Eugène Burnand was a Swiss painter and illustrator. He was a representative of the Realist art movement.
Background
Burnand was born in Moudon, Switzerland, on August 30, 1850. He was the son of prosperous and well-educated parents who taught him to appreciate art and the countryside. Eugène Burnand was born in the property of his grandfather, Charles Burnand, where he spent his early years. His father, a forestry inspector, was Edouard Burnand and his mother was Henriette Louise (Foltz) Burnand. Eugène Burnand was the youngest of three brothers, who had already left home when he was born, working in Paris. He was a descendant of a bourgeois family, which resided in Moudon for a long time. Many members of the Burnand family were engaged in the civic establishment of the town.
The Burnand family moved for a short period of time to Florence in 1860 and in seven months they returned to Schaffhouse (northern Switzerland).
Education
Eugène studied at the secondary college of Schaffhouse. On leaving school, his father advised him to study architecture at Zurich so he might have a reliable means of earning a living. He abandoned architecture after getting his diploma in 1871. It was the time he realized his talents and interests in art. The same year he went to Geneva and started his studies under the guidance of the famous artist, Barthélemy Menn. A few months later he went to Paris and found himself in a talented circle of young Swiss and French artists where he continued his studies under Jean-Leon Gérôme.
Career
In 1877 Burnand spent time in Florence and Rome, but the following year he returned to France and settled in Versailles, obtaining new skills from the workshop of his wife's family, who were the widely known painters and engravers. Eugène Burnand created many successful paintings of animals while in Provence. In 1879 the painter made one of his most famous large works, La Pompe à Feu, an action picture with men and horses.
He took another step to fame in 1880 by providing illustrations for a new edition of the famous contemporary epic poem Mireille, created by the Provençal poet Frédéric Mistral. He became a lifelong friend of Mistral and one of Eugène Burnand's daughters was named for him. In 1883 he was commissioned to produce watercolours for a special set of novels by Alphonse Daudet. His large striking picture, Bull in the Alps, was completed in 2 months of 1884 near Arolla in the Herens Valley, Valais, Switzerland. This picture demonstrated his mastery of animal painting and understanding of the importance of animals in Swiss rural life. In 1885 Burnand was commisioned to draw a portrait for the first time. This same year he moved with his family from Versailles to Paris.
In 1889 the artist presided over the Swiss fine arts commission for their contribution to the Universal Exhibition of Fine Arts in Paris. The winter of 1890-1891 he spent at Seppey, near Moudon, Switzerland, where he worked on Dans les Haut Patûrages for Nestlé. In 1895, after the death of his parents, he moved with his family of eight children to a farmstead property in Fontfroide-le-Haut near Montpellier. It was during his time in Montpellier that Burnand became seriously focused on religious art. In the year 1898 Eugène Burnand's best known work The Disciples (top left on this page) was completed. It was bought by the French State for the Luxembourg Museum in Paris, and is nowadays it can be found in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
He went to London in 1901 to organize an exhibition of his latest work The Sacerdotal (High Priestly) Prayer. On his way back to Montpellier the painter met with publishers and laid the ground for the Les Paraboles (The Parables) project. He spent four productive years on the production of the Parables paintings bought by the Vaud Canton. In 1907 he moved to Paris and remained there until 1914.
The first Eugène Burnand illustrated edition of Les Paraboles was finally published in 1908 by Berger-Levrault. The following year he produced a desing for the 500 and 1000 franc notes for the Swiss Bank. In 1914 he returned with his large family to Seppey, where they lived till the First World War was over. In May 1915 he started to work on his painting Labour dans le Jurat, which was finished in October. Unfortunatelly, it was destroyed by fire near Lausanne the next January. He did the second of the artwork version in October 1916. During this period he also started to organize conferences on religion and art.
When the war was over, Burnand returned with his family to Paris, where they lived at the same residence they had left 4 years before. Having suffered small heart attacks around this time, the artist developed pneumonia in February 1921.
the Disciples Peter and John Running to the Tomb on the Morning of the Resurrection
Heimgefunden
Military Types, Fantassin Desvignes from Burgundy
Taureau Dans Les Alpes
Self Portrait
Feuersnot
Algerian Spahi Mohamed Osman from Oran
Das Hohepriesterliche Gebet
Sermon on the Mount Windows at Herzogenbuchsee Reformed Church near Berne
Die Ährenleserinnen
Labour Dans Le Jorat
Herd of Cattle Beside the Sea
Kuh (studie)
Ange Orsi, D'eugène Burnand
Donkeys in the Midi
Via Dolorosa
Flight of Charles the Bold
Bull in the Alps
Dans la montagne
"Femme d’Evolène", juillet 1888
L'Abreuvoir
La maternité
La fournée au village
La promenade du soir au couvent
Im Gebet
Amtstube mit sitzenden Herren vor dem Ofen
Junges Mädchen in Walliser Tracht
Religion
Burnand was raised by Protestant parents. He became a deeply religious man.
Views
Eugène Burnand was distinguished by his reactionary and moralistic views. This was the main reason for his unpopularity with Swiss contemporaries.
Connections
In 1878 Eugène Burnand married Julia Girardet seven years later after they had met for the first time. Their first child, André, was born in 1879 but eventually died aged 18 months. Burnand's second son, Franz, was born in 1880. The couple went on to have five more sons (including a set of twins), René Burnand, Marcel Burnand, David Burnand, Daniel Burnand, Antony Charles Edouard Burnand, and twin girls, Mireille Cooper and Rita Page, born in 1893, all of whom had successful and sometimes remarkable lives.