Charles Paul Landon

{{Short description|French painter (1760–1826)}} {{Infobox person | name =  | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Charles Paul Landon | birth_date = {{Birth date|1760|10|12|df=y}} | birth_place = Nonant-le-Pin, France | death_date = {{Death date and age|1826|03|05|1760|10|12|df=y}} | death_place = Paris, France | other_names = | occupation = painter, art historian | known_for = }}

'''Charles Paul Landon''' ({{IPA|fr|ʃaʁl pɔl lɑ̃dɔ̃}}; 12 October 1760{{snd}}5 March 1826) was a French painter and popular writer on art and artists.

==Life and work== Landon was born in Nonant-le-Pin and entered the studio of Jean-Baptiste Regnault, where he made a lifelong friendship with Robert Lefèvre.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://data.bnf.fr/en/12256190/charles-paul_landon/ | title=Charles-Paul Landon (1760-1826) }}</ref> He and won the first prize of the academy in 1792, for study at the French Academy in Rome, where he stayed for five years.<ref name=Spooner>{{cite book|last=Spooner|first=Shearjashub|title=A Biographical History of the Fine Arts, Or, Memoirs of the Lives and Works of Eminent Painters, Engravers, Sculptors, and Architects|year=1865|publisher=J.W. Bouton|page=454|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sBwoAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> After his return from Italy, in the disturbed patronage conditions of the French Revolution, he seems to have abandoned painting and turned to writing, although he began to exhibit in 1795, and continued to do so at various intervals up to 1814.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Landon, Charles Paul|volume=16|page=160}}</ref> He exhibited three pictures at the Louvre: the ''Mother's Lesson'', the ''Bath of Paul and Virginia'' and ''Daedalus and Icarus''.<ref name=Spooner /> A portrait from this period was purchased in 2003 for the Museum of Grenoble.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.latribunedelart.com/Nouvelles_breves_2005/02_05/Acquisitions_Grenoble.htm |title=www.latribunedelart.com |access-date=2005-10-16 |archive-date=2005-10-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051019151423/http://www.latribunedelart.com/Nouvelles_breves_2005/02_05/Acquisitions_Grenoble.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

His ''Leda'' won an award of merit in 1801, and is in the château de Fontainebleau (deposited by the Louvre in 1932). His ''Mother's Lesson'' was the subject of a popular engraving. ''Paul and Virginia Bathing'' (an illustration of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's popular novel, also engraved), his ''Sleep of Achilles'' and ''Daedalus and Icarus'' (1799, ''illustrated right'') are all at the Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, Alençon.

It is chiefly for his writing on the arts that he made a reputation, however. He published nearly one hundred volumes during his lifetime. Landon was among the collaborators of the influential ''Journal des arts, des sciences et de la littérature''. He was also a part-owner of the ''Gazette de France'', where the extended accounts of annual Paris Salons were published. He was a paintings conservator at the Louvre, a corresponding member of the ''Institut'' and painter to Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry, whose widow's paintings gallery he catalogued.<ref name=Spooner />

His major, on-going work comprised the ''Annales du musée et de l'école moderne des beaux-arts'', published between 1808 and 1835 and running to 33 volumes. It forms a comprehensive resource on European art and artists prior to the 19th century. However it is far from perfect. The work has been criticised for containing many careless biographical mistakes and lacking critical accuracy.

An example of his popular works that has been recently reprinted was ''Numismatique du voyage du jeune Anacharsis, ou Médailles des beaux temps de la Grèce'' which was accompanied by an essay on connoisseurship of medals by Théophile Marion Dumersan and dedicated to Louis XVIII, 1823. Anacharsis had recently been established in the popular imagination in a historical novel, while coins were among the few antiquities that the middle class might aspire to own.

Landon also published *''Vie et œuvres des peintres les plus célèbres de toutes les écoles...'' ("Lives of Celebrated Painters"), in 22 volumes *''An Historical Description of Paris'', 2 volumes * ''Description of London'', with 42 plates

He also produced descriptions of the Palais du Luxembourg and its contents, of the Giustiniani collection.

Landon died at Paris in 1826.<ref name="EB1911"/>

== Gallery == <gallery widths="140" heights="140"> File:Charles Paul Landon - Eléazar.jpg|''Eléazar'' (1792) File:Charles-Paul Landon - Portrait de femme.jpg|''Portrait de femme'' (1793) File:Hagar Giving Ishmael Water From the Miraculous Well in the Desert Charles Paul Landon.jpg|''Hagar Giving Ishmael Water From the Miraculous Well in the Desert'' File:Charles Paul Landon - Tête de femme couronnée de laurier.jpg|''Tête de femme couronnée de laurier'' File:Count Bourcet family by Landon.jpg|''Le Comte Pierre-Jean de Bourcet et sa famille'' (1791) </gallery>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Landon, Charles Paul}} Category:1760 births Category:1826 deaths Category:People from the Province of Normandy Category:18th-century French painters Category:French male painters Category:19th-century French painters Category:Prix de Rome for painting Category:19th-century French male artists Category:18th-century French male artists