André Brouillet 1857-1914

André Brouillet, the son of the sculptor Pierre-Amédée Brouillet, began studies in engineering at the École Centrale Paris in 1876 but soon turned decisively to painting, entering Jean-Léon Gérôme’s studio at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1879. That same year, he exhibited at the Salon for the first time and shortly thereafter studied under Jean-Paul Laurens.

He quickly began to accumulate honors, receiving an honorable mention in 1881, a third-class medal in 1884, and a second-class medal the following year. Inspired by Gérôme, Brouillet explored Orientalist painting after discovering Algeria in 1883, the birthplace of his wife, Emma Isaac, daughter of a wealthy Jewish banker and merchant from Constantine. A recognized history painter and portraitist, he also designed tapestry cartoons and worked as a press illustrator, contributing regularly to Paris Illustré and Le Figaro Illustré.

Brouillet first visited Greece in 1901 on a public commission to paint Ernest Renan meditating his prayer on the Acropolis for the Sorbonne - a monumental canvas later exhibited at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1902 (fig. 1). Promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1906, he also received the Salon’s gold medal that same year. He died suddenly during the First World War, suffering a fatal crash on 6 December 1914 while on a frozen road, attempting to aid a convoy of Belgian refugees.

Contrary to what the Greek subject might suggest, the small painting we present was not created during Brouillet’s work on the large Sorbonne canvas but in 1903, during his second trip to Athens, commissioned to paint the portrait of Queen Olga of Greece. The artist revisited the Acropolis and captured this small oil-on-canvas study on site, under the reddish evening light. His attention here is focused on the small Ionic temple of Athena Nike, which stands on a fortified promontory in the southwest corner, to the right of the Propylaea. This vantage point allowed Brouillet to depict the changing evening light, with the moon just rising, overlooking the descending view of the Saronic Gulf and the port of Piraeus.

In a literary gesture, he titled his study with a quote from Renan’s famous Prayer on the Acropolis (Prière sur l’Acropole), referring to the temple of Athena as “the purple shroud where the dead gods sleep”[1]. The work is dedicated to Henriette, wife of the deputy and minister Gaston Thomson and cousin of Marcel Proust. A prominent Parisian in literary and artistic circles, Henriette was also close to Emma Isaac, Brouillet’s wife. Alongside her husband, she embodied the wealthy milieu that secured Brouillet a successful career as a society portraitist[2].

 Fig. 1: André Brouillet, La Prière sur l’Acropole, oil on canvas (2.37 × 4.04 m), Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1902 (cat. no. 245), Paris, Sorbonne small commission room.

[1] Renan, Ernest, Souvenirs d’enfance et de jeunesse, chap. II, La Prière sur l’Acropole, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1883, p. 73.

[2] Portrait of Henriette Gaston Thomson by Brouillet, also titled Une Parisienne, 1893 (oil on canvas, 150 × 100 cm), Musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers.