CHARLES HOFFBAUER PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY

CHARLES HOFFBAUER

American, 1875-1957

BIOGRAPHY
Charles Hoffbauer was born in Paris in 1875, the son of the architect Theodor Joseph Hubert Hoffbauer. He studied with Gustave Moreau and Fernand Cormon at the École des Beaux-Arts.

"When Charles Hoffbauer arrived in the United States for the first time in late December, 1909, he had already gained an international reputation as one of France's leading academic painters and thus was no stranger to the cosmopolitan art community of New York City where he planned to stay for a few years. Charles Dana Gibson, whom he had met years before and who had become a very close friend, was there to welcome him, as were other American artists who admired and encouraged their brilliant young colleague from Paris. The acclaim that had been given Hoffbauer for his Salon paintings in previous years was stupendous. In the hundreds of critical reviews appearing in newspapers and magazines throughout the world, Hoffbauer's paintings received highly favorable comments (even those which just missed getting some of the top awards). Actually, he was a consistent prize-winner. From his debut in the Paris Salon of 1898 (at age 23) and continuing over many successive years, Hoffbauer's paintings brought him triumph after triumph, culminating with his sixth appearance in the Salon of 1906. In that exhibition he received the highest, most prestigious academic honor that any artist could attain — the Prix National du Salon, which carried with it a sizable fellowship as well, enabling him to travel and paint in Italy, Greece, Egypt, England and finally, America.

"Knoedler Galleries mounted exhibitions of Hoffbauer's impressionistic New York street scenes in 1911 and 1912 and both shows were sellouts. His prize-winning Salon painting of 1906, Triomphe d'un Condottiere, depicting a victorious soldier of fortune entering 15th century Florence at the head of his mounted legion, was shown at New York's Architectural League in 1912. It caused a sensation, both for its impressive scale and for its authentic atmosphere of Renaissance grandeur. Among its many captivated viewers was James Wall Finn who had been searching, on behalf of the Governor of Virginia, for a muralist to glorify the exploits of the military heroes of the South in the Confederate Memorial Institute at Richmond. Highly impressed by Hoffbauer's large ‘chef d'oeuvre,’ he went to his studio, asked him to prepare some decorative sketches, and when they were completed and later shown to Finn and Governor J. Taylor Ellison, the eager French painter was permitted to realize them. It was Hoffbauer's introduction to mural painting, a metier to which he devoted a large part of his life and in which he excelled.”
[Charles Hoffbauer (exhibition catalogue), Gropper Art Gallery, West Somerville, MA, 1977, p.3]

Hoffbauer painted several oil studies depicting diners at night on New York rooftops in preparation for his major work Sur Les Toits which was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1905 and is now in the collection of the National Museum in Sydney. One of these rooftop studies now hangs at the Museum of the City of New York. Hoffbauer went on to depict many aspects of New York life, from ballrooms at the Astor Hotel to cabarets on Broadway to the streets of New York in the snow and rain. He nevertheless continued to paint in Europe and one of his many First World War subjects is now in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Hoffbauer became an American citizen in 1941 and died in Boston in 1957.

Museum Collections
Arras Belfry, Hôtel de Ville, Arras
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris
Musée du Luxembourg, Paris
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Mulhouse
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Roubaix
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Museum of the City of New York, New York
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Museum, Sydney
National Museum of Art, Bucharest
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, VA
Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Richmond, VA

Mark Murray Fine Paintings is a New York gallery specializing in buying and selling 19th century and early 20th century artwork.