Auguste TOULMOUCHE
(Nantes, 1829 – Paris, 1890)
Scene from family life in Antiquity
Oil on canvas
Signed and dated 1856 lower left
60 x 80 cm
A student of Charles GLEYRE from 1846, Auguste TOULMOUCHE was one of the most famous painters of the Second Empire, like Alfred STEVENS and CAROLUS-DURAN.
In his early days, in the 1850s, he painted genre paintings inspired by Antiquity and was part of the "Neo-Greek Group" created by Jean-Léon GERÔME, HAMON and PICOU, all three students of DELAROCHE. Following HAMON's example, the world of childhood was one of his favorite subjects. Their spontaneous innocence and curiosity provided TOULMOUCHE with original themes in which the painter could deploy all his imagination to seduce or amuse. This is the case in our painting.
However, he later abandoned the neo-Greek style to turn towards the contemporary world. He was then one of the first painters to compose scenes inspired by the bourgeois life of the Second Empire. He devoted himself in particular to genre scenes, interiors of high society life and female portraits, which made his reputation. He did not hesitate to reuse in his high society paintings motifs previously used in his neo-Greek works. For example, the Maternal Kiss (Salon of 1857, no. 2553) takes up in every point the motif of the seated mother embracing her child in her arms present in the left part of our composition.
TOULMOUCHE exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1848, obtaining a third class medal in 1852, a second class medal in 1861, and a third class medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1878.
He was made a knight of the Legion of Honor in 1870.
He became Claude MONET's cousin by marriage following his marriage in 1861 in Nantes to Marie LECADRE, daughter of a Nantes lawyer. TOULMOUCHE helped MONET during his early years in Paris, in particular by encouraging him to follow the teaching of Charles GLEYRE.
Auguste TOULMOUCHE is buried in the Montparnasse cemetery.
Museums : Beaufort, Béziers, Nantes, New York, Saint Louis…Acquired by the Dobrée Museum