This listing is for a mid-19th century study of a standing male nude by the artist Auguste Bouchet, who studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under neoclassical and romantic painter Léon Cogniet. The drawing is executed in charcoal on laid paper and comes from a portfolio of drawings by the artist. This sheet is dated 30 decembre 1852, indicating it was made just prior to the artist joining Cogniet's studio.

Cogniet was himself a master draftsman and taught his students to render the figure with a truthful, three-dimensional realism. Whereas earlier generations aspired to depict idealized versions of the models they studied—known as “le beau ideal”—, a more realistic approach developed as the 19th century progressed and by mid century, academic drawing more or less depicted faces and bodies as they appeared, celebrating the differences and idiosyncrasies of the individual. In this way, figure drawings of this era are a sort of democratic portraiture that leave us a detailed record of the models active at each school and, among those who were engaged over a long period, a fascinating look at how their bodies changed through time.

A recent article by Michel Mauger notes that, upon his arrival in 1853 Bouchet received the first drawing medal in the master's studio and that, in 1855, while he was still in the same workshop, he was distinguished with a first gold medal at the annual painting competition. Bouchet appears to have kept this drawing throughout his lifetime as it came to auction along with a large cache of drawings and sketches made abroad and stamped with the mark of his studio. This particular sheet is not signed but it bears inscriptions written in Bouchet's hand.

All photos are taken in natural daylight; as such, there is some variation in color and brightness between shots.

The drawing measures approximately 18 1/2"w x 24 1/4"h. It is in overall good condition with some scattered dirt and surface imperfections throughout. There are minor creases near the edges, a long diagonal crease toward the left side of the page, and subtle creases across the center from folding long ago. Note the small amount of water staining at bottom left and a group of spots near the date. There is a small tear toward the middle along the bottom edge of the sheet. 

Interestingly, there is a "ghost portrait" on the back, transferred from another sheet in the portfolio.

See images to verify condition and feel free to ask questions.

 
Auguste Bouchet (1831-1889) was a landscape and genre painter primarily known for Orientalist scenes. Born in Aubenas, in the south-east of France, Bouchet studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Léon Cogniet (1794-1880) beginning in 1853. He started exhibiting work at the Salon in 1859 and was active there through the 1860s and 70s. His painting of a road in the forest of Montmorency was shown at the Salon des Refusés in 1863. Bouchet died in Cairo.

Bouchet was profiled in a marvelous essay, “The Vivarois landscape”, by the historian Charles-Albin Mazon in his 1878 Voyage aux pays volcanilues du Vivarais (Journey to the volcanic countries of Vivarais). Vivarais is a traditional region of southeastern France that covered lands encompassed by today’s Ardèche department, along the Ardèche river in the modern Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Mazon describes a pensive, wistful painter discussing a difficult market for landscape paintings. It’s not hard to imagine Bouchet's heart, at least at the end of his career, was set more on the lands of his birth than on those of the exotic (and more salable) Islamic world.

I saw, not very long ago, in the studio of Auguste Bouchet, some landscapes where the powerful character, high in tone and color, of Vivare nature, is widely understood and executed. These landscapes, which were taken at Valsou in the vicinity of Aubenas, fulfill the hopes that his beautiful canvas of "César's camp" had inspired among amateurs, which appeared at the 1869 Salon and which was bought at 4,000 francs by the Emperor for the museum of Saint Germain.

Auguste Bouchet has since made several remarkable paintings. I will confine myself to quoting "La Paysanne napolitaine", purchased by M . Broët, "Mahboul, or the Arab Fool", and "Prayer in the Arab Camp at Sunrise". These last two appeared at the 1877 Salon, and one can say that they obtained the unanimous vote of connoisseurs. 

M. Bouchet sent to the Salon of this year (1878) a canvas, of large size, in which the ravishing landscape of Aubenas and its surroundings, seen from the side of Fontbonne, is marvelously framed in a morning effect. One would believe to see rising and vanishing, with the dew, the white vapors which still fill the numerous folds of the mountain, while the sun, hidden behind the old manor of Aubenas, brushes against the tips of the rocks and the trees and is already in the waters of the Ardèche.

Why, I said one day to Bouchet, don't you cultivate the landscape of Vivare more? Do you know a better way to get to fame and fortune?

He answered a little melancholy: I couldn't ask for anything better than to indulge in the Vivarois landscape. I must even say that those you see won me precious votes, for they are those of our great masters, the Baudrys, the Fromentins, the Gérômes; - but..... it doesn't sell. Artists sense that there is something there; they are almost the only ones who watch and appreciate this kind of painting. But the public does not seize and buy nothing.

He will come there, I replied, as he came to the Decamps and the Delacroix, whom he did not appreciate at first any better than your landscapes.


For more on Bouchet’s life and career, see the 2017 article by Michel Mauger in Revue du Vivarais, “De la France vers l'Orient : le peintre Auguste Bouchet”. A translated excerpt is copied below:

Painter of Albenassian origin, August Bouchet is an artist who remains unknown, even in Ardèche, despite the presence of some of his works in the town halls of Aubenas or Privas. Other works have been deposited since the 19th century in French museums but no exhibition has ever been devoted to him.

However, around twenty paintings have gone on sale in France and abroad in recent years. His work oscillates between his roots, the Ardèche, which he does not forget, and the Orient which, like so many other artists of the 19th century, fascinates him. He tackled several themes, the landscape of course, but also the scenes of daily life, the portrait.

Auguste Bouchet was born in Aubenas rue Sainte-Anne on August 5, 1831, in a modest environment. His father, André Bouchet, was a wigmaker, barber, and cabinetmaker. His mother, Jeanne Favet, took care of the home. He is a child that his parents had late because his father was then 45 years old and his mother 35 years old. Auguste's sister, Marie-Louise, was born on April 20, 1824, also in Aubenas.

Nothing is known of Auguste Bouchet's childhood.

It would be the sight of the painter Louis-Jules Rousseau, painting, that attracts the child to painting. The artist was to become his first master. Rousseau was a pupil of Jean-Dominique Ingres. A painting by him, La Fortune, is kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Valence.

Auguste Bouchet entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris on March 31, 1853 and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet.

Léon Cogniet (Paris, August 29, 1794 - November 20, 1880) was a romantic and neoclassical painter. Pupil of Pierre-Narcisse Guérin (1774-1833), his classmates were Eugene Delacroix and Theodore Géricault. Prix de Rome in 1817, he entered the Salon the same year. His greatest success came to him in 1843 with "Tintoretto painting his dead daughter" (Bordeaux Museum). He then devoted himself mainly to portraits and teaching.

This is how Cogniet was appointed professor of painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1851. He resigned in 1863.

Upon his arrival in 1853 Auguste Bouchet received the first drawing medal in the master's studio. In 1855, while he was still in the same workshop, he was distinguished with a first gold medal at the great annual painting competition.

After his education, the young artist embarked on a career as a professional painter. He exhibited at the Salon from 1863 to 1883. In 1878 he received a gold medal at the Saint-Germain-en-Laye exhibition and a diploma of honor at the Castres exhibition.

According to the catalogs of the Salon, the painter lived in 1865 at 8 boulevard Pigalle, and in 1866, 4 boulevard Clichy in Montmartre, 23 rue Turgot in 1875...

Auguste Bouchet was married on an unknown date to Esther Bernard. A son was born from this union.

The State acquired three paintings by the painter. They were deposited in the museums of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Lectoure and Privas.

Auguste Bouchet was the friend of the senator mayor Victor Pradal, an art critic of great value. Born on March 23, 1844 in Aubenas, Victor Pradal was a lawyer in Privas, mayor of Aubenas, president of the General Council of the Ardèche until 1898, deputy for the Ardèche from 1880 to 1885 (group of the Republican Union) , senator from 1885 to his death on July 20, 1910.

Auguste Bouchet also maintained excellent relations with Albin Mazon who devoted an article to him, under his pseudonym of Doctor Francus, on the occasion of the artist's death in the journal Patriote of March 24, 1889. The famous Ardèche scholar there admits owning three of the painter's paintings. The sunrise, "in which is framed the landscape of Aubenas, seen from the side of Fontbonne (1871) and a reduction of the painting of the goatherds and a charming African landscape". And Albin Mazon to add:

and the author's death makes these canvases doubly precious for us, as they remind us... of the too little-known talent of Auguste Bouchet...

And in another article, published in 1906, the Ardèche historian specifies:

Bouchet is a true artist, and, moreover, he was a worker: like the speeches of Demosthenes, his canvases smell of oil, that is to say patient and thoughtful work, and they are none the worse for it, on the contrary. He was one of those who know that talent, unfertilized by study, is like good land left fallow. He studied and worked so tirelessly and every salon you could see the mark of his progress...

From the beginning of the 1870s, Auguste Bouchet gave in to the artistic fashion of the time: travel to the Orient. He thus made several trips, notably to Algeria. Sensitive to light, he creates works in which his mastery of color improves. His favorite themes are landscapes, scenes of daily life and characters.

He took the plunge in 1883: from 1883 to 1887, he went to live in Algeria. And in 1887 he reached Cairo with a mission from the Ministry of Public Instruction.

According to Albin Mazon:

he had left for Cairo, with the project of opening a drawing and painting school there. The following year, an Egyptian sheet announced that he had been appointed by the Khedive as an officer of the Medjidie.

He adds in the article in Le Patriote of March 24, 1889:

in the last years he spent in Paris, he lived a lot more from his drawing and painting lessons than from the sale of his paintings, the undeniable merit of which was also highly appreciated by amateurs: but amateurs are rare , and among them very few can satisfy their artistic taste. Is this what determined him to leave France for Egypt?

Auguste Bouchet was to die in Cairo on March 11, 1888, as a result of an illness "which for several months had left no hope for the family”.

The artist's widow and son donated two paintings to the town of Aubenas, "Girls with goats" and "La spinner arlésienne". In memory of the painter, the municipality of Aubenas replaced in 1906 the name of rue Sainte-Anne where the artist was born by that of Auguste Bouchet.

 
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