Frédéric de Courcy (1832- ? )

Frédéric de Courcy by G. Moreau

Courcy Frédéric (de) was a painter, born Alexandre-Frédéric Charlot de Courcy in Paris, on 28 March 1832. His father, a writer of light comedies, was also known as Frédéric de Courcy. For the record, the cast of one of his plays, Le courrier de la malle (The mail coach agent, written with M. de Rougemont and C. Dupeuty and published in 1832) featured Henry Monnier (1799 – 1877), an actor and playwright, but also a renowed artist in the heyday of nineteenth century French book illustration.

Like Gustave Moreau, William Bouguereau, Alexandre Cabanel and many others, Frédéric de Courcy studied painting with François-Édouard Picot (1786 – 1868), a neoclassic painter. He was friend with Gustave Moreau, who drew his portrait on a study sheet for Hesiod and the Muse, and together they set out on a trip through Italy in 1857 (the portrait was probably made sometime during this trip, possibly in 1858). Neither of them had won the prestigious Prix de Rome ⁽¹⁾, nonetheless they frequented the Villa Medici, where they attended the “evening academy”. Not only did these classes offer an appropriate environment for studying art, but they also provided them with opportunities to meet other artists, writers, etc.

Back in France, he started to exhibit at the Paris Salon in 1861, with a painting called La pâque (Passover). In 1863 and 1864, He exhibited two historical paintings, and in 1865 another painting inspired by Richardson’s Clarissa: Clarissa Harlowe led by lovelace to Sinclair’s house. He exhibited three more times at the Salon, from 1866 to 1868, but only enamelwork and most of it after Gustave Moreau: Œdipus and the Sphinx, La Péri (see G. Moreau’s watercolor on the Musée d’Orsay official website), etc. The turning of his interest to enamel was to determine his following career, which moved on to the Sèvres factory. There he taught ceramics, and for some time directed research on translucent enamel.
Frédéric de Courcy got married three times, in 1868, 1895 and 1908.

(1) The Prix de Rome was, at this time, a yearly contest for art students whose prizewinner was granted a three year stay at The Academy of France in Rome, accommodated in the Villa Médicis since 1803. It is worth noting that while effectively spotting and stimulating new talents through the eighteenth century and up until the end of the neoclassic period, The Prix de Rome and its jury later became deaf and blind to innovative art movements and, for instance, completely missed out on Romanticism.

Picture: RMN

Sources:

Émile Bellier de La Chavignerie and Louis Auvray: Dictionnaire Général des Artistes de l’école française, Paris, 1882.

Eugène de Mirecourt: Henry Monnier, Paris, 1857.

GeneaNet (FR).

Musée national Gustave-Moreau (FR).

Catalog of the exhibition Les Soyer, une dynastie d’émailleurs (The Soyer, a famous line of enamel workers) 8 june – 8 july 2005, Galerie Marc Maison.