Both Frédéric Bazille's timing and his luck were impeccable. He was among a group of bold, dissident artists in early 1860s Paris, together with Manet, Monet, and Renoir, who upended the status quo of art with their radical new method of painting. Bazille considered Manet to be a mentor and a good friend. Despite having no formal academic training in the skills, Bazille's intimate relationships with other artists—including sharing studios with people like Renoir, Sisley, and Monet—helped create his approach. While he embraced some of the methods and formal elements of the Impressionist style, his work remained Realist save for the subject matter. His paintings were equally frequently accepted as rejected by the official Salon. He was the first to develop compositional techniques for placing human figures in outdoor situations and fusing them with the local ambiance. He was a proponent of painting outdoors, as Monet had pushed him to do when he was a young man, but he also frequently worked in his studio. When Bazille was murdered shortly before his 29th birthday in a fight during the Franco-Prussian War, he had gotten encouraging feedback from notable critics of the day, and his career was taking perfect shape.

Even though Bazille never displayed his work among the other group members, he is acknowledged as one of the founders of the Impressionist movement. Nearly four years after his passing, the first Impressionist exhibition took place in 1874, and not a single piece by Bazille was displayed there. Although he was closely related to influential Impressionists like Monet and Renoir, his style was far more Realist and had formal traits with the earlier, pre-Impressionist works of Courbet and Manet.

Bazille had been urged to paint outside rather than confine himself to his studio by his close friend Monet. Together, the two artists traveled to the countryside to paint outdoors or en Plein air, frequently joined by other creatives. Bazille entered the more extreme creative territory in his attempts to successfully incorporate the human figure into a contemporary Impressionist environment. The person, whether naked or dressed, registered the effects of light and other atmospheric phenomena like the other items in Bazille's harmonious, modernist compositions. Bazille's painting style, which occasionally appeared less restrained if not loose and varied like the brushstrokes of the Impressionist style, was much more controlled even though he incorporated modern compositional strategies like unusual cropping that mimicked the cropping of a photograph and vantage points at extreme angles. His palette was often darker than most Impressionist paintings, and his contours tended to be clearly defined, surfaces smooth and highly polished.

Childhood & Education

Born Jean-Frédéric, Frédéric Bazille came from a prosperous family with deep roots in the South of France. On the family's estate, Meric, outside Montpellier, was born on December 5th, 1841 (other sources indicate December 6th). At least as early as the 13th century, the Bazille family had relocated there. He comes from an artistic family that included a master arquebusier from the 18th century, "a renowned weapons specialist and manufacturer of luxury works of art... who worked for the monarch." The family eventually turned their artisanal talents toward goldsmithing, where they made a name for themselves and a fortune. A renownedly stunning and ostentatious ring "of diamonds with seven rosette stones," created by Daniel Bazille in 1720, was one of the family heirlooms that eventually found its way to his mother Camille Vialars Bazille.

Although Bazille's wealthy and prominent family belonged to the High Protestant Society, Gaston, a vintner and agronomic who later became a senator of the Hérault, was nonetheless reportedly liberal enough to allow his son some degree of self-determination. The young Bazille decided to become a painter reasonably early in life and told his parents about it around 1859. In addition to taking drawing lessons from local sculptors Joseph and Auguste Baussan, father and son, he had started attending lectures on drawing and painting at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier then. He developed his drawing and copying skills, replicating the works of Old Masters like Veronese. While his father had supported his son's interest in painting as a pastime for years, he demanded that Bazille complete a formal education to prepare him for a more respectable career that would enable him to live comfortably. So the young man consented, ostensibly with much reluctance, to pursue a career in medicine.

Early Training

Bazille relocated to Paris in 1862 and enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine. Instead of studying in his free time, he painted. He soon stopped paying attention in class and instead went to the drawing workshop of the artist Charles Gleyre. History painting, still regarded by the art establishment as the noblest of genres, was Gleyre's area of expertise as a well-known academic painter. He had inherited the renowned historical painter Paul Delaroche's studio. Monet, Renoir, and Sisley were some of his most notable pupils, and Bazille got to know them all when he went to Gleyre's studio for the workshops. Ironically, none of them stayed under Gleyre's instruction for long since they disagreed with his systematic approach to art instruction.

Bazille failed his medical exam in 1864, primarily owing to a lack of interest, and finally, his father grudgingly consented to support him so that he could focus solely on painting. Gleyre and his avant-garde artist friends Monet, Sisley, and Manet had all given Bazille plenty of encouragement. He was also a kind friend who frequently helped his struggling artist friends—often by lending them supplies and studio space, but more regularly by giving them money.

Bazille had already produced several well-received paintings by the time he was 23 years old in 1864, which was just the start of his artistic career. He frequented the cafés, clubs, and restaurants in the slightly gritty New Athens neighborhood of Paris, which is situated between the busy Grands Boulevards and the Place Pigalle in the ninth arrondissement, as did his fellow avant-garde artists. Bazille and his group, who were at the time aspiring authors and artists, were particularly prevalent in the cafés Tortoni, Baudequin, and Guerbois. In the early 1860s, when his friends were still having financial difficulties like Monet, it wasn't uncommon for Bazille to foot the bill.

Mature Period

From 1863 until 1870, Bazille painted frantically. After quitting Gleyre's workshop, he opened his studio. He had six studios over the years, three documented by his paintings, some art historians have referred to as "indirect self-portraits." These studios were on rue de Furstenberg, rue de Visconti, and rue de la Condamine. Bazille could keep a comfortable flat, which he occasionally shared with friends, thanks to his parents' sizeable monthly allowance. He was also able to collaborate with other artists in his studio. He and Monet cohabited the rue de Furstenberg studio in 1864. In 1867, Sisley and Monet visited him in his apartment on rue de Visconti, along with Renoir. When money was scarce, they would also pose for one another. He sometimes paid for models for the group of artists to draw and paint. Bazille had purchased the sizable studio on rue de la Condamine in the Batignolles neighborhood by 1868.

Along with socializing and, in some cases, developing solid friendships with (at the time) less well-known painters like Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Cézanne, Bazille also maintained social ties with more well-known artists like Corot and Courbet. He also regularly collaborated with artists of a more academic bent, such as Henri Fantin-Latour. The latter depicted Bazille alongside other renowned, anti-establishment artists in the picture A Studio in the Batignolles (1870). The young artist was also at least a peripheral companion of the influential judges of avant-garde tastes at the time, Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine, who frequently visited the bars and cafés where Bazille's artist pals congregated.

Though it's assumed that Monet and Bazille were good friends, rumors of the time and stories from others in the cultural elite suggest that Monet may have thought of his wealthy friend as a "piggy bank." Even though that might have been the case, Monet made Bazille proud by appointing him as Jean's godfather. In response to Manet's contentious painting of the same name in 1863, Monet created the mammoth masterpiece Luncheon on the Grass (1865–66), which features Bazille. At the bottom middle of the picture, Bazille may be seen.

It is also clear that Bazille and art patron Edmond Maitre had a close association that lasted until the artist's passing. They both had a deep love for music, which they considered "holy." According to legend, Bazille possessed some talent, which he most likely gleaned from his accomplished pianist mother. The eager young aesthete was so engrossed in his love of music that he asked a piano teacher to "give him lessons in harmony." He bought a piano for his house in 1863. While waiting for it to arrive, he wrote to his mother in Montpellier, pleading with her to give him music right away, including his four-hand symphonies, Chopin waltzes, Beethoven sonatas, and the Gluck score. The theme of Berlioz, Schumann, and Wagner was especially beloved by him and Maitre, even though the latter two were still relatively unknown in France at the time.

In 1866, Bazille debuted his artwork at the Salon, the official state exhibition. He was highly disappointed when the painting Girl at the Piano (1865–66), which he believed would be accepted, was turned down. Instead, the Salon Jury allowed a little still life to be exhibited each year. In March of that year, Bazille had sent a letter to his parents detailing the painting, which Courbet himself had complimented, and his anxiety while creating it in the radical new manner that Manet and Courbet had influenced. He stated, "I have tried to paint, as best I can, as basic a subject, not being able to undertake a large composition." This decision to depict a commonplace subject as opposed to an academic favorite, especially the most popular genre of historical painting, was a direct result of Courbet's and Manet's influence, whose work spanned the gap between Realism and Impressionism.

Bazille felt so let down by the painting's rejection that he reused the canvas and painted over the piece that represented failure and rejection to him. Girl at a Piano was once believed to be lost, but x-ray technology allowed for its rediscovery beneath a later painting of Ruth and Boaz, a strangely biblical topic (c. 1870). If an artist was dissatisfied with a picture or was low on cash, it wasn't uncommon for them to reuse a canvas. It is known that Bazille frequently engages in this behavior.

According to reports, Bazille frequently traveled to his family's house, Meric, outside Montepellier, especially in the winter. He would go there to read and paint because he thought it to be a haven from city life. La Reunion de family, arguably his most accomplished picture, was created there in 1867. (The Family Reunion). Bazille frequently painted outdoors, en Plein air, like his Impressionist peers, and aside from Fontainebleau and the surrounding area, Meric was one of his favorite locations.

When Bazille spent the winters in the South of France, art critic Edmond Duranty noted in 1870: "Every spring Monsieur Bazille comes from the South with summer paintings [...] full of greenery, sunshine, and simple assurance." The early Impressionists sought to portray "the extraordinary richness of light and the singular feeling of the outdoors and the strength of daylight," according to painter, sculptor, poet, and art critic Zacharie Astruc. They appreciated Bazille's contribution to the movement. Ironically, Bazille's work was frequently chosen by the Salon Jury even though his close buddy Monet was producing artwork in a similar vein. It was never Monet's.

Early Death

Bazille had earned a great deal of respect and fame for his work by the year 1870. But on July 19, 1870, when France formally declared war on Prussia, fate intervened. The enthusiastic young Bazille visited a military recruitment office on August 10, 1870, and enlisted in the 3rd Zouaves light infantry regiment since a full-scale invasion of France was unavoidable as the Prussians advanced further into French territory later in the summer.

Bazille's decision to join the Zouaves astounded his friends and relatives. According to legend, Renoir made light of the fact that his friend had chosen to enlist in that specific regiment "to maintain his beloved beard" because they "did not demand to shave." According to one historian, Bazille's hasty decision to enlist in the military may have been influenced by his unhappiness at the time. He had stopped painting frequently, something he had done for almost ten years, and he had written, "I have constant migraines; I am deeply discouraged," just before enlisting. When Maitre learned that his closest buddy had joined the military, he wrote to Bazille, "My only friend, my beloved. In your letter, which I received, you informed me that you had just signed up. You are insane! Why didn't you ask your pals for advice? May God keep you safe." Renoir also sent him a letter, "You have neither the right nor the duty to make this pledge, so you are an idiot! Merde! Merde, mate!"

After spending a few weeks in Algeria training with the Zouaves, Bazille brought his regiment back to France. Everyone was affected by the conflict and the siege, and most artistic creations ceased. Renoir was drafted and instructed to join a Chasseur unit at the same time as Bazille was told to return to France to serve; Monet traveled to London to avoid the war, and Cézanne practically hid out in the South of France. Manet and Degas enlisted in the National Guard and were based in Paris.

On November 28, 1870, Bazille's unit took part in the Battle of Beaune-la-Rolande, which France had fought to try and end the Siege of Paris in the Val-de-Loir, about 100 km south of the capital. Due to an injury to the unit's commanding officer, Bazille assumed control and led an assault in which he was shot twice. He passed away while fighting. His father's heartbroken journey to Beaune-la-Rolande to recover his son's body took place a few days later. At 28, Bazille passed away and was buried at Montpellier.

Duranty produced a fictional narrative called "The Painter Louis Martin" two years after his demise, in 1872, about a visionary artist who had perished too soon in the Franco-Prussian War. Although Duranty gave his protagonist the name "Louis Martin," it is evident that Bazille was the inspiration for the protagonist in part (with some innovation and variation). The imaginary painter in the tale became disenchanted with the stuffy, academic, creative world of 1860s Paris. Instead of stopping at the Louvre to copy famous works of art, he emulated Manet and Courbet by going outside and painting commonplace subjects that the establishment's fond of tradition despised.

In the narrative, Martin persuades other artists who share his dissatisfaction to forego the yearly Salon, the official exhibition, and organize a rival event where they can display their work. The young Martin was killed in battle. Therefore, the dream was never realized. Bazille "seems to have personified the vibrancy that the young Impressionists brought to painting, and his early death highlighted the freshness and poignancy of their art," says art historian Diane Pitman.

Legacy

Bazille gained notoriety as a Realist painter whose most enduring contributions were en Plein air paintings of figures in landscapes. Along with close associates like Renoir and Monet, he contributed to the establishment of one of the central motifs of Impressionism: the genre scene of a figure or group relaxing in an outdoor setting. He did this by figuring out how to combine two very traditional motifs, the landscape, and the portrait, and by allowing neither to overshadow the other in importance. Bazille has been referred to as a "Proto-Impressionist" because of how these outdoor settings are created, which is less formal and foreshadows the Impressionist style. Before some of his paintings were shown in the Universal Exhibition of 1900 in Paris, Bazille's work had not significantly impacted Impressionist-era painters. By 1910, when a modest retrospective of his work was shown at the Salon d'Automne (Autumn Salon), avant-garde artists such as Pablo Picasso started to pay attention because critic and writer Guillaume Apollinaire recognized Bazille's modernism, including his close relationship to Manet and the way the two artists radically reimagined the nude, both male and female.

Most paintings Jean Frederic Bazille did are about Portrait, People, Still life, and other subjects.

Most of the artist's works that can be seen by the public today are now kept in museums like Musée Fabre, Musée d'Orsay, National Gallery of Art - Washington DC, and others.

Famous Jean Frederic Bazille period artists include Pierre Auguste Renoir (French, 1841 -1919), Claude Monet (French, 1840 -1926), Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796 -1875), Edgar Degas (French, 1834 -1917), Alfred Sisley (French, 1839 -1899), William Merritt Chase (American, 1849 -1916), Paul Cézanne (French, 1839 -1906), Odilon Redon (French, 1840 -1916), Paul Gauguin (French, 1848 -1903), Armand Guillaumin (French, 1841 -1927), Ilia Efimovich Repin (Russian, 1844 -1930), Winslow Homer (American, 1836 -1910), and others.

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