Nicolas BERTHON (1831–1888) - Young pensive woman

Hippolyte Nicolas BERTHON
(Dienne, 1831 – Paris, 1888)

Young pensive woman

Oil on canvas
Signed lower right
35,5 x 26.5 cm

Nicolas Berthon, a native of Cantal - a region that would remain a source of inspiration for him throughout his career, was initially trained by his friend Julien de La Rochenoire. He was subsequently admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris on October 10, 1850 in the studio of Adolphe Yvon and then Léon Cogniet.

His first submission dates from 1857 and he was awarded a medal in 1866 for his realistic, even regionalist, painting. He exhibited regularly until 1888, the year he was awarded again. Subsequently, he became a member of the Société des Artistes Français. Gabriel Marc, in 1885, summed up Berthon's art quite well: "He belongs to that school of the open air and real life of which Millet and Jules Breton are the founders. He does not have the poetic idealization of the one nor the naive grandeur of the other; but he sees clearly, without a spirit of imitation, without thinking of magnifying or poeticizing his subject." Each of his works, in the purest academic tradition, is carefully prepared by numerous studies of figures, which is confirmed by Georges Vitoux, author of an old study on the artist, published at the time of his death in 1888: "He faithfully follows [nature], and constantly watches it, starting his drawing or sketch again until he feels he has arrived at the perfect representation of his model." Nothing seems more accurate concerning our painting through which we feel this need for truthfulness both in the drawing and in the extremely natural attitude of the model. "What a measured and noble style, what a masterly character [his] numerous figures present [...], in the learned simplicity of their lines!", Georges Vitoux always enthuses about these figure studies.

Nicolas Berthon died on December 13, 1888 in Paris from an accidental fall in his studio a few weeks earlier that left him paralyzed.

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