Lyon School

The Lyon School (French: École de Lyon) names the circle of French painters gathered around Paul Chenavard and founded by Pierre Revoil, a leading painter of the Troubadour style. Working in Lyon across the first half of the nineteenth century - Victor Orsel, Louis Janmot and Hippolyte Flandrin among them - they turned away from both neoclassical severity and romantic spectacle toward philosophical, moral and religious subjects, painted with quiet, even finish. Charles Baudelaire nicknamed the school 'the prison of painting', but its contemplative gravity made it a French cousin of the British Pre-Raphaelites. Recognized at the Salon of 1819, the school was formally consecrated on 16 February 1851 with the creation of the gallery of Lyon artists at the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, and a younger generation of Lyonnais painters exhibited under the École de Lyon name into the 1890s.

Defining characteristics

• Polished, deliberate finish with even, clear light and smooth modeling
• Philosophical, moral and religious subjects treated with contemplative gravity
• Idealized, pensive figures, often androgynous or softly youthful
• Poetic dream-imagery where narrative blurs into symbol (Janmot's soul-journey cycle)
• Large mural and church decoration alongside easel painting

Key figures

• Pierre Revoil (1776-1842) — Lyon painter of Troubadour subjects who founded the group
• Paul Chenavard (1807-1895) — Philosophical mural painter around whom the circle gathered
• Victor Orsel (1787-1862) — Painter of moral and religious allegories and church decoration
• Louis Janmot (1814-1892) — Painter-poet of Le Poème de l'âme, the school's visionary cycle
• Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864) — Pupil of Ingres; master of serene religious murals and portraiture

Example works

• Study (Young Male Nude Seated Beside the Sea) — Hippolyte Flandrin (1836)
• Portrait of Madame Oudiné — Hippolyte Flandrin (1840)
• Flower of the Fields — Louis Janmot (1845)

Sources

• Lyon School - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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