Adolphe APPIAN

Adolphe Appian (1818-1898) Les Bords de l'Ain (Shores of Ain), signed drawing

circa 1860

Adolphe Appian (born as Jacques Barthelemy Adolphe Appian on 28 August 1819 in Lyon, France, died on 29 April 1898 in Lyon) was a French landscape painter and etcher. He changed his name to Adolphe Appian at age fifteen. At the same age Appian attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at Lyon which was an art school which specialized in training to decorate fabrics by a local silk industry. He studied under Jean-Michel Grobon and Augustin Alexandre Thierrat. Later he opened a studio in Lyon and worked as a graphic designer. He travelled to Paris to finish his studies and after he had exhibited a painting and a charcoal drawing in the Paris Salon In 1852, Adolphe Appian met Camille Corot and Charles-François Daubigny who left a lasting mark on his work and his career. He participated in the Universal Exhibition of 1862 in London. In 1866, Appian's two works that he exhibited in Paris were bought by Napoleon III and by princess Mathilde. He painted at the beginning of his career atmospheric pictures in a monochromatic palette of the riverside of the Rhone and the south of France. In 1870 he changed his style to use brilliant and striking color in his paintings but he still continued to make charcoal drawings as well as small etchings of landscapes in the Barbizon style. From 1863, he began to produce etchings, printed by Auguste Delâtre. As an etcher, he had a distinct influence on the American artist, Stephen Parrish. In 1885, he participated in the first international exhibition of white and black , section "Charcoals" and obtained the medal of honor in gold. He won the gold medal at the 1868 Salon in Paris, and participated in the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition . Appian frequented the village of Rossillon , then appreciated by painters, and spent many summers in Artemare , in the Bas-Bugey , where he went down to the Hotel Buffet. He painted many sites in the Valromey . A friend of the painters of the Barbizon school, he made several stays in Fontainebleau . He is nicknamed the " Charcoal Delacroix ". Appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor inJuly 18926 , Adolphe Appian died in Lyon in 1898. His works a re kept in many public collections : In France National Library of France Municipal Museum of Bourg-en-Bresse Castres Museum Marseille , Cantini Museum Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon Nice Museum of Fine Arts Cherbourg-Octeville , Thomas-Henry Museum Mâcon , Musée des Ursulines Chambery Museum of Fine Arts : Tournus , Greuze Museum Paul-Dini Museum in Villefranche-sur-Saône Grenoble , Grenoble Museum Rouen Museum of Fine Arts Nantes Museum of Fine Arts Le Puy-en-Velay , Crozatier Museum Montpellier , Fabre Museum In the USA San Francisco , California Palace of the Legion of Honor Cleveland Museum of Art Dalhousie University Art Gallery ( Halifax , Nova Scotia ) Pomona College Museum of Art