René Ménard

b. 1862 — d. 1930

Ménard grew up in a profoundly artistic and intellectual milieu. His father, René-Joseph Ménard (1827-1887), painted landscapes but was more known as a writer and art critic who headed the Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Through his father, Ménard met the painters of the Barbizon school. His uncle-chemist, pagan philosopher, and writer Louis Ménard (1822-1901)-was characterized by Théophile Gautier as an Athenian born two thousand years too late. Author of Rêveries d'un païen mystique (1876), Louis Ménard undoubtedly introduced his nephew to classical antiquity. After a two-year apprenticeship with the decorator Pierre-Victor Galland (1822-1892) that began in 1877, Ménard studied with Paul Baudry (1828-1886) and Bouguereau (q.v.). He then attended the Académie Julian in 1880 and began adopting a symbolist style. Ménard first exhibited at the Salon of 1883 and initially chose his subjects from the Bible and classical mythology. Soon, however, he chose to represent more generic visions of Arcadia. He first experienced the classical heritage on a trip to Sicily in 1898, the first of many such journeys to Greece, Italy, Algeria, and the Middle East. In 1906 he received a commission to decorate the library of the École des Hautes Études of the Sorbonne in Paris, followed by a cycle of large canvases for the law school of the University of Paris (1908-13, Musée d'Orsay, Paris). From then on he exhibited regularly in France and abroad, such as in the group exhibition of the Société Nouvelle in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1911. He moved from Paris to Varengeville near Dieppe. Ménard became loosely associated with a diverse group of artists called La Bande Noire, headed by Charles Cottet (1863-1925) and Lucien Simon (1861-1945). As opposed to the brighter palette of the impressionists, the group's name referred to the application of a more subdued color scheme and an interest in more melancholic subjects. But rather than the harsh lives of the peasants and fishermen that inspired Cottet, Ménard depicted the Breton landscape. He also belonged to the Société des Pastellistes Français; the pastel medium suited his taste for rendering twilight landscapes, especially later on in his career when he often stayed in Provence. His contemporaries placed Ménard in the French classical tradition, comparing him to such artists as Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), and eventually Puvis de Chavannes (q.v.).