Claude-Marie Dubufe (1790-1864)

Born in Paris in 1790, Claude-Marie Dubufe began his apprenticeship in Jacques-Louis David's studio in 1804, although his father originally intended him for a diplomatic career.

His first shipment to the Salon in 1810 is "A Roman starves himself and his family to death, rather than touch a deposit of money entrusted to him" (location unknown). This painting was not noticed by the critics, so Claude-Marie decided to go to Italy to complete his training.

He returned to the Salon in 1812 with a large mythological scene, «Achilles taking under his protection Iphigénie, which his father Agamemnon wanted to sacrifice» (unknown location) and two portraits of women, the genre that will be the source of his success.

If Claude-Marie Dubufe is a neoclassical painter as evidenced by his "self-portrait", he tries, moreover, in the lineage of his clodoaldian friend Pierre Duval Le Camus, to realism, with the "Deux petits savoyards" (1820).

Claude-Marie Dubufe’s production is almost exclusively devoted to ceremonial portraits.

He submitted to a fashion that wanted to highlight models, essentially feminine, by offering a representation embellished according to codified attitudes.

He became the official portraitist of the nobility and the great bourgeoisie under the Restoration and then the July Monarchy.

Luigi Cherubini or Harriet Smithson, Berlioz’s fiancée, are, for example, portraiturers in his studio in New Athens, located in Orléans Square in Paris.

At the Salon of 1837, Claude-Marie presents seven portraits including the "Portrait of the King" (unknown location) and the important "Portrait of Louise d'Orléans, queen of the Belgians", commissioned by his father Louis-Philippe I for the Palais des Tuileries.

The sponsors are seduced by these mundane and flattering portraits made in beautiful decors and neat toilets.

They ensure the success of the painter in vogue, "darling of the women of his time", who knows how to benefit his models; the criticism is however not always favorable to him, not hesitating to scratch "his virtuosity in the rendering of fabrics, gauze and lace" and his ostentatious compositions.

Claude-Marie also likes to paint figures of fantasy: these explore the different means of representation of the human figure and its expressions such as "La Lettre de Wagram" (1827) in which a woman lets herself go to her pain.

These popular figures of expression were widely distributed by engravings such as those reproducing "Amour et Coquetterie" (1831).

After the death of his wife Edmée, Édouard’s mother, Claude-Marie married Eugénie Saint-Amand in 1841 with whom he had two sons: Paul and René.

He then composed delicate, more intimate and freer portraits, such as the medallion portraits of Paul and René, which were not intended to be sent to the Salon.

Claude-Marie sends few religious paintings to the Salon, but he paints "The Virgin and the Child", drawn under the features of his wife, «a strange painting», which provokes many reactions from critics, both negative and enthusiastic. | © Ministry of Culture - DRAC Île-de-France

Claude-Marie-Paul Dubufe (1780-1864) è stato un pittore Francese.

Nato durante la Rivoluzione francese, Claude-Marie Dubufe era figlio di Claude Dubufe e Marie-Geneviève Marot. Sua sorella, Joséphine-Anne, sposerà Arnoult-Philibert de Pincepré. Brillante studente, divenne allievo console nel 1809.

Destinato dal padre alla carriera diplomatica, fu amante della pittura che praticò con talento, frequentando dal 1804 lo studio di Jacques-Louis David, che vide in lui un vero artista e, secondo la tradizione di famiglia, persuase il padre a non distogliere il figlio dalle arti quando quest'ultimo stava per partire per l'America.

Suo padre lo interruppe e la sera doveva suonare il violino in un'orchestra per pagarsi le lezioni di pittura nello studio di David.

Partì per l'Italia nel 1811 e fu presentato alla famiglia Orleans.

Iniziò quindi una lunga e brillante carriera come ritrattista della nobiltà e dell'alta borghesia.

Nel 1818 sposò per la prima volta Edmée Duménillet (1792-1837) che gli diede un unico figlio, Édouard (1819-1883), che sarebbe diventato anche pittore. Il figlio di quest'ultimo, Guillaume (1853-1909), sarà il terzo pittore della famiglia.

Dubufe fu insignito di due commissioni ufficiali nel 1824, la prima per La Naissance du duc de Bordeaux e la seconda per commemorare Le Passage de la Bidassoa.

Nel 1826 aprì uno studio e fondò, con il barone Taylor e Duzats, un'associazione per aiutare gli artisti.

Espone al Salon del 1827 due dipinti intitolati Les Souvenirs e Les Regrets che stabiliscono la sua notorietà.

È specializzato in ritratti femminili.

Nel 1832 si trova a Londra e vende le sue due grandi tele, Adam ed Eve ed il suo omologo Le Paradis perdu, ai fratelli Brette che, associati ad un produttore di tournée artistiche, le espongono per tre anni negli Stati Uniti1.