Georges Michel (Kunst)

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Georges Michel (1763-1843) was a naturalistic landscape painter known alternatively as the “Pioneer of Naturalism” and the “Ruysdael of Montmartre.” As a forerunner of the Barbizon School, Michel had a great impact upon the art of Jules Dupre and Charles Jacque, as these artists purchased many of his works in 1841. His best works can be distinguished by their free application of paint with broad brushstrokes and demonstrate his signature use of light.

Michel made a modest living by imitating the style of the Dutch and Flemish landscape painters that were in fashion at court in the pre-Revolution days. In his later work, he broadened his brushwork, seeking a mode of expression for his own passionate response to nature while remaining faithful to the muted browns and grays of his preceptors.

Michel always painted within a small area limited to the surroundings of Paris. He executed small plein-aire studies which were then used as preliminaries for paintings worked up in the studio. His paintings are dramatic with tension accented by the heaviness of the skies and the contrasts of light and dark. The visual metaphor of Man being confronted by the immensity of nature and its forces produces a mood of unrest.

In 1808, Michel opened his own teaching atelier and enjoyed success in the Salon of 1810. However, for the rest of his life he preferred to live and paint quietly in the country, selling virtually all of his work to a single patron, the Baron d’Ivry. Although little recognition was gained during his lifetime, Michel’s paintings are now featured in many of the world’s finest museums, and he is recognized today by critics as crucial to the evolution of landscape painting.
•Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
•The Louvre, Paris
•National Gallery, Berlin, Germany
•Museum of Fine Art, Bordeaux, France
•Hermitage Museum, Leningrad
•Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England
•Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
•Boyams and Van Beunigen Museum, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
•Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida
•Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio
•Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York
•Regional French museums of Amiens, Bayeux, Bezieres, Brest, Chartres, Montreal and Strasbourg.
•National Gallery, Berlin, Germany
•Museum of Fine Art, Bordeaux, France
•Salvador Dali Museum, Cleveland, OH
•Columbus Museum of Art, OH
•National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Great Britain
•Hendrik Willem Mesdag National Museum, Hague, Netherlands
•Museum of Pictorial Art, Leipzig, Germany
•Hermitage Museum, Leningrad
•Johnson Gallery, Middlebury, VT
•Merrick Art Gallery, New Brighton, PA
•Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA
•Snite Museum of Art at University of Notre Dame, IN
•Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, OH
•Paine Art Center, Oshkosh, WI
•Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Great Britain
•John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia, PA
•Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
•Boyams and Van Beunigen Museum, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
•Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL
•Toledo Museum of Art, OH
•Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY
•The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Louvre, Paris,France
•The regional French museums of Amiens, Bayeux, Bezieres, Brest, Chartres, Montreal and Strasbourg
http://galeriemichael.com/artists/michel-georges-2/