Art in Lorraine

In his work The 18th Century painters of Lorraine, Art historian François Pupil, says about Lorraine: "In the French art history overview, Lorraine occupies an original part due to her geographic position at the edge of the German Empire and to a long defended independance. Thus, the century of Jacques Callot and George de la Tour is in line with the Thirty Years War and the ravages caused to the duchies of Lorraine and Bar through their ambiguous political situation."

Three "key" periods:

The XVIth and XVIIth centuries: Lorraine as a land of engravers.

Regarding the XVIth century, let's mention Nicolas Beatrizet, Pierre Woeiriot, Alexandre Vallée...

Concerning the XVIIth century, the great Ecole Lorraine : Jacques Callot, Jacques Bellange, Israël Silvestre, Sébastien Le Clerc, Claude Deruet... All of them being sorts of comic strip precursors. For example, Jacques Callot with "Les Gueux" or "Les Grandes misères de la Guerre" or again Sébastien Le Clerc with his series of characters from the French Society...

The XIXth century: The famous miniaturists of Lorraine

Between 1790 and 1830, Lorraine was the French area which provided the greatest number of miniaturists in the country. Among them, one can count Jean-Baptiste Isabey, Jean-Baptiste Augustin, François Dumont, Jean-Antoine Laurent, and many others..

The XIXth and XXth centuries:
the Ecole de Nancy "is conquering the world".

Between 1890 and 1920, Nancy was one of the main sources of the very famous artistic stream known as "Art Nouveau". A plethora of artists of every type turned Lorraine into a leading area in the French and European artistic world.

Let's mention:

• Regarding painting: Victor Prouvé, Emile Friant, Henri Aimé Morot...
• Regarding glass work: Emile Gallé, Antoine Daum, Amalric Walter, Jacques Grüber...
• Regarding wood work: Louis Majorelle, Eugène Vallin, Emile Gallé...

But that would be unfair to limit Art in Lorraine to these  three main eras. Our region was also a land of sculptors of all times. Who has never heard of Ligier Richier, the Adams family, Claude Michel Clodion or again Christophe Fratin from Metz?
The XVIIth century was also full of creators and the last Duke of Lorraine, Stanislas Leszcynski, managed to preserve some very talented architects and painters.
Finally, at the XXth century, some artists like Paul Colin, Jean Lurçat, Jacques Majorelle, Etienne Cournault... figured among the pupils of the Fine Art School of Nancy (Ecole des Beaux Arts de Nancy).
Metz, the other big metropolis of Lorraine was not outdone with, after 1834, the appearance of "Ecole de Metz" whose name was given by Baudelaire and which gathered Maréchal, the Hussenots, Migette or Devilly.
Eventually, let's mention Epinal, the nice capital of the Vosges, where this popular imagery tradition has been flourishing from the XIXth century up to now with the famous Pellerin and Georgin.
Lorraine has thus deserved quite well that one remains on all these famous artists or enlightened amateurs. That is both the target and the topic of "artlorrain.com" and I'm glad to share my passion with you.

Enjoy the discovery.

Robert LETERRIER