FÉLIX ZIEM PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY
FÉLIX ZIEM
French, 1821 - 1911
BIOGRAPHY
Félix François Georges Philibert Ziem was born in Beaune, Burgundy of French parentage, his unusual Polish surname being that adopted by his paternal grandfather, an Armenian who reached France by way of Kwidzyn on the Vistula. William R. Johnston describes Ziem as “the most peripatetic of nineteenth-century artists” who is “remembered for his prolific Venetian views produced during a long career spanning almost seven decades… Ziem’s family settled in Dijon in I831 and six years later the future artist entered the town's École des Beaux-Arts where he distinguished himself in architectural and landscape drawing. In 1839 he left Dijon for Marseille to become a construction-site manager. By this time he was painting in watercolors and giving private lessons in drawing. Having a sociable nature, he proved most adept at attracting wealthy prominent pupils. Among his earliest admirers was the Grand Duchess Stéfanie, niece of the Empress Josephine.
“In 1842 Ziem embarked on his first extensive tour, traveling to Italy, where he visited Venice before continuing to Austria and Germany. The following year he went even further afield, accompanying Prince and Princess Gagarin to Odessa, Kiev, and Moscow and then continuing to Saint Petersburg, where he remained until the autumn of 1844. Ziem was back in Italy in 1846, and the following year he settled briefly in Florence, where he offered drawing lessons to the nobility. In 1850 he joined Théodore Rousseau, who was to remain a lifelong friend, in painting woodland scenes in the village of Barbizon. Following the advice of Alexandre Gabriel Decamps, he also traveled that year to Holland. There he was profoundly moved by the paintings of Rembrandt. In 1852 Ziem made his first trip to England and Scotland. His reputation as an Orientalist was initiated by visits to Egypt in 1854, Constantinople in 1855, Turkey, Rhodes and Egypt again in 1856, and to Algeria in 1858. For much of the remainder of his career, Ziem's travels continued at an unabated pace. Stopping points included his studio built on rue Lepic, Montmartre, in 1852, a mosque-like studio erected in 1861 in Martigues on the Mediterranean coast, and a villa acquired in Nice in 1877. An interruption in his routine occurred in 1866 when he settled in Barbizon for a couple of years, buying a house on the edge of the forest from Charles Jacque.
“As an artist Ziem defies ready categorization. It has been suggested that in his marine and landscape paintings this essentially self-taught artist sought to combine classical composition inspired by the paintings of Claude Lorrain with a dynamic technique derived from the works of Rembrandt. Other artists cited as influencing his development included Delacroix, Huet, Isabey, his friends Rousseau and Diaz, and the English painter Turner, equally famed for Venetian views. Ziem's influence as one of the great colorists of his time, was, in turn, reflected in the works of his friend Monticelli, and further afield in the paintings of Van Gogh. Although sharing little in common with the Impressionists, he did precede them in working in situ, contriving a floating studio in Venice and employing a caravan in the Fontainebleau Forest. Ziem participated in the Paris Salons from 1849 to 1868 and again in 1888, receiving a third-class medal in 1851, a first-class in 1852, and a third-class again at the 1855 Exposition Universelle. He rose through the ranks of the Legion of Honor from Chevalier in 1857, to Officier in 1878, and to Commandeur in 1908.”
[William R. Johnston, The Nineteenth Century Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1982, pp. 92-93]
Museum Collections
Albertina Museum, Vienna
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Asheville Museum of Art, Asheville, NC
Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Brighton & Hove Museums, Brighton
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
Kreeger Museum, Washington, DC
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal
Musée Boucher de Perthes, Abbeville
Musée Condé, Château de Chantilly, Chantilly
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Beaune
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Mulhouse
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Pau
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes
Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret, Nice
Musée des Ursulines, Mâcon
Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble
Musée Fabre, Montpellier
Musée Gassendi, Digne-les-Bains
Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence
Musée Grobet-Labadié, Marseille
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Musée du Petit Palais, Paris
Musée Malraux, Le Havre
Musée Nacional de la Marine, Paris
Musée National Magnin, Dijon
Musée Ziem, Martigue
Musées de la ville de Rouen, Rouen
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Museum, Warsaw
Pera Museum, Istanbul
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
São Paulo Museum of Art, São Paulo
Sheffield Museums, Sheffield
St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, St. Johnsbury, VT
St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Touchstones Rochdale, Rochdale
Wallace Collection, London
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
