Hippolyte Sebron

{{short description|French painter}} {{more citations needed|date=June 2015}} {{Infobox artist | name = Hippolyte Victor Valentin Sebron | image = Hippolyte Victor Valentin Sebron 1801 1879 (cropped).jpg | caption = Photograph by Louis Daguerre identified as Hippolyte Sebron.<ref>Disputed by Pinson in ''Speculating Daguerre'', University of Chicago Press, 2012 [page number needed].</ref> | birth_date = {{birth date|1801|08|21}} | birth_place = Caudebec-en-Caux, France | death_date = {{death date and age|1879|09|01|1801|08|21}} | death_place = Paris, France | education = École des Beaux-Arts }} '''Hippolyte Victor Valentin Sebron''' (21 August 1801 - 1 September 1879) was a French landscape, cityscape and portrait painter. He was also a photographer and worked in pastels.

== Biography == [[File:Baptism of the Comte de Paris at Notre Dame de Paris, 2 May 1841.jpg|thumb|left|185px|Baptism of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris (1841), commissioned by<br /> King Louis-Philippe.]] Sebron was born 21 August 1801 in Caudebec-en-Caux, France.<ref name="Cyclopedia1904">{{cite book |editor-last1= Perkins |editor-first1=Charles Callahan |editor-last2=Champlin |editor-first2=John Denison |date=1905 |title=Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, Volume 4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UHzqAAAAMAAJ |location= |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |page= |isbn= |access-date=2024-12-22}}</ref> He studied at the École des Beaux-arts. At first, he worked as a decorative painter. His first exhibition at the Salon came in 1825. Soon, he gained a reputation as a painter of interior portraits. Later, he became a student of Léon Cogniet.

In 1827, while decorating the new Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique, he was taken as a student by Louis Daguerre and became a collaborator on Daguerre's popular theatre dioramas.<ref name="D">[http://www.niepce-daguerre.com/texte_Sebron.html "Note sur les travaux de Mr Hyppolite Sebron"] from a Mémoire by Sebron @ Niepce-Daguerre.com.</ref> After some time, he began to feel that he was not getting proper recognition, but chose to remain in the partnership, despite offers of permanent work in London during a trip to England. The break-up came when the French government awarded Daguerre an annual pension of 2,000 Francs for devising new techniques that Sebron felt were his ideas. He also claimed to have been entirely responsible for fourteen of the thirty dioramas created during his time with Daguerre.<ref name="D" />

He quit making dioramas entirely, although his style would always reflect that experience. In 1830, he made a visit to Italy where he created over 150 views of cities and monuments. That, however, proved to be just the beginning of his travels. In 1838, he went to Spain, Portugal and North Africa with Baron Isidore Justin Séverin Taylor to create an illustrated album. After executing a commission from King Louis-Philippe I for the historical museum at Versailles, he spent some time in England. This was followed by another trip to Spain and Morocco.

During the Revolution of 1848, over twenty of his works were destroyed in the burning of the Château de Neuilly. Soon after, he began planning a trip to North America. He left in 1849 and would spend the next six years travelling throughout Canada and the United States, with stays in Louisiana and New York, where he participated in the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations. In New York, he painted numerous scenes of Niagara Falls<ref name="Seibel1990">{{cite book |last1=Seibel |first1=George A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b5vpqrACXTIC |title=The Niagara Portage Road: A History of the Portage on the West Bank of the Niagara River |last2=Seibel |first2=Olive Marguerite |date=1990 |publisher=City of Niagara Falls, Canada |isbn=9780969045748 |location=Niagara Falls, Canada |page= |access-date=2024-12-22}}</ref> as well as several New York City landmarks including City Hall Park and Broadway.<ref name="MotCoNY2000">{{cite book |last= |first= |author-link= |date=2000 |title=Painting The Town: Cityscapes Of New York: Paintings From The Museum Of The City Of New York |url=https://archive.org/details/paintingtowncity0000muse/ |location=New Haven, Connecticut |publisher= Museum of the City of New York, in association with Yale University Press |page= |isbn= |access-date=2024-12-13}}</ref> He also painted more than 60 portraits during this time.<ref name="Fecteau1945">{{cite book |last=Fecteau |first=Edouard |date=1945 |title=French Contributions to America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VMx1AAAAMAAJ |location= |publisher=Soucy Press |page= |isbn= |access-date=2024-12-22}}</ref>

He lived in Louisiana from 1850 to 1854. New Orleans Museum of Art curator Estill Curtis Pennington called Sebron's "Giant Steamboats on the Levee at New Orleans" "one of the first genuinely luminescent works to be painted in Louisiana," and praised the "masterful manipulation of luminism" in his painting "Crocodile Lake, Louisiana."<ref name="Pennington1991">{{cite book |last=Pennington |first=Estill Curtis |date=1991 |title=Downriver: Currents Of Style In Louisiana Painting, 1800-1950 |url=https://archive.org/details/downrivercurrent0000penn/ |location=Gretna, Louisiana |publisher=Pelican Pub. Co. |page= |isbn=0-88289-800-0 |access-date=2024-12-22}}</ref>

Nevertheless, he found that the demand for art in America was much less than in Europe and turned to painting portraits to make a living.

Upon returning to France in 1855, he still found himself unable to settle down, wandering throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, as far as Egypt, Istanbul and Syria, where he toured the ruins in 1870. He died in Paris on 1 September 1879.

==Selected paintings== <gallery mode=packed heights=160> File:Hippolyte Sebron - Vue De La Campagne De Richmond, Effet De Clair De Lune.jpg|Moonlight in Richmond, North Yorkshire (1845) File:Hippolyte Sebron - Table Rock, Niagara 1850.jpg|Table Rock, Niagara Falls (1850) Image:Hippolyte Sebron - Rue De New-York En 1840.jpg|Broadway in Winter (1855) File:Hippolyte Sebron - Bateaux A Vapeur Géants 1853.jpg|Steamboats in New Orleans (1853) File:Hippolyte Sebron - Crocodile Lake.jpg|Crocodile Lake, Louisiana (1861) File:Intérieur d'une abbaye en ruines - Hippolyte Sebron.jpg|Intérieur d'une abbaye en ruines (1848) File:Hippolyte Sebron - La Reine Victoria Au Bras De Louis-Philippe Visite Les Tombeaux Des Comtes D'Eu Le 5 Septembre 1843.jpg|''La Reine Victoria au bras de Louis-Philippe visite les tombeaux des comtes d'Eu le 5 septembre 1843'' (1845) File:Hippolyte Sebron - Intérieur De L'Eglise Saint-Denis A Saint-Omer.jpg|''Intérieur de l'église Saint-Denis à Saint-Omer'' (1835) File:Chutes du Niagara en Hiver - Hippolyte Sebron.jpg|''Chutes du Niagara en hiver'' (1856) </gallery>

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links == {{Commons category|Hippolyte Sebron}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20150413031851/http://www.knowla.org/entry/1158/%26view%3Dsummary Brief overview and biographical notes] @ Know LA (The Encyclopedia of Louisiana) by Richard Anthony Lewis, Louisiana State Museum *[http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/private/sebron_hippolyte/artworks/26278/0/ Arcadja Auctions: More works by Sebron]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sebron, Hippolyte}} Category:1801 births Category:1879 deaths Category:People from Seine-Maritime Category:Painters from Normandy Category:French landscape painters Category:Cityscape artists Category:Dioramas Category:19th-century French painters Category:19th-century French male artists