René-Xavier Prinet
French, 1861-1946
La Plage de Cabourg
Oil on canvas
18 by 31 in, w/ frame 25 ¼ by 38 ¾ in
Signed lower right
Coming from a family of notable Franche-Comté (Prinet notaries from Luxeuil-les-Bains), René-Xavier Prinet is the son of Henry Prinet (born in 1824), imperial prosecutor in Vitry -the-François, and the brother of Gaston Prinet, diplomat. Appointed to Paris, Henry Prinet lives with his family on rue Bonaparte just a stone's throw from the Ecole des Beaux - Arts, to which René - Xavier seemed destined. His father, an amateur painter (a Madonna with Child is kept in the church of Suaucourt, Haute-Saone), is willing that his son acquires an artistic training and he makes him receive the advice of the painter Louis Charles Timbal, strong employee for decorations of the churches of Paris.
By his maternal grandmother, René-Xavier Prinet is related to the painters of the Court Hubert Drouais (1699-1767) and François-Hubert Drouais (1727-1775).
Around 1880, he began his education as a painter by being admitted into the studio of the painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. He stayed with the master until 1885. He then became associated with the Frankish painters Georges and Lucien Griveau, Antonio de La Gandara, classmates at the Beaux-Arts, Louis-Auguste Giradot, Felix Desgranges and Jules-Alexis Muenier. At the same time, he studies at the Julian Academy.
His picture Jesus Child is his first painting accepted at the Salon of French Artists in 1885. He exhibited at this Salon until 1889.
At that time he became associated with a group of young painters called the Black Band : Lucien Simon, André Dauchez, René Ménard and Charles Cottet.
He became a professor at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he created and directed the first workshop for women artists.
In 1891, he received an order from the State for the decoration of the Palace of the Legion of Honor: The Four Seasons. His sketches are accepted. The same year, he exhibited in Paris at the Durand-Ruel gallery with Albert Besnard , Jules-Alexis Muenier and Henri Fantin-Latour.
One of his most famous works, The Kreutzer Sonata, is exhibited in 1901 at the exhibition "Contemporary French Art" in Stuttgart where it is sold to the Prince Regent of Bavaria .
The year 1904 sees the creation, with Lucien Simon and Antoine Bourdelle , of the workshops of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.
In 1909, he illustrated Rene Boylesve's Young Girl. In 1913, he was named secretary of the National Society of Fine Arts. He travels to the United States as a jury member at the Carnegie Institute exhibition in Pittsburgh. His paintings The Cavaliers and Interior dining room are presented on this occasion.
He frequented the Sundays of Besnard, rue Guillaume-Tell.
Prinet painted the reception of Albert Besnard at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1912. In 1916, he painted the painter Felix Desgranges in his family room in Luxeuil with the Australian artist Bessie Davidson...
Category
Early 20th Century Impressionist Berkshires - Art
