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Raymond Monviosin Patience A. Schell
University of Manchester

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Raymond Monvoisin (1790-1870) was born in BourdeBordeauxaux, France, a child brought up during the Revolution whose family had been well-to-do bourgeoisie. Although trained as a military engineer, he preferred to paint. He studied at the Fine Arts School in Bourdeaux between 1808-1812 with Pierre Lacour, after which he moved to Paris to study at the Fine Arts Academy and in the workshop of Pierre Narcise Guérin. In 1825 he married Domínica Festa, a watercolour painter, and began a family with the birth of their daughter, in 1834. His career in Europe earned him the Rome Prize for a portrait of Louis XVIII, the highest possible honor to which he could aspire. Nonetheless, Monvoisin's European career began to lag because of harsh criticism of his work and his own marital troubles. Chilean Mariano Egaña, who had met the artist in Paris when having his portrait painted, helped arranged for the Chilean government extended Monvoisin an invitation to direct the local Academia de Pintura, which had not yet been founded. Arriving in Santiago with the hopes of reviving his career, Monvoisin displayed his paintings to an eager audience and quickly became a fashionable portrait painter, painting between 500 and 600 portraits of intellectuals, military men, families, businessmen and fine ladies during his Chilean stay. A trip to Peru in 1845 was equally successful in terms of portrait painting commissions. The success of his portrait painting made working as the Academy director less appealing and he never filled the position. Returning to France, he tried to convince his wife and children to accompany him to Chile but as his wife was unwilling to leave Europe, his marriage broke up. Monvoisin returned to Chile with his nephew Gastón Raymond. In 1848, assisted by his student Clara Filleul, he established two workshops: one in Santiago and another in Valparaíso. Homesickness eventually sent him back to France (1857) with his reputation restored enough to put him back among the medal winners in the Paris salons. He lived his life out in Paris, dying of bronchitis in 1870.

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    Bibliography

  • Ivelic, Milan. 'http://iluvatar.scc.puc.cl/faba/ARTE/AUTORES/Lira.html'
  • Icarito Enciclopedia Escolar. 'http://icarito.tercera.cl/biografias/1831-1861/bios/monvoisin.htm'

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