Cheers,
Justin
Leroy, Louis (Joseph)
(b Paris, 1812; d Paris, 1885). French critic and painter. He painted
landscapes and showed at the Salon between 1835 and 1861. He exhibited
mainly scenes of the Fontainebleau forest, an area made famous by the
Barbizon school and also depicted by the Impressionists. In the 1860s he
singled out Manet for attack, complaining that his work lacked the high
finish and concern for detail that he admired in academic art. He is,
however, remembered chiefly for his article of 25 April 1874 in the
satirical magazine Le Charivari, which criticizes the first Impressionist
exhibition, though his hostility to avant-garde art was already well
established. His frequent punning use of the term ‘impression’ has led to
his being credited with giving the movement its name, though it was in use
by others. He dismissed Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (1873; Paris,
Mus. Marmottan; see Impressionism, fig. 1) as less finished than
half-manufactured wallpaper and castigated the entire Impressionist group as
‘hostile to good manners, to devotion to form, and respect for the masters’.
Though much maligned for his aversion to Impressionism, his criticism is
well informed, and the aspects he attacked indicate what was novel about the
emerging style.
WRITINGS
‘L’Exposition des Impressionnistes’, Le Charivari (25 April 1874), pp. 2–3;
abridged Eng. trans. in Rewald, pp. 256–61
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Rewald: The History of Impressionism (New York, 1946, rev. 4/1973)
G. H. Hamilton: Manet and his Critics (New Haven, 1954, New York, 2/1969)
S. Monneret: L’Impressionnisme et son époque: Dictionnaire international, 2
vols (Paris, 1978–9)
Comes from Grove's Dictionary of Art. I guess it's o.k. to publish this
here.
Cheers,
Alice
Jusitn McGregor wrote in message <3B05D2BD...@bellsouth.net>...
I suspect Mani Deli is this guy's reincarnated self,
except Mani couldn't paint his own thumb--
the one he wags so forcefully at everyone...