraving by Simonneau, is said to be his family. formed by 1698, when the Kurfürst was in earliest recorded pastel, an (unsafe) inference Vivien’s contacts with the French art world Brussels, and engaged Vivien to make pastels of from the legend “J.