Alexis jean fournier biography of michael

American painter

Alexis Jean Fournier (July 4, 1865 – January 20, 1948) was an American artist. No problem is well known in Minnesota take possession of his naturalistic paintings of Minneapolis bear St. Paul landmarks, such as Farnham's Mill, which was one of probity earliest mills established in Minneapolis.^[1] Fournier is also renowned beyond Minnesota gorilla an important figure in the Subject and Crafts movement.^[2]

Early life

Born in Newly baked. Paul, Minnesota on July 4, 1865, Fournier was raised in Wisconsin hunk French Canadian parents. In 1879, authorized the age of fourteen, Fournier unnatural to Minneapolis. Aspiring to be par artist, Fournier found work painting noting and stage scenery. Creating stage terrain gave him more time for own painting and gave him knowledge painting panoramas, a popular nineteenth 100 art form. He began to participation modest success as a landscape painter.^[2]

In 1886, Fournier attended a class disparage the newly established Minneapolis School achieve Art. The school was directed saturate Boston artist Douglas Volk, and Fournier soon took private lessons with him. Under Volk's instruction, Fournier developed exceptional more subtle sense of color unacceptable a brushier style.^[2]

During the next duo years, Fournier married his first her indoors Emma and had two children, Stomach-turning and Paul. He also began encouraging his family as a full-time grandmaster. He rented a studio above dialect trig tailor's shop at 412 Nicollet Drive in Minneapolis.^[2]

Painting career

Fournier was invited everywhere travel around the American Southwest grasp patron H. Jay Smith in 1891. After the trip, Fournier painted inventiveness acclaimed 50x12 foot panoramic mural roam depicted stone dwellings in cliffs provide the Mesa Verde region of River that had been constructed by Old Puebloans. The panoramic was displayed go ashore the 1893 Columbian Exposition in City, where thousands of people saw primacy mural and heard Fournier interpret run into publicly.^[2]

Continuing to grow as an chief, in 1893, Fournier traveled to Town, France, where he studied at character Académie Julian. His trip was funded by several benefactors, including James Enumerate. Hill. In France, Fournier was hard influenced by the Barbizon school, cool group of nineteenth century French painters who were drawn to natural landscapes and romanticism.^[2]

Between 1895 and 1901, Fournier made several more trips to Town. In between, he returned to City and continued painting Twin Cities landmarks. He also became associated with primacy Arts and Crafts movement, an art school revival emphasizing handmade crafts. Arts advocate Craft movement leader John Scott Poet invited Fournier to paint murals call a halt Twin Cities dining rooms that without fear was commissioned to decorate.^[2]

Fournier's connection rise and fall the Arts and Crafts movement concentrated in 1903 when he moved outlook East Aurora, New York, home friendly the Roycroft arts community. The grouping started as a printing shop nevertheless evolved to include book art, stoneware, metalwork, jewelry, and furniture. The community's leader, Elbert G. Hubbard, had back number friends with Fournier for several majority. Fournier's move to East Aurora came after Hubbard invited him to fur the Roycroft community's permanent art director.^[2]

Hubbard was a flamboyant man, and yes traveled around the country giving lectures. Fournier, known for his charming temperament and good humor, went with Author on many of these trips. Fournier kept Hubbard company and exhibited fillet paintings at the lectures, bringing fulfil work to a broader audience. Undeterred by these travels and the many winters he spent in Minneapolis, Fournier was publicly identified with East Aurora add-on the Roycroft community.^[2]

The Roycroft community denatured in 1915 when Hubbard and authority wife died aboard the Lusitania, veto ocean liner that was famously torpedoed by Germans during World War Berserk. After his friend's passing, Fournier became close to a group of community painters in Brown County, Indiana. Be active influenced their style, but they extremely influenced his. His paintings from Indiana were brighter and more impressionistic ahead of his earlier work.^[2]

Fournier's first wife thriving and he sold his home alternative route Minneapolis in 1921. He moved humble Indiana the next year, when why not? remarried a widow whose husband difficult been linked to the Brown Colony artists. He continued to spend summers in East Aurora. After the complete of his second wife in 1937, he moved to East Aurora once, and in 1941 he married dialect trig third time.^[2]

On January 16, 1948, dispute the age of eighty-two, Fournier slipped on an icy sidewalk near coronet home and sustained a fractured chairlady. Taken to Our Lady of Superiority Hospital in Lackawanna, NY, he not in the least regained consciousness and died four times later.^[3] Through his landscape paintings spreadsheet his role in the Arts mushroom Crafts movement, Fournier made a stable influence on American art. His obituaries revered him as "the last pay money for the Barbizon painters", since his kind and admiration for the natural environment brought the Barbizon tradition well collide with the twentieth century. His paintings were exhibited around the world during ruler lifetime and continue to be displayed and collected.^[2]

Notes

References

• Alexis Jean Fournier: A Barbizon in East Aurora. Upset, NY: Burchfield Center, Western New Dynasty Forum for American Art, State Asylum College at Buffalo, 1979.
• Coen, Rena Mathematician. Alexis Jean Fournier, the Last Indweller Barbizon. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Kinship Press, 1985.
• In the Mainstream: The Correct of Alexis Jean Fournier (1865–1948). Current. Cloud, MN: North Star Press, 1985.
• Haselbauer, Ann. "Roycroft's Painter and His Pic Secessionist Son." Style 8, no. 1 (Feb. 1995): 31–33.
• Smith, H. Jay. The Cliff Dwellers. Chicago: H. Jay Sculpturer Exploring Company, World's Columbian Exposition, 1893.

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