Gustave Brion (1824–1877) was a French painter and illustrator best known for his depictions of rural life in Alsace and for his illustrations of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
He was born at Rothau in the department of Bas-Rhin on 24 October 1824 and studied in Strasbourg under the painter Gabriel-Cristophe Guérin and then the sculptor Andreas Friedrich. In 1847, his exhibited Intérieur à Dambach at the Salon of 1847.Explication des Ouvrages de Peinture, Sculpture, Architecture, Gravure et Lithographie des Artistes Vivans, Exposés au Musée Royal le 16 Mars 1847 (Paris: Vinchon, 1847), No. 252, p. X. Wikimedia Commons A few years later, he moved to a studio on rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, in the same building as Realist artists Jules Breton and François Bonvin.
Brion gained recognition for his genre paintings depicting the peasant life and customs of Alsace, though he occasionally painted historical subjects, such as The Siege of a Town by Romans under Julius Caesar, commissioned by Napoleon III. He earned a Second-Class Medal at the Paris Salon of 1853 for his paintings Schlitteurs de la Forêt-Noire and Potato Harvest during an Inundation. The former was later destroyed during the Franco-Prussian War. In 1863, his work Les Fleurs du Pays earned him a First-Class Medal at the Salon of 1863, along with the Legion of Honour. Additional honors followed at the Exposition Universelle of 1867 and the Salon of 1868.
In addition to painting, Brion worked as a book illustrator. He designed over 200 illustrations for the first edition of Hugo's novel Les Misérables, including the first published portrayal of Inspector Javert. His illustrations for the author's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame depicted Quasimodo and Esmeralda.
Despite his success in Paris, Brion remained deeply attached to his native Alsace, and the annexation of the region by Germany after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 was a personal loss for him. He died on 3 November 1877 at the age of 53.
Brion was a grandnephew of Friederike Brion, the muse of Goethe’s early poetry.
Principal works The following are his principal works:
Paintings
Interior of a Farm at Dambaoh, Salon, 1847 'Schlitteurs' of the Black Forest, Salon, 1853 Potato Harvest during an Inundation, Salon, 1852 Wood-Barge on the Rhine (engraved by Jazet), Paris Exhibition, 1855 Burial in the Vosges, Paris Exhibition, 1855 La Fête-Dieu, Paris Exhibition, 1855 The Miraculous Well, Paris Exhibition, 1855 Mountebank in the Middle Ages, Salon, 1857 Gathering Potatoes (in the Nantes Museum), Salon, 1857 A Church Porch, Salon, 1859 Burial on the Rhine, Salon, 1859 The Skittle-Players, Salon, 1859 A Protestant Marriage in Alsace (etched by Rajon), Salon, 1861 The Wedding Feast (etched by Bellin), Salon, 1861 The Blessing, London Exhibition, 1862 The Pilgrims of St. Odile, Salon, 1863 The End of the Deluge, Salon, 1864 La Quète au Loup, Salon, 1864 Reading the Bible in Alsace, Salon, 1868 A Wedding in Alsace, Salon, 1874 (earlier drawing of the same image pictured) First Steps, Salon 1876 The Réveil, Encampment of Pilgrims, Salon, 1877
Book illustrations
Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo (Paris: Pagnerre, 1862), first illustrated edition, with character portraits by Brion Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame), by Victor Hugo (Paris: J. Hetzel, 1864), illustrated by Brion; engravings by Yon and Perrichon
References
Attribution:
External links