Frederic Bazille : Painting Visual Resonance

One very strange incident happened in the year 1860. Jean-Frédéric Bazille was on the verge of becoming a physician, as his parents had decided. The wealthy father gave him one concession. As he had agreed to study the medicines, his parents agreed to his advances in the field of art. And the gentleman never became a doctor, but he became one of the best impressionist painters.

Renoir: Painted by Frederic Brazille

Frederic had descended on the airstrip of painting due to his intuitive elements. On his visit to Paris, he found new light in the colours and his talents, and the love of art would make him good friend of Degas, Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Manet, Sisley, Monet and other contemporary impressionists. Frederic’s early attempts to the impressionist painting adventures were presented to and admired by the master artists in Paris.

Were we to find any difference between the impressionist artists and the others, the most striking would be the location of doing the paintings. They would take their colours, canvases and the ‘long hand brushes’, and would proceed on a short trip.

Though having well-equipped studio, Jean-Frédéric Bazille did painted on locations. Sitting on a bank of a river or a hill side, there would emerge an artwork. When these artists were at work, the ‘outdoor figural art’ was at its best perhaps. In the paintings done by the impressionist artists, the visual resonance was given higher space than the logical depiction of the scene of person being painted. The painting The Family Reunion by Frederic is one of the finest examples of the artworks done during this period. Like his contemporaries, here Frederic Brazille had remained preoccupied depicting the Parisians and their love of sunlight and the parties held in open spaces.

Frederic’s living in Paris was the happiest time of his life. It was the time when the master artists were around; and the Paris being the dream destination for all the artists, he could meet many master artists of the time. The world of the art of painting was also taking a new shape during the days. Frederic witnessed these artistic changes along with his friends.

The Family Reunion (1868)

The Tragic Death

When the Franco-Prussian war started in the year 1970, the artist in Frederic Brazille could not resist the call of the nation. He joined the army. He was deployed for training and to fight at the frontier ofAlgeria. Tragically enough, Frederic was killed in the same year on November 1870. He was only nineteen when he died. (Images courtesy Wikimedia Commons)