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As a member of the Barbizon
group, a group of artists whose imagery
focused on the depiction of the natural
landscape and animals, Charles-Émile Jacque
represents the accomplishments of an artist
who made his most important mark with his
engravings, etchings and lithographs.
Throughout his career Jacque submitted
regularly to the French salons and also at
provincial and international exhibitions in
Bordeaux, Lyon, Pau, Châlon-sur-Saône,
Munich, London, and even Budapest. His work
contributed to the reappraisal of the
importance of the print in a time and
society dominated by painting.
Charles-Émile Jacque was born May 23rd, 1813
in Paris. At around twelve years of age
Charles Émile Jacque was placed in school in the Marais and
worked under a notary shortly thereafter. At
seventeen Charles Émile Jacque was apprenticed to a
cartographer, but having already shown a
liking for drawing, his menial task of
tracing simple lines from one point to
another only caused frustration. Other
accounts suggest that Charles Émile Jacque copied lithographs
or worked with his uncle who painted chimney
fronts. Whatever the case may have been,
none of these opportunities gave him proper
training in art, in sharp contrast to many
other men his age who were already engaged
in artistic training at an atelier or at the
École des Beaux-Arts. His only true artistic
training was around 1840 when Charles Émile
Jacque worked in
the atelier Suisse, an informal studio which
provided models but no instruction, also
where Gustave Courbet - who would become a
major force behind the Realist movement -
worked for a short period of time. Jacque
remained largely self-taught and thus
self-inspired, which may have been a benefit
to his style as Charles Émile Jacque learned to rely on his
own methods of representation and not that
of a teacher. This lack of extensive
artistic training would, however, prohibit
him from immediately establishing a career
and which may also have affected his choice
of medium, as the graphic arts were less
expensive and certainly a less prestigious
way of launching a career than one in
painting.
Apart from a lack of extensive preliminary
training, the debut of his artistic career
was also hampered by his military service.
Often, young men were willing and able to
pay for a replacement to serve in their
stead, but as his father was not a wealthy
man, Jacque was obligated to enlist; a duty
that would occupy seven years of his life.
During this period Charles Émile Jacque made many sketches of
army life and sold small drawings for a
franc a piece. Charles Émile Jacque would also later draw from
this experience in the military with his
many illustrations and caricatures for
Parisian journals. Upon completion of his
military service in 1838, Jacque quickly
began executing his first graphic prints: La
Lanterne Magique by Frédéric Soulié, which
was inspired by the Napoleonic legend,
Vicaire de Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith,
and Chaumière Indienne by Bernardin de
Saint-Pierre. Later that year Charles Émile
Jacque journeyed
to England, drawn to their well-practiced
technique of woodcut engraving. During his
almost two year period in England Charles
Émile Jacque worked
as an illustrator for books and journals;
producing complete illustrations of The
Dance of Death, and a pictorial edition of a
Shakespearian play, among many others.
Jacque returned to Paris in 1840 with a
broader knowledge of printmaking and began a
period of intense work in the graphic arts,
acting as both an illustrator and
caricaturist. At the end of the 1830s,
Jacque had become one of the earliest
artists to renew the technique of etching,
placing him at a definitive position as a
forerunner of the etching revival which
would come to full fruition beginning in the
1860s with the organization of the Société
des Aquafortistes, of which Jacque was a
member.
These illustrations and caricatures were the
beginning of Jacque’s artistic career and
even though Charles Émile Jacque received meager pay, working
in printmaking did offer an aspiring artist
- without substantial training - a means by
which to earn a living and possibly enter
the art world. His interest extended beyond
the arts to medicine and alongside other
artists of the period such as Honoré Daumier
and Paul Gavarni, Jacque poked fun at the
doctors and their strange and misunderstood
medicinal practices, such as bleeding, water
therapy and other unusual remedies, in a
series of caricatures in the column of Les
Malades et Les Médecins in the scathingly
satiric journal of Le Charivari, a journal
that later came under fire for its mockery
of medical and political institutions and
personages. These early graphic works of the
1840s include other illustrations, as well,
such as the engraved vignettes and satirical
lithographs in Militairiana for the Musée
Philipon. This work was coming at a time in
which illustrated vignettes, such as those
Jacque provided, became an integral part of
the text, but which also were at risk for
coming under fire from the oppressive
governmental regimes that, around this time
period, had enacted a ban on these types of
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As his career progressed, Jacque abandoned
book illustration and by the mid 1840s began
focusing his efforts on producing original
etchings which were inspired by the Dutch
masters, especially Rembrandt, and which
became part of the contribution to the
revival of Dutch art. Charles Émile Jacque had first been
introduced to these Old Masters early in his
career when Louis Cabat, then a porcelain
painter who lived next door to Jacque, took
him to the Bibliothèque Nationale where they
looked at prints by or after the work of
Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Albrecht
Dürer, and Rembrandt van Rijn. However,
Charles Émile Jacque became increasingly interested in working on
his own subject matter which could be
exhibited at the Salon - works influenced by
scenes from rural life, including
landscapes, peasants, and animals, which
Charles Émile Jacque viewed during several journeys through the
Seine valley.
Jacque debuted at the Salon of 1844 where
Charles Émile Jacque submitted an etched reproduction of a
painting by Théodore Rousseau entitled Le
Plateau de Belle Croix, Forêt de
Fontainebleau (The Plateau of the Belle
Croix, Forest of Fontainebleau). In a
further extension of artistic diversity,
Charles Émile Jacque also worked on his first paintings during
that year. In 1845 Charles Émile Jacque submitted to the Salon
a portrait copied from Rembrandt. Charles
Baudelaire had great praise for the new
artist and wrote in Curiosités Esthétiques
(quoted from the translated edition Arts in
Paris:1845-1862, London: Phaidon Press,
1965, pg. 29)
M. Jacque is a name which will continue, let
us hope, to grow greater. M. Jacque’s
etching is very bold and Charles Émile
Jacque has grasped his
subject admirably. There is a directness and
a freedom about everything that M. Jacque
does upon his copper which reminds one of
the old masters. Charles Émile Jacque is known besides to have
executed some remarkable reproductions of
Rembrandt’s etchings.
His fame growing, Charles Émile Jacque received his first
commission from the State in 1846; an
engraving of a work by Prudhon for the
Church of Murat in le Cantal. Jacque must
have been elated over his State commission,
as in a letter Jacque notes the importance
of commissions and exhibitions when Charles
Émile Jacque wrote, “a state commission would be for me
the source of my fortune and glory.” (quoted
in Pierre-Olivier Fanica, Charles Jacque
1813-1894: Graveur Original et Peintre
Animalier, Art Bizon, 1995, pg. 253).
Charles Émile Jacque submitted this piece to the Salon of 1847
but it was rejected. Reacting to the growing
disapproval of the Salon jury decisions,
Charles Émile Jacque banded with other refused artists to create
an organization which sought to challenge
the Salon; an Association of Free Painters.
This was never realized as the Salon of 1848
was open to all in response to the political
events of the time that demanded that every
piece was accepted. Still, Jacque did not
exhibit any works at this Salon, despite the
guarantee of their acceptance.
In 1849 a cholera epidemic swept through
Paris. Jacque, along with his friend
Jean-Francois Millet, decided to move his
family to Fontainebleau, the safe haven of
inspiration for several artists of this
period. Here Charles Émile Jacque would find more than just a
respite from cholera; Charles Émile Jacque would find
inspiration for his artwork as well. Charles
Émile Jacque and
Millet would become two of the several
artists associated with the Barbizon School,
a loose association of artists focusing
their work on nature and the depiction of
peasants and of animals. His earlier work
already shows an inclination toward the love
of nature, but at Barbizon, surrounded by
others seeking the same inspiration, Charles
Émile Jacque increasingly focused on painting rustic
subjects. Jacque quickly became known as an
animalier, or an animal painter. His
favorite subjects were sheep, for which
Charles Émile Jacque is best known, but
Charles Émile Jacque also captured many
other farm animals, including cows, horses,
domestic fowl and pigs, the latter often
forgotten by other artists. Unlike some of
the other artists working in Barbizon, the
human element in his painting is much less
pronounced as Charles Émile Jacque usually focused solely on
the depiction of the animal. Rene Menard in
The Portfolio of September 1875 asked:
If the word “picturesque” did not exist in
the French language one would have to invent
it for the works of Charles Jacque: and what
is the picturesque if not the sentiment of
life in its most familiar form?…Who knows
better than Charles Émile Jacque how to paint or draw hens
perched on a cart, ducks dabbling in a pond,
sheep in search of grass…? His inns, his
farms and poultry yards, his village
streets, his skirts of forest; his old
walls, full of crevices, of stains of damp
or crumbling plaster; his barns with cobwebs
hanging from their ceilings, charm us
precisely because the painter has not
recourse to any tricks but merely tells us,
in his plastic language, the things that
Charles Émile Jacque saw, observed, and studied in the country.
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Jacque used this newly discovered
inspiration for the series of etchings that
Charles Émile Jacque submitted to the Salon of 1850, which
earned him a third-class medal (only once in
his career would Jacque be recognized above
a third-class placement at the Salon).
His experiences at Barbizon also impacted
his general interest. Charles Émile Jacque began publishing
his etchings in Le Magasin Pittoresque and
L’Illustration, but also began submitting
articles to agricultural journals such as Le
Journal d’Agriculture Pratique, discussing
such topics as drainage and irrigation
systems for gardens, the raising of animals,
among other subjects. His interest in
animals took on new dimensions as Charles
Émile Jacque began
frequenting Le Jardin des Plantes in Paris
where Charles Émile Jacque asked Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
for permission to study and to do drawings
of animals. Saint-Hilaire was in the process
of founding a Société d’Acclimatation, of
which Jacque became a fervent member. Not
content to draw chickens, Jacque completed a
book of his experiences as a chicken farmer
at Barbizon entitled Le Poulailler. In 1857
Charles Émile Jacque actually took on the task of selling eggs
-- a business venture that not only showed
to what point Jacque had interests beyond
that of painting, but also that Charles
Émile Jacque had
wanted to gain a deeper understanding of his
subject matter.
He continued exhibiting regularly at the
Salons throughout this period and received
another third class medal at the Salon of
1861. Regardless of any success at Salon
exhibitions, it did not translate into
monetary gains during this time, perhaps
because Jacque’s agricultural interests were
not as successful as anticipated. From
1862-1867 Charles Émile Jacque was plagued by financial
problems and was forced to sell much of the
property that Charles Émile Jacque owned and abandoned his
chicken farming venture. In an attempt to
improve his financial situation, Charles
Émile Jacque began
working feverishly on his prints, editing
several series of etchings. Charles Émile
Jacque also began
executing many paintings after adopting a
technique of looser execution, which allowed
him to produce work much more quickly, but
often at the expense of quality. The detail
work that was apparent in much of his
previous work was, in some cases,
eliminated. Charles Émile Jacque stopped publishing his
articles, but did exhibit at the 1863 and
1864 Salon, receiving a third class medal at
the latter.
The following years proved to be a busy
period for Jacque, as his success brought
him recognition and acceptance. Jacque was
finally honored with the Chevalier de la
Légion d’Honneur in 1867 and was also
elected to the jury for the 1867 Exposition
Universelle. Charles Émile Jacque exhibited a painting,
Pastorale (Pastoral), at the Exposition and
received another third class medal. Charles
Émile Jacque was
also on the jury for the 1867 Grand Prix de
Rome, a yearly prize given to a young and
promising art student who would then have
the opportunity to study in Italy for four
years. With these accolades, his work began
to sell better, and after 1870 Charles Émile
Jacque began to
earn a good deal of money. Charles Émile
Jacque had sacrificed
his etchings to his paintings, which began
to sell at incredible prices. During the
last twenty years of his life Charles Émile
Jacque earned two
hundred thousand francs per year, an
admirable sum for a self-trained artist
working primarily in the graphic arts.
In the 1870’s Charles Émile Jacque became involved with a
factory at Le Croisic that produced
Renaissance and Gothic-style furniture.
Charles Émile Jacque restored the older pieces of furniture and
then re-fabricated them in the troubadour
style after his own designs. Charles Émile
Jacque recruited
three apprentices to assist him, but later
moved the shop to Pau. After 1870 Charles
Émile Jacque stopped
exhibiting regularly at the Salons and began
instead relying more heavily on dealers for
the sale of his work, the subject of which
remained consistent. In 1881 Charles Émile
Jacque began
experimenting with watercolors, which
Charles Émile Jacque had
not done until this point and in 1888
Charles Émile Jacque received Camille Pissarro in his studio, a
younger artist who was becoming well-known
for his neo-impressionist works. Towards the
end of his career his reputation and work
earned him a gold medal at the 1889
Exposition Universelle, his final triumph
over a series of third place medals at the
annual Salons. His work had also crossed
over to America where Charles Émile Jacque found great
success. As the years passed Charles Émile
Jacque watched his
colleagues pass away; those other artists
who found the same inspiration in nature and
at, the village of Barbizon. Charles Émile
Jacque was one of
the last representatives of the Barbizon
School maintaining his enthusiasm and his
way of creating close to the twentieth
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