Léon Adolphe Auguste Belly
Young woman in turkish jacket
Oil on canvas
RMN-Grand Palais, Magnin museum
French Orientalist Painter Léon Belly was born at St. Omer, in 1827. He took his first painting lessons from his mother. The artist, whose subjects are based on orientalism, has technically adopted the soft style of romanticism. After being admitted to the Polytechnic School, he chose painting as a career. He worked with history painter François Edouard Picot and landscape painter Constant Troyon. But it was primarily through his contacts and friendship with the Barbizon painters that he received his artistic training.
Léon Belly (1827–1877)
Pilgrims Going to Mecca, c. 1861
Oil on canvas
Height: 1,610 mm (63.38 in); Width: 2,420 mm (95.27 in)
Musée d'Orsay
For this work, regarded, from the moment it was presented, to be a masterpiece of Orientalist painting, Belly chose to present an ambitious subject on a canvas of unusually large size. It depicts a long caravan crossing the desert, making its way towards Mecca, Islam's holiest city and place of pilgrimage for all Muslims.
At the 1861 Salon, Belly received a first class medal for his Pilgrims, the highest award. The public particularly liked the bold effect produced by the long procession as it advances towards the spectator.
Léon Belly (1827–1877)
Detail; Pilgrims Going to Mecca, c. 1861
Oil on canvas
Height: 1,610 mm (63.38 in); Width: 2,420 mm (95.27 in)
Musée d'Orsay
In this painting, the artist introduces a very discreet ecumenical dimension to his work. On the left, he portrays a group of three people: a man walking alongside a woman and her child on a donkey (See above). It is a striking reference to the widely used motif in painting, of the "flight to Egypt" of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Through this association, Belly is indicating his commitment to the idea that, beyond the divisions, there exists a universal religion, one faith and one God. More on this painting
Léon Belly is known above all for his imposing painting entitled Pilgrims going to Mecca (See above), considered one of the masterpieces of Orientalist painting.
Purchased by the French State in 1861, hung in the Musée du Luxembourg until 1881, and now in the Musée du Louvre, it saved Belly’s name from oblivion during the years when other nineteenth-century artists were in limbo, victims of changing taste in art.
Private collection
After his marriage in 1862, Belly gave up any ideas of more great journeys, but soon won a solid reputation as an Orientalist painter. The 1861 Salon, with views of the Near East and, above all, Pilgrims, was a personal triumph. Although the great importance of the latter was the originality of its lighting, Belly intended this impressive painting to have a greater signification than a mere recording of this religious event, when the sacred carpet, the mahmal, was carried with the pilgrims to Mecca. As P. Wintrebert points out, the Holy Family can be seen to the left: Belly believed that there was a universal religion and one faith in the same God.
Although he continued to exhibit successfully at the Paris Salons during the next few years The Sirens was bought by the State in 1867, by 1874, he failed to find any purchasers for his work. He spent much of his time in his chåteau of Montboulan and although temporarily paralysed, soon recovered enough to work again. He died of apoplexy in his Paris home in 1877. More on Léon Belly
Léon-Adolphe-Auguste Belly, SAINT OMER 1827 - PARIS 1877
BIG RIDDEN CAMEL GRAZING, STUDY FOR PILGRIMS GOING TO MECCA
Oil on canvas
60,5 x 50 cm ; 23 3/4 by 19 3/4 in.
Léon Belly, 1827-1877
Gazelle Hunt in Egypt, c. 1857
Oil on canvas
74 by 145cm., 29 by 57in.
Private collection
The proud stances of the camels and their riders, the fluttering robes, bright sun, and vivid colours combine to make this a work of true bravura, and bear testimony to Belly's genius at capturing the stark light and desert winds of the Egyptian Sinai.
The Gazelle Hunt was most likely worked up from sketches Belly made in 1856 during his excursion into the Sinai desert with fellow painters Narcisse Berchère and Jean-Léon Gérôme.
'From the wells of Moses we’ve followed a large plain, partly of sand, partly covered with large pebbles… On the left in the far distance, a chain of low, harsh, fractured mountains. This vast landscape, arid and abandoned, is always of the suavest colour; it seems that nature, so severe here and offering nothing that can refresh the senses, has been provided by way of compensation with the most seductive qualities of light and colour,' Belly wrote to his mother on 30 April 1856. More on this painting
His pictures remained in the hands of friends and collectors who bought them at the 1878 studio sale, or were kept by his widow and children. Despite successive donations by the family to museums in Switzerland and France, it is only recently that his other works have begun to be rediscovered and appreciated.
Belly’s first journey to the Near East was in 1850, when he and another painter, Léon Loysel, accompanied a scientific mission to study the local historical geography, led by LCF. Caignart de Saulcy. They skirted the Dead Sea, and in April the following year, Belly and Loysel went north to Beirut before visiting Cairo and Alexandria. Belly’s pictures of this trip, such as the classical ruins of Baalbek and the curious olive trees at Nabi Jonas, between Beirut and Sidon, show a certain influence of Prosper Marilhat in both colouring and treatment.
Back in France, Belly painted the Fontainebleau forest and spent an active social life with his own musical evenings and gatherings with the artistic and literary circle that had formed around the painter Jules Laurens. His first Salon in 1853 included pictures of the outskirts of Beirut and Cairo. At the Paris 1855 Universal Exhibition, however, he showed French landscapes and the portrait of the great Italian exile Daniel Manin.
Belly’s first journey to the Near East was in 1850, when he and another painter, Léon Loysel, accompanied a scientific mission to study the local historical geography, led by LCF. Caignart de Saulcy. They skirted the Dead Sea, and in April the following year, Belly and Loysel went north to Beirut before visiting Cairo and Alexandria. Belly’s pictures of this trip, such as the classical ruins of Baalbek and the curious olive trees at Nabi Jonas, between Beirut and Sidon, show a certain influence of Prosper Marilhat in both colouring and treatment.
Léon Belly (1827–1877)
Ulysses And The Sirens, c. 1867
Oil on canvas
Height: 363 cm (11.9 ft); Width: 300 cm (118.1 in)
Musée de l'hôtel Sandelin, Pas-de-Calais, France
The Sirens and Ulysses is a large oil painting on canvas by Léon Belly, first exhibited in 1867. It depicts the scene from Homer's Odyssey in which Ulysses (Odysseus) resists the bewitching song of the Sirens by having his ship's crew tie him up, while they are ordered to block their own ears to prevent themselves from hearing the song.
Back in France, Belly painted the Fontainebleau forest and spent an active social life with his own musical evenings and gatherings with the artistic and literary circle that had formed around the painter Jules Laurens. His first Salon in 1853 included pictures of the outskirts of Beirut and Cairo. At the Paris 1855 Universal Exhibition, however, he showed French landscapes and the portrait of the great Italian exile Daniel Manin.
Leon Belly
IN THE ORIENTAL Bazaar
Oil on wooden plate
37.5 x 21 cm
Private collection
Belly returned to the Eastern world in October 1855, this time to Egypt, where he stayed in the palace of Soliman Pasha in Old Cairo. In the following spring, he visited the Sinai desert with his friend Narcisse Berchöre ; the two artists often painted the same views. Berchöre was to buy Banks of the Nile, shown at the London Universal Exhibition in 1862, in Belly’s studio sale.
Belly’s desert landscapes are remarkable, empty of figures, their strange, almost fantastic atmosphere depending only on the rise and fall of the arid ground. “The colours and contours of the landscape are breathtakingly beautiful,” he wrote to his mother. “There are no words to describe the gorgeous colourings, the stunning harmony of an almost violet sky above the sand tinged with mingled purple and gold against a turquoise sea.” Two other canvases, now in the Musée des Arts Africains et Océaniens in Paris, The Libyan Desert and The Dead Sea (Belly’s most famous painting after Pélerins (Pilgrims), also impart a striking and disturbing appearance to the desolateness of these regions.
With Edouard Imer, whom he had met in Cairo, Géröme, Berchöre and Bartholdi, Belly explored the Nile in July to October 1856, painting a series of small pictures, either from the boat on which they were travelling, or from the water’s edge. They show his strong interest in colour harmonies and appreciation of light values. He also made naturalistic studies of camels and buffaloes and oil sketches of figures in bold strokes, where mass and forceful presence prevail over any anecdotal detail. Already struck on a previous visit by the nobility of the gestures made by the Egyptian fellah women (See below), he made further studies for the picture painted in 1863, his first with figures. Belly returned once more to Egypt, in 1857, when Louis Mouchot became his pupil.
Belly’s desert landscapes are remarkable, empty of figures, their strange, almost fantastic atmosphere depending only on the rise and fall of the arid ground. “The colours and contours of the landscape are breathtakingly beautiful,” he wrote to his mother. “There are no words to describe the gorgeous colourings, the stunning harmony of an almost violet sky above the sand tinged with mingled purple and gold against a turquoise sea.” Two other canvases, now in the Musée des Arts Africains et Océaniens in Paris, The Libyan Desert and The Dead Sea (Belly’s most famous painting after Pélerins (Pilgrims), also impart a striking and disturbing appearance to the desolateness of these regions.
Léon Belly, French, 1827-1877
LA DAHABIEH ENGRAVÉE/ THE ENGRAVED DAHABIEH, ÉGYPTE, c. 1877
Oil on canvas
110 by 153cm., 43 1/4 by 60 1/4 in.
Private collection
Wooden houseboats, called dahabieh, were a common sight along the Nile until the building of the Aswan High Dam. The name derives from the Arabic word dahab or gold, as up until the early nineteenth century dahabieh owners were required to paint their outer walls in gold. These boats ranged in size from veritable floating palaces belonging to the ruling family, which had to be towed by tug boats, to working transports powered by sail or steam. Belly depicts one of the most popular types of dahabieh, combining flat decking for goods with living quarters for the skipper and his family or crew.
Here, a dahabieh has run aground in shallows on the banks of the Nile at Luxor. Bare-chested men use poles and their own body weight to try to dislodge it. The sail is hoisted in the hope that the wind will provide the extra force to set the boat free. In the background, on the far bank of the Nile, the distinctive red granite hills safeguarding the Valley of the Kings beyond glow in the morning sunlight. More on this painting
LÉON BELLY, French, 1827-1877
BUFFALOES BATHING IN THE NILE, c. 1861
Oil on canvas
100 by 142cm., 39½ by 56in.
Private collection
The setting, the west bank of the Nile near the village of Giza, with its stark terrain of tall palms, mud flats and winding streams, formed the backdrop to many of his paintings. Here, a cowherd corrals his animals towards such a stream, presumably a tributary of the Nile, to drink and cool off. The artist's observation of light is striking - the whole scene is backlit with the bright desert sun glinting off the backs of the animals' hides as well as the herder's robes and headdress. More on this painting
Léon Belly (1827–1877)
View of Shubra, c. 1862
Oil on canvas
Private collection
Léon Belly (1827–1877)
Egyptian fellah women, 1856
Oil on canvas
Height: 98 cm (38.5 in) ; Width: 130 cm (51.1 in)
Private collection
Léon Belly (1827–1877)
The Beautiful Shepherd Girl
Oil on canvas
94 x 64cm (37 x 25in)
Private collection
After his marriage in 1862, Belly gave up any ideas of more great journeys, but soon won a solid reputation as an Orientalist painter. The 1861 Salon, with views of the Near East and, above all, Pilgrims, was a personal triumph. Although the great importance of the latter was the originality of its lighting, Belly intended this impressive painting to have a greater signification than a mere recording of this religious event, when the sacred carpet, the mahmal, was carried with the pilgrims to Mecca. As P. Wintrebert points out, the Holy Family can be seen to the left: Belly believed that there was a universal religion and one faith in the same God.
Léon Belly, French, 1827-1877
Interior of a Harem
Oil on canvas
I have no further description, at this time
Please visit my other blogs: Art
Collector, Mythology, Marine
Art, Portrait of a Lady, The
Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The
Canals of Venice, Middle
East Artists, 365
Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest
Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others.
Some Images may be subject to copyright
I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless
it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell
me.
I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are
shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.
If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.
Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.
Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.
No comments:
Post a Comment