Eugène-Antoine-Samuel- Lavieille was born in Paris in the year 1820. His father was a tapestry maker and his elder brother was a well-known wood engraver.

At 13 years of age, he found himself less inclined to pursue his job as a decorator painter and was attracted to landscape painting.

He made his intentions clear by declaring that he would pursue a career as a painter.

He started frequenting the Louvre assiduously to analyze the evolution of contemporary landscape painting during the same time when his brother was a student at the school of fine arts.

He married twice during his lifetime, the first one in the year 1847 and when his first wife died giving birth to his first son in 1848, he married again in 1852.

From these two marriages, Eugene had three children, two of whom were Adrian Lavieille and Marie Ernestine, who later became painters themselves.

The financial difficulties that he had to face after his marriage did not deter him from pursuing his obsession as a painter.

Early life and work

In 1841, he presented himself at the workshop of a well-known French landscape and portrait painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Though initially, Corot tried to dissuade him from his chosen profession.

The reason for Corot’s attitude toward him was thought to be the boy’s lack of resources. However, considering that Lavieille was adamant, Corot was forced to accept him as a pupil.

Soon Eugene dedicated himself single-mindedly to his obsession that he became one of Corot’s favourite and faithful disciples. Later on, he also became a friend of Corot.

Emergence of landscapes

Post-French Revolution France was witnessing historical subjects as a major genre of painting. In the Académie des Beaux-Arts, landscape paintings merited lower attention and, hence, were a minor genre as a subject for painting.

It was during this period that the attitudes toward the paintings began to change gradually and further into the 18th century. It was from England that the most obvious testimonies of the genesis of landscape art came during this time.

The horses, animal races, dogs and hunting scenes, forests, riverfront, trees, farms, manors, and the beautiful lawns started becoming more and more the subjects of landscape painting. By the time, Eugene rose to prominence as a painter, demand for landscape art had exceeded the demand for historical art.

Eugene was considered a lover of nature and an all-weather painter.

He painted nature’s diversity such as peasants working in fields, and animals grazing in farms in the glare of sunlight as affably as he was painting nature in the dimmer and gloomier months of December and January.

He was known for the art of giving luminescence to the objects of his painting in the dark of the night.

Later work

The Village of La Celle-sous-Moret, Eugene Lavieille, French–Stretched Canvas

His first entry into the salon was in 1844. He became friends with Millet, Diaz, and Nadar. He lived and painted in Montmartre. In August of 1852, Lavieille moved to Barbizon, which is located in north-central France where he lived for about 4 years. During this time and until 1855, he lived in poverty and he was still painting with the likes of Rousseau, Millet, Charles Jacques, Bodmer, Diaz, and Barye. He also won quite a few medals at the Salon during this period. However, he was unable to make ends meet financially with the meagre proceeds of the sale of his paintings.

After having lived and painted in several locations in France, he died at the age of 69. It was thought that the scant attention to his health while painting in outdoor locations with least regard to the bitter weather conditions was the reason for the relatively early death.

At the time of his death, there were more than 200 unsold paintings in his workshop. There are reports hinting that his paintings were not finding many buyers.

Experts say that the gloominess of his paintings, many of which were set in the wintertime locations as subjects, was the reason for the difficulty in finding buyers. Most of his unfinished and half-finished sketches of paintings were finished by his son and the daughter subsequently.

Eugene loved his profession as a painter and the fantastic pieces of his paintings more than his life. His sincerity to the profession and his jovial behaviour with the painter community of that era have made him one of the greatest of his time.

Van Gogh, one of the greatest names in the field of painting, had expressed a lot of admiration for the painters including Lavieille. He felt that they showed utmost sincerity to the art and that was why their work held its ground and gained popularity.

For many of these painters, following the Barbizon style of landscapes depicting the natural settings of ponds, cows, and sheep returning from the meadow or lying in the sheep-hold, edge of a river, chickens in the courtyard became the frequent subjects for paintings.

In 1856, Lavieille moved to La Ferté-Milon with Adolphe Masson, whom he had met in Paris. Adolphe Masson lived in a large house in the area. Here Ferté-Milon painted quite a lot, many times ignoring the harsh weather outside.

Many of his paintings from La Ferté-Milon reside today in Musée d’Orsay and the Musée Carnavalet. Two churches became his favourite subjects during the time and one of these paintings was dedicated to the parish priest, Mr Hazard, in 1865.

Later on, inspired by the warm welcome given to him by the Masson family, Lavieille invited his mentor and friend Corot. Corot in his turn painted two canvases inspired by La Ferté-Milon.

One of these is in the Ohara museum, in Okayama (Japan). Lavieille left La Ferté-Milon in 1859 but he would frequently return later.

Accompanied by his friend Daubigny, he visited Auvers-sur-Oise in the final days of his life. He tried to recuperate there, after suffering from Paysagistes’s disease, a type of pulmonary infection. This infection was most likely brought on by his painting outdoors in the cold weather.

Critics and art dealers

Lavieille became popular with art critics in his later years. One critic, Baudelaire, praised “One of Corot’s pupils, Lavieille” in the Salon 1859 publication. This praise for him and his contribution to the world of art was again renewed in 1862.

Although he was relatively well known among the artist community and had won much praise and awards from the Salon and critics alike, he had to live in relative penury. The reason for his financial distress was thought to be the stubbornness in his stand that he would organize his own sale of paintings for earning income.

Due to his apathy in dealing with art dealers, he was not well known among those who understood the art market and the tricks of marketing.

Lavieille’s first paintings were usually done during winter or during the night under low light. Over time, he expanded his repertoire to include brighter images during the summer and spring seasons.

The light in the paintings grew brighter and landscapes richer with colors. This he did within the bounds of the teachings from his teacher and mentor Corot. This evolution is visible in the painting “Pommiers enpeurs in Moustiers au Perche” from1882.

Some of his landscapes are simple yet so beautiful that they remind us of the simple yet beautiful landscapes of John Kensett, the American painter.

Vollmondnacht in Veneux-Nadon, 1887 by Eugène Lavieille – Premium Framed Horizontal Poster

A few of the well-known works of art are The village of Moret-sur-Loing, Paysage de Neige, and La Chasse. He resided in the village of Moret-Sur-Loing while he painted the surrounding landscape. His son, Adrien Lavieille, a french painter himself, followed his footsteps many years later.

Illness and death

During the 1880s, his health worsened. He suffered from asthmatic bronchitis and angina pectoris attacks while he tirelessly continued to work. Even at 68, he continued to work long hours. In 1882, he was elected to the Jury of Salon. He died at age 69 while still painting.

He died on January 8, 1889, at 9 rue Bochard-de-Saron, in Montmartre. Due to his love for the Parisian countryside, from where he came, he visited this place of his childhood frequently when he was alive. He was buried in a small cemetery of Saint-Vincent, in Montmartre with military honors as the knight of the Legion of Honor.

Some of his 200 odd paintings were still in the works in progress stage at the time of his demise. Many of these unfinished paintings were later on completed by his children, Adrien Lavieille and Marie Ernestine, and also by his granddaughter Andrée Lavieille.

Personality

Those who knew Lavieille’s personality described him as generous, fashionable, passionate, and a hard worker. At the age of 45, he returned to workshops to work as a simple student.

He was also a perfectionist. Lavieille left to rectify a painting from nature in the Perche in Courpalay. Lavieille has also been described as a “Poet in love with nature”.

In spite of his deteriorating health, he was always warm and jovial towards his friends and financial troubles.

Lavieille was forever driven to paint and better himself in his chosen vocation in spite of having to face troubles in supporting his family and also in running his business.

An example of his bad luck was that although many viewed him as having a keen interest in the Château de Pierrefonds, he did not find a place in the group of artists selected for its restoration.

He was a rebel who stood against the authoritarianism of the Academy, the designs of art merchants in the fine arts world.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Lavieille

Claude Royer, Eugène-Samuel Lavieille, paysagiste (1820–1889). Son attachement pour la région du Valois, Fédération des Sociétés d’Histoire et d’Archéologie de l’Aisne, Mémoires, Tome XLIII (L’Aisne et l’Art, destins d’artistes), p. 103–112.(1998)