Joseph Beaume (1796–1885) - Souvenir from Italy

Joseph BEAUME
(Marseille, 1796 – Paris, 1885)

Souvenir from Italy: pifferaro playing the zampogna with the family

Oil on canvas
Signed lower left
73.5 x 60cm

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

First 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 School of Fine Arts in Paris.

He works in history painting and in particular creates several battle scenes commissioned by the Ministry of the Household of the King, religious painting, genre painting and more occasionally in portraiture. He also practices engraving and lithography.

Beginning 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 areas (Montpellier, Toulouse) but also further north at the Salon de Douai.

Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1836.

Buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Museums: Antibes, Rouen, Avignon, Marseille, Paris (Mus. du Louvre), Morez…

Stylistically and in inspiration, this painting brings Joseph Beaume closer to his contemporary Léopold Robert (1794-1835) or 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 has been in the spotlight in French painting since the 1820s with Léopold Robert in particular and treated until the 1860s with Jean Léon Gérôme.