Louis Buvelot

Subjects and genres recorded for the work are landscape. Work by Louis Buvelot is recorded in the collections of National Gallery of Victoria, Tate, National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia and Art Gallery of New South Wales. Distinctions recorded are Imperial Order of the Rose.

• Name — Louis Buvelot • Birth Name — Abram-Louis Buvelot • Born — 3 March 1814 • Birthplace — Morges, Vaud, Switzerland • Died — 3 March 1814 • Place of death — Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Resting Place — Kew Cemetery • Known for — Landscape painting • Movement — Plein air • Spouse — *Marie-Félicité Lalouette (born 1816) • Caroline-Julie Beguin (18251902) • Awards — Order of the Rose

Buvelot was born on 3 March 1814 in Morges, Vaud, Switzerland, second son of François Simeon Buvelot, postal official, and his wife Jeanne-Louise née Heizer, a school teacher. Buvelot got a job teaching art at a private school in Switzerland. Buvelot's uncle had a plantation in Brazil. Buvelot lived in Brazil for four years in Bahia and Rio. He returned to Switzerland in 1852. He left his family in La Chaux-de-Fonds and sailed from Liverpool bound for Melbourne, Australia in 1864 accompanied by Caroline-Julie Beguin, a teacher. Buvelot moved to Melbourne in 1865 for his health. He worked as a photographer for time before settling in Fitzroy. • Illustration — Louis Buvelot, c.1883 Buvelot died at his home on George St, Fitzroy on 30 May 1888. He was 75. He was buried at the Boroondara Cemetery, where a large monument was erected in his memory. Buvelot's widow, also an artist, died in 1902. The couple had no children. Buvelot is best known for his great contribution to Australian art. His works, mostly oil landscapes, are quite well regarded, but perhaps his impact was even greater as a tutor of several members of the Heidelberg School, including Arthur Streeton, who named Buvelot's 1866 painting Summer Evening Near Templestowe the "first fine landscape painted in Victoria". His enthusiasm for plein air painting (that is, painting directly in the open air) was a key characteristic of those artists' work.

• Illustration — Summer Afternoon, Templestowe, 1866 • Illustration — At Lilydale, 1870 • Illustration — One of the Falls of the Wannon, 1872 • Illustration — Macedon Ranges, 1874