Édouard Joseph Dantan

• Name — Édouard Joseph Dantan • Born — 26 August 1848 • Birthplace — Paris, France • Died — 7 July 1897 • Place of death — Villerville, France Édouard Joseph Dantan (26 August 1848 – 7 July 1897) was a French painter in the classical tradition. He was widely recognized and successful, even receiving grudging respect from a contemporary Modernist painter and critic Walter Sickert.

Édouard Joseph Dantan was born on 26 August 1848 in Paris. His grandfather, who had fought in the Napoleonic Wars, was a wood sculptor. His father, Antoine Laurent Dantan, and uncle, Jean-Pierre Dantan, were both well-known sculptors. Dantan was a pupil of Isidore Pils and Henri Lehmann at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. At the age of nineteen he won a commission for a large mural painting of The Holy Trinity for the Hospice Brezin at Marne (Seine-et-Oise). Dantan's first exhibit at the Paris Salon was An Episode in the Destruction of Pompeii in 1869. In 1870 the Franco-Prussian War interrupted his work, and he enlisted in the defence force. He was given the rank of a sergeant, and was later promoted to lieutenant. During the war the family home was burned down. In the years after the war Dantan exhibited a number of other paintings at the Salon including Hercules at the Feet of Omphale (1874), Death of Timophane (1875), The Nymph Salmacis (1876), Priam Demanding of Achillees the Body of Hector (1877), Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew (1878), Corner of a Studio (1880) and The Breakfast of the Model (1881). He continued to exhibit at the Salon until 1895. In 1890, 1894 and 1895 he served on the jury of the Salon. For twelve years Dantan's companion was the model Agostina Segatori, who had also posed for artists such as Jean-Baptiste Corot, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Eugène Delacroix and Édouard Manet. She bore a child to Dantan, Jean-Pierre, in 1873. On their separation, Agostina opened Café du Tambourin on the Boulevard de Clichy that became a meeting place for artists.Agostina was painted in 1887 in her café by Vincent van Gogh in the painting Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin. Dantan spent his summers in Villerville, where he died on 9 July 1897 when the carriage in which he was riding crashed violently into the village church.

• Illustration — Fête Foraine de Saint-Cloud (1879) • Illustration — Un Coin du Salon en 1880 At first, Dantan's subjects were mainly drawn from classical mythology or religious subjects, as was common in his day. Later he made a number of paintings of scenes from sculpture workshops, familiar from his childhood. He also painted portraits and views of Villerville. • 1869 Episode of the destruction of Pompeii • 1872 The Trinity, chapel of the Hospital in Brezen-on-the-Marne • 1872 Portrait His father, working on a marble bust • 1874 Hercules at the feet of Omphale • 1874 A monk as a wood sculptor, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes • 1875 The Quoit-Thrower, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen • 1876 The Nymph Salmacis • 1878 Phrosine et Mélidore after Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux • 1879 Fête Foraine de Saint-Cloud • 1880 Christ on the Cross, Church of Dombrowa, Poland • 1880 Un Coin d'atelier, Paris, Palais du Luxembourg (filed in 1925, not found in 1977) • 1880 Un Coin du Salon de 1880 (sale Sotheby's New York, 24 May 1995) • 1881 Le déjeuner du modèle • 1882 Corpus Christi Day • 1884 Burial of a child, Villerville, Musée Malraux, Le Havre • 1885 Shooting their nets • 1886 Entracte Un à la Comedie-Francaise de première un soir, en 1885, Comédie-Française, Paris • 1887 Un moulage sur Nature, Konstmuseum Gothenburg, Gothenburg • 1887 L'Atelier du sculptor • 1893 Le Paradou (after Émile Zola), [MSK Ghent, Belgium]

• Illustration — A monk as a wood sculptor (1874) • Illustration — Phrosine et Mélidore (1878) • Illustration — Portrait (ca 1880) • Illustration — Portrait (ca 1880) • Illustration — Burial of a child, Villerville (1884) • Illustration — A Casting from Life (1887) • Illustration — Sculptor • Illustration — Studioscene (ca 1890) • Illustration — A Restoration (1891) • Illustration — Portrait (ca 1890) • Illustration — alt= Hercules at the feet of Omphale (1874)

• "Édouard Dantan, de l'atelier à la lumière" Manoir de Villers, Saint-Pierre-de-Manneville, Normandy Impressionist Festival 2010