Alexandre Marie Colin

Alexandre Colin was born in Paris, at the dawn of a new era, a few days after the Coup of 18 Brumaire which brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France. Alexandre Colin belonged to a wealthy family of Parisian artists. An oral family report named the painters Jean- Baptiste Greuze and Drouais father and son, as his great-uncles.

His grandfather was one of the Challe brothers, either the sculptor Simon or the painter Michelangelo, both recipients of the Grand Prix de Rome. As a young man predestined for an artistic career, Alexandre Colin entered the studio of Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at the age of sixteen. Girodet’s fame had reach its peak.

His masterpieces were celebrated for their innovation and their chromatic richness. Alexandre Colin studied in Girodet’s studio until 1817. He got acquainted with young romantic artists studying in Pierre-Narcisse Guérin’ studio and maintained long-lasting friendships with Eugène Delacroix and Richard Parkes Bonington. Before exhibiting for the first time at the 1819 Paris Salon des Beaux-Arts, he visited Italy - Venice in particular - and began copying paintings from Renaissance masters - mainly Veronese and Giorgione.

Throughout his life, he copied old masters’ works and received the praise of French poet Théophile Gautier. In 1820, he joined Théodore Géricault - no doubt his friend Eugène Delacroix had served as a mediator - in London for the exhibition of The Raft of the Medusa that he lithographed. At 24 years old, Alexandre Colin was known for his portrait paintings that he exhibited at the Salon, and for the scenes he painted inspired by novels. Alexandre Colin had a flourishing career.

Having understood very early on the importance of exhibiting his works during art shows, he sent his paintings throughout France. He obtained two 2nd class medals at the Paris Salon - in 1824 and in 1831 - then, a 1st class medal in 1840. Fan of English culture, he sent his paintings three times to the Royal Academy’s exhibits in London. From 1834 to 1838, he was director of the Nîmes drawing school where he encouraged many artists. Alexandre Colin had probably kept the present painting in his possession all this time, so that it was part during the XXth century of the collection of artworks owned by Colonel Jacques Favre de Thierrens (1895-1973), a Nîmes painter and hero of the French Resistance during WWII.

Back in Paris in 1839, his studio became an important center of artistic life. His lithographs were highly valued. Alexandre Colin obtained a large number of official commissions to decorate Parisian churches, the Museum of the History of France in Versailles and the Apollo Gallery at the musée du Louvre. In 1849, he was appointed drawing teacher at the Ecole Polytechnique.