1809 -1864 · Lyon, Rome and Paris

Ingresque line, silence of portraits and large religious murals make Hippolyte Flandrin a major figure in Christian renewal in the 19th century.

Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin was born in Lyon in 1809 into a modest family. With his brothers Auguste and Paul, also painters, he received initial training at the École des beaux-arts in Lyon before moving to Paris. He entered the studio of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, whose demand for line, clarity and lastingly ordered hierarchy marked his entire career. In 1832, Flandrin won the Grand Prix de Rome with Theseus recognized by his father. In 1832, Flandrin won the Grand Prix de Rome with Theseus recognized by his father. The stay at the Villa Medici allowed him to study Raphael, the Renaissance and Italian religious decorations. The stay at the Villa Medici allowed him to study Raphael, the Renaissance and Italian religious decorations. The stay at the Villa Medici allowed him to study Raphael, the Renaissance and Italian religious decorations. The Young Naked Man sitting by the sea, painted in Rome in 1836, condensed this period: the body formed a meditative, isolated loop in front of the horizon, where academic study becomes an image of solitude. Back in France, Flandrin obtained vast commissions for Parisian churches. Saint-Séverin, Saint-Vincent-de-Paul and especially Saint-Germain-des-Prés offer him the opportunity to rethink Christian mural painting. He organizes prophets, apostles and biblical scenes into readable friezes, tuned to architecture rather than added as independent paintings. Models and studies, such as Melchizedek blessing Abraham or the preparatory heads, show how each gesture is constructed before going to the wall. At the same time, Flandrin becomes a sought-after portraitist. He reduces the decor and chooses poses sober and concentrates expression in the look, mouth and line of the costume. The Young Greek, Madame Flandrin and the numerous models of contemporary society unite distinction and interiority. Solitude extends this sensitivity with a seated figure whose withdrawal becomes a subject. Exhausted by major construction sites and in fragile health, Flandrin died in Rome in 1864. His work links the discipline of Ingres, the tradition of frescoes and a contained emotion specific to modern portraiture. The "Hippolyte Flandrin" selection notably compares Young Naked Man Sitting by the Sea and Solitude. His reading favors movement.

Flandrin makes the line an instrument of silence: she locks the body in meditation, orders the sacred procession and gives the portrait its inner dignity.