Theodore Roussel

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Not to be confused with Theodore Russel (1614–1689), an English painter of Flemish parentage whose family name is sometimes given as "Roussel"; its original spelling.

Theodore Roussel
Self-portrait (1901)
Born(1847-03-23)23 March 1847
Lorient, Brittany, France
Died23 April 1926(1926-04-23) (aged 79)
Hastings, East Sussex, England
Educationself-taught
Known forlandscapes and genre paintings
The Reading Girl (1886)

Theodore Casimir Roussel (1847–1926) was a French-born English painter and graphic artist, best known for his landscapes and genre scenes.

Life and work

He came to painting late, in 1872, after his military service had ended, and he was entirely self-taught. His earliest works were scenes of daily life, rendered in the style of the

Old Masters.[1] In 1878, he moved to London and, two years later, married the widow Frances Amelia Smithson Bull (1844–1909), a distant collateral relative of James Smithson. In 1885, he met James McNeill Whistler
, who became a lifelong friend and mentor.

Two years later, he made a sensational début at an exhibition held by the New English Art Club when he presented "The Reading Girl", a life-size nude. The public response was expressed by a reviewer from The Spectator, who wrote: "...it is Realism of the worst kind: The eye of the artist sees only the vulgar appearance of his model, making it blunt and crude...".[2] In career terms, however, the notoriety was more beneficial than otherwise. Later, Sir William Orpen would declare it to be the best nude of the period.

His model was Hetty Pettigrew (1867-1953). She and her sisters Rose [es] [1872-1905]and Lily [es] [1870-1920] were popular and well-paid models who worked for Whistler, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and others.[3] Hetty became Roussel's mistress and gave him a child but, when his wife died, he married Arthur Melville's widow, Ethel, instead.

Not long after the notorious exhibition, he acquired a home in

Allied Artists' Association".[1]

References

  1. ^
    Tate Gallery
    .
  2. ^ Excerpt from 16 April 1887, cited by Alison Smith (ed.) in Prudery and Passion: the Nude in the Victorian Age, pg.252, Tate Galerie, London, 2001
  3. ISBN 978-1-5795-8233-3

Further reading

  • Frank Rutter, Theodore Roussel, The Connoisseur (1926)
  • James Beechey, Theodore Roussel, 1847–1926, Paintings, Drawings and Prints, Michael Parkin Gallery, London (1997)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Theodore Roussel.
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