Pierre-Amédée Marcel-Beronneau 1869-1937

He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux. He then enrolled in Paris at the École des Arts Décoratifs, and in 1892 entered the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, in the studio of Gustave Moreau. There, he met Georges Rouault, his future studio roommate on Boulevard du Montparnasse. He was soon recognized as one of the best students, to the point that his master did not hesitate to write to the mayor of Bordeaux to secure him a grant: “M. Béronneau, my student, is an excellent worker, very talented, and worthy in every respect of the greatest consideration.”

He won the 1st Grand Prix of Decorative Arts in 1893; the medal in the sketch competition and the 1st Prize of the Atelier, which rewarded his overall work, in 1894. That same year, he was awarded first place in the Chenavard competition by the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. From 1895, he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français.

Marcel-Beronneau’s work consists of a dual production. The first, academic, conforms to the official expectations of the public and quickly earned him wide recognition. The critic Arsène Alexandre wrote in Le Figaro that he was a “great refined artist,” a “delicate, serious, often profound painter, who combines perfect integrity with the highest aspirations of thought.” He then received his first state commissions, such as Heure dernière (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux) in 1899. He was named Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1914.

The second part of his production is resolutely symbolist. A worthy student of Moreau, close to the Rosicrucian milieu and sensitive to the Pre-Raphaelite movement, he developed his own style, illustrating particularly mythological and biblical female figures: Leda, Sappho, Judith, the Gorgon, and especially Salome. Alain Blondel speaks of the “passionate fervor with which he described, through his favorite heroines, the myth of the femme fatale.” Haunted by these figures of heightened sensuality, he staged them in phantasmagorical compositions, reinterpreting the myth through a symbolist sensibility.

Museums:

Musée du Louvre, Paris
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille
Musée départemental de l’Oise, Beauvais

Bibliography:

L. Robert Delevoy, Journal du symbolisme, Geneva, Éditions d’Art Albert Skira, 1977
Françoise Grauby, La création mythique à l’époque du symbolisme. Histoire, analyse et interprétation des mythes fondamentaux du symbolisme, Paris, Librairie Nizet, 1994
Galerie Alain Blondel, Marcel-Beronneau, 1869-1937, peintre symboliste, cat. exp., Paris, 1981
Gabrielle Neau (dir. Pr D. Jarrasse), P.A. Marcel-Beronneau (1869-1937), peintre symboliste, paysagiste et décorateur, Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux III, September 2001

Exhibition Catalogues:

Gustave Moreau et ses élèves, 26 June–1 September 1962, Marseille, Musée Cantini
Important Modern Paintings and Sculptures, including a set of 30 paintings by Marcel-Beronneau, Paris, Drouot-Montaigne, Les Million et Jutheau, 1989
Anne Pingeot and Robert Hooze, Paris-Bruxelles, Bruxelles-Paris, Réalisme, impressionnisme, symbolisme, art nouveau, Les relations artistiques entre la France et la Belgique, 1848-1914, Paris, Éditions RMN, 1997

Articles:

“Salomés oubliées,” Connaissance des Arts, Paris, July 1981, p. 20
Maurice Cottaz, “Les héroïnes des Marcel-Beronneau, la révélation d’un symboliste, peintre des séductrices,” Valeurs Actuelles, Les Arts, 10/16, VIII, 10 August 1981
Robert Fohr, “Salomé,” L’Objet d’Art, July–August 1988
“Trente peintures de Marcel Beronneau,” La Gazette, n°42, 1 December 1989
France Huser, “La coupeuse de tête, la personne de Salomé,” Le Nouvel Observateur, Arts–Spectacles