Jean-Joseph Taillasson


Jean-Joseph Taillasson was a French history painter, portraitist, draftsman, and art critic.

Biography

Taillasson was born at Blaye, near Bordeaux. His poem Le Danger des règles dans les Arts was noted with approval by the Danish visitor to Paris, Tønnes Christian Bruun-Neergaard, and an elegy Sur la Nuit, he thought, seemed fit to soften the least sensitive heart. He matured his talent in the Paris ateliers of Joseph-Marie Vien and Nicolas Bernard Lépicié and, having won third place in the Prix de Rome competition, 1769, spent four years, 1773–77, in Italy. At his return to Paris he set an early example of neoclassicism.
His Observations sur quelques grands peintres offered anti-academic advice somewhat at variance with his own manner; some of the collected observations had previously appeared in the Journal des Arts. He died in Paris.

Selected works

Self Portrait, Musée du LouvreJeune Homme, vêtu d'une robe, levant les bras, Musée du LouvreLa Nymphe surprise, Musée des Augustins, ToulouseTimoléon à qui les Syracusiens amènent des étrangers, Musée Ingres, Montauban; another version is at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tours.Un Vieillard, assis, lisant, Musée du LouvreVieillard drapé, debout, vu de dos, Musée du Louvre.Claude-Louis, comte de Saint-Germain , 1777 Musée national de VersaillesLa Naissance de Louis XIII, 1782 Musée des Beaux-Arts, PauLa Madeleine au désert, 1784 Montreal Museum of Fine ArtsUlysse et Néoptolème enlevant à Philoctète les flèches d'Hercule, 1784 Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux; this was his morceau de reception at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.Sabinus et Eponina découverts par les soldats de Vespasien 1787Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus and Octavia, 1787 Léandre et Héro, 1789 Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux"Seigneur! Voyez ces yeux", 1791 Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Tønnes Christian Bruun-Neergaard considered that it had established the painter's reputation, and remarked that it had belonged to Citoyen Godefroy, a well-known amateur, who auction dsaletranspired in 1794.Pauline, femme de Sénèque, rappelée à la vie, 1791 Musée du LouvreOlympias, 1799Andromache, 1800Rhadamate et Zénobie, 1806
  • ''Spring leading Cupid back to Nature''