Pierre Emmanuel Damoye
Encyclopedia
Pierre Emmanuel Damoye was French artist born in Paris on February 20, 1847. He studied his craft at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
and went on to become a renown and influential landscape artist noted for his sweeping skies, tree studded-plains, and vibrant farmlands. He was regularly recognized by a broad range of art critics as one of the most significant heirs to the Barbizon school
tradition.
, one of the foremost figure painters and portraitists of the late nineteenth-century. Damoye, however, seems to have committed himself to landscape art from the beginning of his career. His earliest dated works from the late 1860s also clearly reveal the influence of both Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
and Charles-François Daubigny
, from whom he acquired both a brighter range of colors and a looser, more ‘impressionist’ brush style. And, although he was cognizant of the example of Corot and Daubigny, he built his repertoire of compositions and favored sites quite independently of the two ‘old masters’ of river landscape, thus developing a very personalized color scheme.
He is also one of the principal artists associated with the ‘school of Pontoise’, a group of young landscapists who painted primarily along the riverbanks of the Seine and Oise Rivers, north of Paris, often establishing homes in Pontoise. He also painted the river banks and upland plateaus of the Oise and Seine basins, worked frequently in Picardy and throughout the great Loire valley. He also made at least one trip to the Normandy coast.
in Paris, along with Frédéric Chopin, Marcel Marceau, Molière, Jim Morrison, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, as well as fellow artists Eugène Delacroix, Max Ernst, Camille Pissarro, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jacques-Louis David, Georges-Pierre Seurat.
Damoye’s works can be seen in the Musée du Louvre, Paris; Musée d’Orsay, Paris; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Troyes, France; and the National Museum of Art, Bucharest, Romania; Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki. Given his skill and status among 19th Century artists, his works have also been highly sought by private collectors, resulting in an impressive record of successful auction transactions, including Christie’s (New York, $30,000), Osenat (Paris, $11,470), Sotheby’s (New York, $10,800), Beaussant Lefevre (Paris, $10,230), among others.
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
and went on to become a renown and influential landscape artist noted for his sweeping skies, tree studded-plains, and vibrant farmlands. He was regularly recognized by a broad range of art critics as one of the most significant heirs to the Barbizon school
Barbizon school
The Barbizon school of painters were part of a movement towards realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870...
tradition.
Teachers & Influences
Damoye studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in the studio of Léon BonnatLéon Bonnat
Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat was a French painter.He was born in Bayonne, but from 1846 to 1853 he lived in Madrid, where his father owned a bookshop. While tending his father's shop, he copied engravings of works by the Old Masters, developing a passion for drawing...
, one of the foremost figure painters and portraitists of the late nineteenth-century. Damoye, however, seems to have committed himself to landscape art from the beginning of his career. His earliest dated works from the late 1860s also clearly reveal the influence of both Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was a French landscape painter and printmaker in etching. Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid-nineteenth century...
and Charles-François Daubigny
Charles-François Daubigny
Charles-François Daubigny was one of the painters of the Barbizon school, and is considered an important precursor of Impressionism....
, from whom he acquired both a brighter range of colors and a looser, more ‘impressionist’ brush style. And, although he was cognizant of the example of Corot and Daubigny, he built his repertoire of compositions and favored sites quite independently of the two ‘old masters’ of river landscape, thus developing a very personalized color scheme.
He is also one of the principal artists associated with the ‘school of Pontoise’, a group of young landscapists who painted primarily along the riverbanks of the Seine and Oise Rivers, north of Paris, often establishing homes in Pontoise. He also painted the river banks and upland plateaus of the Oise and Seine basins, worked frequently in Picardy and throughout the great Loire valley. He also made at least one trip to the Normandy coast.
Exhibitions & Recognition
Damoye began to exhibit at the Salon of 1875 with a landscape titled L’hiver, and by 1879 he had won his first medal, a bronze or third class honor, beginning an unusually rapid rise for a landscape painter. In 1884 he received a second class medal, followed by a very prestigious gold medal at the grand, centennial Exposition Universelle of 1889. He was inducted into the Légion d’honneur in 1893 and became a member of the Salon jury in 1900. Despite such official recognition, however, Damoye was instrumental in forming the break-away Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, a rival exhibition association, and he continued to be associated with the ‘Salon du Champ-de-Mars’ until his death in 1916.Death & Legacy
Pierre Emmanuel Damoye died in 1916 and is buried in the famous Père Lachaise CemeteryPère Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France , though there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement, and is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the...
in Paris, along with Frédéric Chopin, Marcel Marceau, Molière, Jim Morrison, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, as well as fellow artists Eugène Delacroix, Max Ernst, Camille Pissarro, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jacques-Louis David, Georges-Pierre Seurat.
Damoye’s works can be seen in the Musée du Louvre, Paris; Musée d’Orsay, Paris; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Troyes, France; and the National Museum of Art, Bucharest, Romania; Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki. Given his skill and status among 19th Century artists, his works have also been highly sought by private collectors, resulting in an impressive record of successful auction transactions, including Christie’s (New York, $30,000), Osenat (Paris, $11,470), Sotheby’s (New York, $10,800), Beaussant Lefevre (Paris, $10,230), among others.