🖌️🎨Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809) was a renowned 18th-century French artist, a master of religious, historical, and mythological genres

 🖌️🎨 Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809) was a renowned 18th-century French artist, a master of religious, historical, and mythological genres.
Vien's work reflects the transition from Rococo to early Classicism in the history of French painting.
Joseph-Marie Vien is best known for his neoclassical paintings and his active teaching.
In Paris, he founded his own school, where he trained dozens of young colleagues.
Among his many students were Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Baptiste Le Prince.
The best masterpieces of his work are now housed in major French museums.
The artist's biography contains many interesting facts and notable events.
A master of religious, historical, and mythological genres.
Joseph-Marie Vien was born on July 18, 1716, in Montpellier, southern France, to a simple metalworker. The boy showed an early talent for drawing, and his father sent him to study with the local artist Jacques Giral. In his mentor's studio, the young Vien learned the basics of drawing theory and artistic composition, often helping his mentor paint commissioned portraits.
Joseph-Marie then had to work for several years in a porcelain factory to earn money for further education.
In 1740, he left for Paris and was enrolled as a student at the Royal Academy of Arts, in the class of Charles-Joseph Natoire, a renowned master of portraiture and religious painting. During his studies, Vien also took private lessons from Professor Charles Parrocel, a distinguished master of historical genre painting.
By 1743, Joseph-Marie had won the Prix de Rome in painting and soon left for Italy, where he lived until 1750. After visiting the ancient excavations of Pompeii, the young artist became an ardent adherent of the neoclassical style, which was then gaining popularity in European art.
Upon returning to Paris, Joseph-Marie Vien repeatedly attempted to become a member of the Royal Academy, but was rejected each time by the institution's leadership. Authoritative colleagues accused him of bad taste and blind imitation of nature, although in reality they were persecuting the artist for his adherence to neoclassicism.
Unexpectedly, in 1754, the situation was resolved successfully thanks to the intervention of François Boucher.
The renowned artist threatened to resign from the Academy of Fine Arts in protest against the persecution of his colleague and succeeded in awarding Vien the title of academician.
Having experienced hostility from many artists, Joseph-Marie opened his own painting school in Paris in the early 1750s, where he taught young colleagues for nearly 50 years. Among his students, Jacques-Louis David, the most prominent representative of the Empire style, stands out.
Until the late 1760s, Joseph-Marie Vien, an ardent adherent of Neoclassicism, was often the target of scathing criticism. However, the artist remained true to his views and eventually achieved recognition when the French public, tired of the pretentious Rococo, embraced classical art en masse.
From this point on, the artist gained immense popularity and authority. Initially, he was appointed to the prestigious position of master craftsman at the Royal Gobelins Manufactory, a position he held for several years. Vien then became director of the French Academy, and after the death of Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre, court painter to Louis XVI.
But this latter appointment took place just before the French Revolution and brought the artist no practical benefit. On the contrary, during a period of widespread political upheaval, the elderly artist experienced serious financial difficulties and almost completely lost his source of income.
To rectify the situation, in 1796, the 80-year-old artist entered an art competition and, to the surprise of many colleagues, won an honorary prize. Napoleon soon came to power in France, and he held the artist's work in high esteem. Bonaparte made Joseph-Marie Vien a senator and a knight of the Legion of Honor, and also awarded him the title of count.
Favored by the emperor's favor, the artist lived out his final days peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones. On March 27, 1809, Joseph-Marie Vien died in his Paris home at the age of 92. At Napoleon's direction, a lavish state funeral was held in the French capital, attended by a huge crowd. The remains of the great master were placed in the Panthéon, the renowned burial place of France's greatest figures. Remarkably, Vien remains the only artist in the country's history to have received this honor.
Joseph-Marie Vien lived a remarkably long and eventful life. Even two centuries after his death, he remains remembered by his descendants, thanks to his paintings and his students.
Joseph-Marie Vien died in 1809 and is buried in the Panthéon in Paris. His wife (from 1757) Marie-Thérèse Vienne (Reboul) (1738-1806) was a miniaturist, watercolorist and engraver in the genre of still lifes of “birds, butterflies and flowers”.