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26-477: A precursor art school in the same location was the Académie Suisse , founded in 1815. The former Académie Suisse location on the Île de la Cité was bought by Italian sculptor Filippo Colarossi in 1870, and in 1879 it moved to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the 6th arrondissement. The Académie was established in the 19th century as an alternative to the government-sanctioned École des Beaux Arts that had, in

52-520: A meeting at the Académie Colarossi in 1913, the "Société Internationale des Anciens Élèves des Académies Suisse-Crebassol-Colarossi" was formed. Its president was the renowned sculptor Jean Antoine Injalbert (1845–1933) and its aim was to hold exhibitions by former students, both in France and abroad. The society proposed to celebrate the contributions of the three schools to the world of art and promote

78-534: A miserable prison hulk, most likely moored at Plymouth and was later moved to the infamous Dartmoor Prison, close by. Upon his release and repatriation, he returned to Paris where he resumed being a model. It was said that most of the figures in Eugène Delacroix 's (1798–1863) ‘The Barque of Dante’, also called ‘Dante and Virgil in Hell’ by some, were painted from Suisse, in which case he was still modelling up to 1822 when

104-443: A nephew, while remaining an honorary professor. However, it was the artist Etiènne Prosper Crébassol (1806–1883) that soon took on the ownership, certainly the running, of the academy, renaming it l’Academie Suisse-Crébassol. Suisse died in 1859 at his home, 78 years old. He had known and befriended many artists, and many would have attended his funeral. However, before he died, he asked that only his family attend, as artists' time

130-484: The candle wick and oil than in other lamps required much less frequent trimming of the wick. In France, the lamp is called "Quinquet", after Antoine-Arnoult Quinquet , a pharmacist in Paris, who used the idea originated by Argand and popularized it in France. Quinquet sometimes is credited with the addition of the glass chimney to the lamp. The Argand lamp had a sleeve-shaped wick mounted so that air can pass both through

156-468: The 1930s. Around that time, Madame Colarossi burned the priceless school archives in retaliation for her husband's philandering. At Académie Colarossi among the female attendees were german painter Thea Schleusner , Amedeo Modigliani 's muse, Jeanne Hébuterne ; Scottish Impressionist Bessie MacNicol ; Canadian Impressionist Emily Carr ; and French sculptor Camille Claudel , who was also a student of Rodin 's. Noted also for its classes in life sculpting,

182-603: The Académie Suisse. However, Suisse was a drawing-master and could also offer advice when posing the model. He was a jovial, knowledgeable and helpful man, much loved and admired by his "students". He enjoyed regaling them with anecdotes of the artists he had sat for and the paintings he had seen created, and would often entertain them by reciting classical literature. In artistic circles, he was affectionately known as "Le Père Suisse". Influential individuals such as museum curators and art professors would frequently pay visits, such

208-522: The Boulevard du Palais, in Paris, France. From Delacroix to Cézanne , most major French artists frequented this venue to meet colleagues and to study after male and female models. Martin François Suisse started his career as a baker or baker's apprentice, but then took up a career as artist's model. As D’Ivol notes, he posed for the celebrated artist Pierre-Narcisse Guérin (1774–1833) in 1796. Suisse

234-502: The burner. A disadvantage of the original Argand arrangement was that the oil reservoir needed to be above the level of the burner because the heavy, sticky vegetable oil would not rise far up the wick. This made the lamps top heavy and cast a shadow in one direction away from the lamp's flame. The Carcel lamp of 1800, which used a clockwork pump to allow the reservoir to sit beneath the burner, and Franchot's spring-driven Moderator lamp of 1836 avoided these problems. The same principle

260-408: The center of the wick and also around the outside of the wick before being drawn into a cylindrical chimney which steadies the flame and improves the flow of air. Early models used ground glass which was sometimes tinted around the wick. An Argand lamp used whale oil , seal oil, colza , olive oil or other vegetable oil as fuel which was supplied by a gravity feed from a reservoir mounted above

286-556: The cost of models could be shared collectively, which was a great aid to students who had little money. Some students would visit the morgue, just a few yards away from the Suisse's door on the Quai, towards the Pont Saint-Michel . Here, they could observe the anatomy of fresh corpses at no cost whatsoever. Besides the support and advice of their fellow artists, there was no tuition as such at

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312-634: The eyes of many promising young artists at the time, become far too conservative. Along with its equivalent Académie Julian , and unlike the official École des Beaux Arts, the Colarossi school accepted female students and allowed them to draw from the nude male model. Around 1879, two salon painters taught the Académie classes, the Japanese-influenced painter Raphaël Collin and French academic-style painter Gustave Courtois . Among its other instructors were

338-627: The influential French sculptor, Jean Antoine Injalbert and painter Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret . In 1893, the progressive Académie appointed the American artist Wilhelmina Douglas Hawley (1860–1958) as its first female teacher. In 1922 sculptor Henry Moore attended, although not as a student. Moore took life-drawing classes that were open to the general public, paid for with a book of inexpensive tickets. The evening classes were progressively timed – one hour, then 20 minutes, then five minutes, then one – to develop various drawing skills. The school closed in

364-451: The less well-off as well. Argand lamps were manufactured in a great variety of decorative forms and quickly became popular in America. They were much used as theatrical footlights. It was the lamp of choice until about 1850 when kerosene lamps were introduced. Kerosene was cheaper than vegetable oil, it produced a whiter flame , and as a liquid of low viscosity it could easily travel up

390-405: The painting was completed. In the meantime, the year 1815 saw him open the art academy that was to make his name. The academy was located in a squalid, red house, 4 Quai des Orfévres, where a sombre corridor led to very old, well-worn and dirty stairs that took one up to the front door on the second floor. Here, Suisse fitted out a rented apartment, where a large room served as an art studio and

416-466: The remaining two rooms became his personal living quarters. The studio was not attractive in appearance, but was fairly well-lit by a quinquet with twenty lamps; an amphitheater of eighty stools or benches was more-or-less occupied according to the season, but one never saw very many empty seats. The increasingly nicotine-stained walls were covered with academies left in payment of a month in arrears by impoverished art students. The Académie Suisse

442-657: The required funds. In 1880, Colarossi moved his acquisition to a newly built, six studio complex in the courtyard of No. 10, Rue de la Grande Chaumière (6th Arrondissement) in Montparnasse, then a hive of artistic activity. He renamed it the Académie Colarossi , a very successful, fee-funded school that offered expert tuition to male and female students from all over the world. While Colarossi and his academy went from strength to strength, Suisse's considerable contributions to art were slowly forgotten. No monument or plaque

468-479: The school attracted many foreign students, including a large number from the United States. 48°50′32″N 2°19′51″E  /  48.84222°N 2.33083°E  / 48.84222; 2.33083 Acad%C3%A9mie Suisse The Académie Suisse was a very popular, informal art school founded by Martin François Suisse (1781–1859) in 1815, and was located at the corner of the Quai des Orfévres (No. 4) and

494-586: The school to No. 12, rue Gît-le-Cœur , 6th Arrondissement, over the river from the Quai des Orfèvres. Passe further states that two years later in 1879 the aged Crébassol sold his studio to the Italian model and sculptor Filippo Colarossi (1841–1906) for the sum of 500 fr. Crébassol was by this time 73 years old and was presumably no longer able and/or willing to maintain his academy any longer. He died at home in 1883. Colarossi wanted to start his own professional art academy and had, through hard work and economy, saved

520-507: The works of their students. Sadly, the initiative seems to have failed, perhaps due to the advent of the First World War. This article about an art or artists' organization is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Argand lamp The Argand lamp is a type of oil lamp invented in 1780 by Aimé Argand . Its output is 6 to 10 candelas , brighter than that of earlier lamps. Its more complete combustion of

546-427: Was also used for cooking and boiling water due to its 'affording much the strongest heat without smoke'. The Argand lamp was introduced to Thomas Jefferson in Paris in 1784 and according to him gave off "a light equal to six or eight candles." These new lamps, much more complex and costly than the previous primitive oil lamps, were first adopted by the wealthy, but soon spread to the middle classes and eventually

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572-460: Was also, according to Monneret, a former model for the great, classicist, artist Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825). He, ‘Le Suisse’, posed some 39 times for the great man in the years 1811-1815. Suisse's life as a model was interrupted by the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). In the latter years of the hostilities, he became a sailor, probably a conscripted marine. He was captured and imprisoned on

598-429: Was much smaller and more informal than the École des Beaux Arts , where many students went on to continue their studies. The registration or attendance fee was modest; in 1850 students paid 5 US dollars/month (25 francs). Any artist could attend the academy to paint, draw or sculpt in their chosen media. Suisse provided a male model for three weeks of the month and a female for the remaining week. Paying fees meant that

624-464: Was placed to remind Paris and its visitor of this remarkable man. The memory of his existence was further dimmed when in 1905, the block of buildings including 4 Quai des Orfèvres was expropriated and demolished to make way for the extension of the Palais de Justice in 1906. Despite this, the memory and gratitude of artists persisted. An attempt was made by ex-students to rekindle a flame of remembrance. In

650-621: Was precious and he had no desire to disturb them. This instruction and his modest savings, he left to a niece who had been very close and helpful. Passe writes that in 1876, the Ateliers de Dessin et de Peinture , were more-or-less limited to Julian's Academy in the Passage des Panoramas (see Crombie) and Crébassol's insufficient, little course in rue Gît-le-Cœur . He makes no mention of the renowned Académie Colarossi (see below), which must mean it had not been opened. It would seem that Crébassol had moved

676-471: Was the acclaim of the academy and the respect for its proprietor. Suisse's access to young, talented artists also gave him an excellent position from which to become an art dealer. He would buy their works cheaply and sell them on at a considerably elevated price. There were numerous artists, but Nicolas François Octave Tassaert (1800 –1874) was one of those whose works contributed the most to Suisse's fortune. In 1858, Suisse retired and left his academy to

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