Joseph BEAUME
 (Marseille, 1796 – Paris, 1885)

 Souvenir from Italy: pifferaro playing the zampogna with his family

 Oil on canvas
 Signed lower left
 73.5 x 60 cm

 Provenance :
  
 Probably lot 11 from the sale of March 20, 1860 – Hôtel Drouot

 Initially a private student of Augustin Aubert (1781-1857) in Marseille, Joseph Beaume completed his training in the studio of Gros (1771-1835) after entering the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

 He worked in historical painting and in particular produced several battle scenes commissioned by the Ministry of the King's House, religious painting, genre painting and more episodically in portraiture. He also practiced engraving and lithography.

 Debuting in Paris at the Salon of 1819, he exhibited there continuously for almost 60 years until 1878. Joseph Beaume was awarded a second class medal in 1824 and a first class medal in 1828.
 He also exhibited regularly in his hometown of Marseille from 1816 and in the surrounding area (Montpellier, Toulouse) but also further north at the Douai Salon.

 Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1836.

 Museums : Antibes, Rouen, Avignon, Marseille, Paris (Louvre Museum), Morez…

 Stylistically and in terms of inspiration, this painting brings Joseph Beaume closer to his contemporary Léopold Robert (1794-1835) or even to Pierre Duval Le Camus (1790-1854), like the painting presented at the Louvre and entitled A Pifferaro Giving a Lesson to His Son.
 This Italian theme was in the spotlight in French painting from the 1820s with Léopold Robert in particular and was treated until the 1860s with Jean Léon Gérôme.