Léon Bazile Perrault artist, paintings, biography

Léon Bazile Perrault Biography

French Academic Classical painter
born 1832 - died 1908

Also known as: Leon Jean Basile Perrault.

Student of: William Bouguereau (1825-1905)

Léon-Jean-Bazille Perrault was a mid-nineteenth century artist who preoccupied himself with the treatment of subjects that reinforced the affluent bourgeoisie in their desire to have beautiful paintings adorning their homes. Inspired by his teachers, François-Édouard Picot and William-Adolphe Bouguereau, master painters of the academic style of the nineteenth-century, Perrault continued emphasizing mythology and idealization found in their compositions, in his own paintings. In following these two painters, Léon Bazile Perrault was also showing his reverence for eighteenth century artists such as Jean-Antoine Watteau and François Boucher who also idealized their subjects.

Léon-Bazille Perrault was born June 20th, 1832 in Poitiers, a town southwest of Paris.

His earliest training was under François-Édouard Picot, but later studied under his friend William-Adolphe Bouguereau. While many highlight the fact that Perrault was a student of Bouguereau, this may have been more so on a basis of their amicable relationship as in the majority of his Salon entries, Léon Bazile Perrault lists Picot as his master. Perrault may have worked alongside Bouguereau and been inspired by him, but Picot was his formal teacher.

Perrault’s public career began during the period of the Second Empire, a time heavily influenced by the trauma of the 1848 social and political uprising which saw the July Monarchy and the despotic leader Louis-Philippe driven from power. In consequence, the bourgeois public sought freedom in paintings that displayed a frivolous sense of beauty, offering them some respite from the tumultuous past.
Léon Bazile Perrault paintings satisfied this public craving for delicate compositions, and they often focused on mythological scenes, but also children, girl bodys, some genre scene paintings, and even military scene paintings. But Perrault found fame with those paintings that showed a delicate and idealized version of life, exactly those paintings which found a large audience. In appealing to the bourgeoisie, Perrault was providing subject matter that was also very popular with Salon jurors.- history of Léon Bazile Perrault large oil painting- history of Léon Bazile Perrault oil painting – Léon Bazile Perrault Bio by large oil paintingof history of large oil painting France, large oil paintings Perrault.

Léon-Jean-Bazille Perrault was a mid-nineteenth century artist who preoccupied himself with the treatment of subjects that reinforced the affluent bourgeoisie in their desire to have beautiful pictures adorning their homes. Inspired by his teachers, François-Édouard Picot and William-Adolphe Bouguereau, master painters of the academic style of the nineteenth-century, Léon Bazile Perrault continued emphasizing mythology and idealization found in their compositions, in his own paintings. In following these two painters, Perrault was also showing his reverence for eighteenth century artists such as Jean-Antoine Watteau and François Boucher who also idealized their subjects.

…a polished French gentleman…suave and affable in his manner, tall and vigorous, a serious worker. An extraordinarily rapid talker, his words seem to tumble over each other in their frantic haste to get out…his studio is richly and picturesquely furnished, after the usual luxurious manner of successful Parisian artists. It is, however, nor place of leisure, for Léon Bazile Perrault is one of those modern artists who do their ten hours a day of hard work. Léon Bazile Perrault was the air of a well-to-do, practical man of the world

His earliest training was under François-Édouard Picot, but later studied under his friend William-Adolphe Bouguereau. While many highlight the fact that Léon Bazile Perrault was a student of Bouguereau, this may have been more so on a basis of their amicable relationship as in the majority of his Salon entries, Perrault lists Picot as his master. Perrault may have worked alongside Bouguereau and been inspired by him, but Picot was his formal teacher.

Perrault’s public career began during the period of the Second Empire, a time heavily influenced by the trauma of the 1848 social and political uprising which saw the July Monarchy and the despotic leader Louis-Philippe driven from power. In consequence, the bourgeois public sought freedom in paintings that displayed a frivolous sense of beauty, offering them some respite from the tumultuous past. Henri Marcel in La Peinture Française au XIXeme Siècle (Paris: A. Picard & Kaan, 1910, pg. 237) wrote of this period and the increase in the interest in paintings such as produced by Léon Bazile Perrault, Bouguereau, Cabanel, and others, that :
The Second Empire saw the birth or development of what is conveniently called the “painting of style”…The expansion of the intellectual culture, curiosity and emulation developed by the multiplication of the methods of transport, the diffusion of luxury in the environment enriched by the progress of industry and of exchanges, had created for everything that touched art a large clientele, looking more towards delectations of their eyes than to cultivate their minds.- history of Léon Bazile Perrault large oil painting- history of Léon Bazile Perrault oil painting – Léon Bazile Perrault Bio by large oil paintingof history of large oil painting France, large oil paintings Perrault.

Perrault’s images satisfied this public craving for delicate compositions, and they often focused on mythological scenes, but also children, girl bodys, some genre scenes, and even military scenes. But Léon Bazile Perrault found fame with those pictures that showed a delicate and idealized version of life, exactly those pictures which found a large audience. In appealing to the bourgeoisie, Perrault was providing subject matter that was also very popular with Salon jurors.

He made his debut at the Salon of 1861 with Le Vieillard et les Trois Jeunes Hommes (The Old Man and the Three Young Men). In 1864 Léon Bazile Perrault was given his first recompense for his painting, an honorable mention for La Frayeur (The Fright). Léon Bazile Perrault also earned a second-class medal in 1876 for St. Jean le Précurseur (Saint John the Precursor) and L’Oracle des Champs; -idylle (The Oracles of the Fields-Idyll). Each of these paintings appealed to the aesthetic sensibility of the Second Empire public.

Another important element of Perrault’s work was his vision of children, portraying them with an angelic touch of softness. In The Century article entitled “The Child in Art: Perrault’s Le Reveil d’Amour” (Vol. 46 (6) pg. A2), in which the author wrote of Perrault that:

…it is not extravagant to add that no painter of children, from the time of Albano to the present day, has more perfectly rendered the inner structure and subtle modeling of surface, the peculiar quality and graceful action of a child, in perfect physical beauty and health; and all artists know that children are the most difficult of subjects.

Whether Perrault’s young models were depicted playing a game, positioned against a background of flowers, or placed within a mythological story and setting, they all exude qualities of innocence and childish beauty. Philip Hook further explains this interest in these types of images (Popular 19th Century Genre Painters: a dictionary of European genre Painters, Woodbridge: Antique Collector’s Club, 1986, pg. 171-172):

The roots of this sort of sentimental painting of the child are to be found in the late eighteenth century…During the nineteenth century, popular attitudes to children crystallized into various stereotypes: innocence; the microcosm of adulthood; vulnerability; endearing naughtiness.- history of Léon Bazile Perrault large oil painting- history of Léon Bazile Perrault oil painting – Léon Bazile Perrault Bio by large oil paintingof history of large oil painting France, large oil paintings Perrault.

In addition, his focus on children, who Léon Bazile Perrault saw as innocent and charming, appealed to the growing cult of childhood that saw children not as miniature adults but as beings with their own characteristics.

List of Famous Paintings by Léon Bazile Perrault