Brice LEIBUNDGUT
FRANCHE-COMTÉ PAINTERS: ROBERT FERNIER, DAGNAN-BOUVERET, GUSTAVE COURTOIS
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[ detail] Robert Fernier, Bridge over the Drugeon under the snow, 1939, oil on canvas, 50 x 61 cm, Paris, National Museum of Modern Art.
The expert
Born in 1954 in Doubs, Brice Leibundgut initially pursued a scientific curriculum (École Centrale de Paris) and worked in banking and life insurance. Passionate about literary history, he has been President of the Association des Amis de Louis Pergaud since 2017. Keen on art history, he has been a member of the Board of the Robert Fernier Association since 2017 and of the Board of the Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français since 2022. His area of expertise concerns three painters from Franche-Comté: Robert Fernier, Dagnan-Bouveret, and Gustave Courtois. It is as a specialist in these three painters that he is a member of the Union Française des Experts en objets d’arts (UFE). In 2022, Brice Leibundgut analyzed the intertwined careers, social circles, and inspirations of Gustave Courtois and Dagnan-Bouveret for a presentation to the Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français; and, as part of a symposium at the Petit Palais, he further explored their connections with Albert Edelfelt, who was their studio neighbor for 8 years. The scope of Brice Leibundgut's expertise includes painters of the Vesoul School, which comprises artists from the Vesoul region, pupils of Jean-Léon Gérôme: Gustave Courtois, Dagnan-Bouveret, Jules Alexis Muenier… But also the figurative painters of the École des Annonciades, which brings together the founders of the Salon des Annonciades, notably Robert Fernier and Robert Bouroult. This salon was created in 1924 and is still held every summer in Pontarlier in the Chapelle des Annonciades. Brice Leibundgut has gathered a very extensive collection of information on these various artists, including numerous critical works, reproductions of their works, information on their location in collections, an inventory of the salons where they were exhibited, press articles concerning them, excerpts from their correspondence and interviews, photos representing them… these various elements constituting the preliminaries for catalogues raisonnés. __ Artists from Franche-Comté The painter Robert Fernier (1895-1977) was born in Pontarlier, in Haut-Doubs. In fifty years of activity, he painted numerous landscapes of Franche-Comté, particularly in winter, which earned him the critics' title of “painter of snow.” He also painted portraits and scenes of life, which were the subject of an exhibition in 2022 at the Pontarlier Museum. From the 1950s onwards, he traveled overseas, particularly to Morocco, Madagascar, the Comoros, and Polynesia, where he set up his easel. In a presentation, Brice Leibundgut highlighted Robert Fernier's ethnographer's perspective on Comté and overseas, through his paintings, drawings, wood engravings, and writings. Throughout his life, Robert Fernier worked to promote the memory and painting of Courbet. He is also the author of Gustave Courbet's catalogue raisonné. Following his research on the painter Robert Fernier, Brice Leibundgut extended his field of investigation to two of Robert Fernier's masters, Gustave Courtois from Comtois and Dagnan-Bouveret, an adopted Comtois. -- The painter Dagnan-Bouveret (1852-1929), who usually signed P.A.J. Dagnan-Bouveret, is an artist known for some scenes of Parisian life, but especially for the rural scenes he painted in Haute-Saône, his wife's home region; and also for his folkloric compositions with Bretons and Breton women, which brought him great success abroad, particularly in the United States. In the 1890s, he developed a career as a portraitist and painted numerous religious scenes, sometimes large-format. His paintings were often imbued with mysticism and associated him with the Symbolist movement. From 1900, the year of his election to the Académie des Beaux-Arts, he became heavily involved in the work of this institution. Dagnan-Bouveret and Gustave Courtois met in the studio of their master Jean-Léon Gérôme and remained close friends throughout their lives, sharing the same studio or having nearby workspaces in the same building. Like their master Gérôme, they always remained attached to the academic tradition, favoring portraiture and the painting of historical or mythological scenes. -- The painter Gustave Courtois (1852-1923) was born in Pusey, Haute-Saône. Upon his arrival in Paris in the early 1870s, he was quickly noticed for the quality of his drawing, which led to purchases by the State and by collectors, including those abroad. Gustave Courtois painted numerous portraits: aristocrats, bourgeois, artists, children… but also thematic portraits (posing a model on a given theme) and nudes, generally male. He also painted historical, mythological, and folkloric scenes. For many years, he was a professor at the Académie Colarossi and taught a great many students, both French and foreign.Bibliography
- “The Hermit of Taules and other wood engravings by Robert Fernier,” Station Comté, December 2017 (150-page book)
- Contribution to the book “Robert Bouroult, Itineraries of a Painter,” Aréopage editions, 2020 (three articles: Robert Bouroult’s Masters, Replica of Dagnan-Bouveret’s The Last Supper for the church of Cubry, Robert Bouroult’s Wood Engravings)
- “From Dagnan-Bouveret’s Conscripts to Robert Fernier’s Conscripts,” Le Jura Français, no. 318, April-July 2018 (pages 3 to 6)
- “Burial in Comtois Painting,” Proceedings of the Conference on October 19, 2019, in Pontarlier during the Symposium “Franche-Comté, Land of Painters”
- “The Breton Women of Dagnan-Bouveret,” Le Jura Français, February 2021
- “The Stations of the Cross of Septfontaine Church (1937-1939),” Bulletin No. 39 of the Robert Fernier Association, May 2020
- “The Lions of Jean-Léon Gérôme,” Le Jura Français, June 2021
- “Customs Officers and Smugglers as seen by Robert Fernier,” Bulletin No. 44 of the Robert Fernier Association, December 2021
- “Albert Edelfelt, his connections with Dagnan-Bouveret and Gustave Courtois,” Proceedings of the intervention at the Edelfelt Symposium on May 20, 2022, at the Petit Palais
- “The Blessings of Robert Fernier,” Le Jura Français, June 2022
Contact
Brice LEIBUNDGUT
75010 Paris
brice.leibundgut@gmail.com
+ 33 (0) 6 82 59 49 71
[UFE number : 478]
