Background
Gleyre was born in Chevilly, Switzerland, on May 2, 1806. His parents died when he was about eight- or nine-year-old boy. He was brought up by his uncle in Lyon, France.
Paris, France
In Paris, Gleyre enrolled at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, studying under the guidance of Louis Hersent.
Gleyre was born in Chevilly, Switzerland, on May 2, 1806. His parents died when he was about eight- or nine-year-old boy. He was brought up by his uncle in Lyon, France.
Charles Gleyre attended an industrial school in Lyon. Before moving to Paris, he started having his formal art education in Lyon under the supervision of Jean-Claude Bonnefond. In Paris, he enrolled at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, studying under the guidance of Louis Hersent. He also attended the Academie Suisse and studied watercolour technique in the studio of Richard Parkes Bonington.
In his late teens in Paris, Gleyre spent four years of his life in intense artistic studies. The following four years he lived in Italy in meditative inactivity. There he became acquainted with Horace Vernet as well as Louis Léopold Robert.
Gleyre was chosen by John Lowell Jr., an American traveler, for accompanying him on his journeys around the eastern Mediterranean, recording the scenes and ethnographic subjects they met with. In 1834 they left Italy and visited Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. They remained there together until November 1835. Then Lowell left for India. But Gleyre did not stop his travels and went to Egypt and Syria. He finally returned to France in 1838.
During his travels, he was attacked by ophthalmia or inflammation of the eye in Cairo. Moreover, in Lebanon he was also struck down by fever. So, Gleyre returned to Lyons in a shattered health. After his recovery, he went to Paris and there he opened a modest studio in the Rue de Université, implementing the ideas which had been slowly shaping his mind.
The artist created two decorative panels, Diana leaving the Bath and a Young Nubian. They were seen as the first fruits of his genius, however, they did not receive any public attention. But his Apocalyptic Vision of St John practically opened his artistic career and was presented at the Salon of 1840. In 1843 Charles Gleyre's another work Evening was produced and later it became popular under the title Lost Illusions.
Despite the success of his first ventures, Gleyre retired from the public competition and devoted the rest of his life to his artistic ideals. He participated in the exhibit at the Separation of the Apostles in 1845. However, he contributed nothing to the Salon except for the Dance of the Bacchantes in 1849. Nevertheless, he kept on working steadily and was highly productive.
He became an influential teacher in 1843, taking over the studio of Paul Delaroche, the leading private teaching atelier in Paris of the time. Jean-Léon Gérôme, Auguste Toulmouche, Jean-Louis Hamon, Whistler as well as some Impressionists, including Monet, Sisley, Renoir, and Bazille were some of his students.
Charles Gleyre did not take any fee from his students. But at the same time, he expected them to contribute towards the rent of the studio as well as the payment of models. In addition, his students were given a say in the running of the school. His last works, Earthly Paradise, was left unfinished, as he died suddenly on May 5, 1874.
Albanian Peasant
Le Retour De L'enfant Prodigue
The Queen Of Sheba
The Bath
Romans Under the Yoke
Étude Pour Le Retour Du Fils Prodigue
Armenian Priest
Madchen Und Amor
Turkish Woman
Venus Pandemos
Hercules and Omphale
Les Brigands Romains
Self Portrait
La Pudeur Égyptienne
Lost Illusions
Diana
Egyptian Temple 1840
Davel Executed
The Departure of the Apostles to Preach the Gospel
Three Fellahin
Étude De Tête D'homme
Heinrich Heine
Sappho
Antoine Henri Jomini
Cléonis Et Cydippe
Two Women with a Bouquet of Flowers
Zeibeck of Smyrna
Oriental Lady
Dance of the Bacchantes
Daphnis Et Chloe Revenant De La Montagne
After his retirement, Charles Gleyre took a keen interest in politics, and became an insatiable reader of political journals. For a time, under Louis Philippe, Gleyre's studio had been the meeting point of a sort of liberal club.
Quotations:
"When one does something, one must go back to the ancients."
"Praxiteles borrowed the better elements of a hundred imperfect models in order to create a masterpiece."
"Nature is fun to study, but style is everything."
Charles Gleyre never married.