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BOUTON, Charles-Marie - b. 1781 Paris, d. 1853 Paris - WGA

BOUTON, Charles-Marie

(b. 1781 Paris, d. 1853 Paris)

French painter. He was a student of Jacques Louis David, Jean-Victor Bertin and the first French panorama painter Pierre Prévost (1764-1823). He concentrated mostly on the perspective and the art of distributing light. In 1821-22, he developed the Diorama theatre with Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851), the inventor of the daguerreotype process of photography, and a professional scene painter for the theatre. Between 1822 and 1839 they were co-proprietors of the Diorama in Paris, an auditorium in which they displayed immense paintings of famous places and historical events. This scenographic entertainment included two enormous canvases, 14 by 22 metres in size, typically with one featuring a natural view and the other an architectural view, illuminated by moving, coloured lights.

As a painter, he reproduced interiors of French churches such as the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont in Paris, and the cathedral of Chartres.

First Communion in the Interior of the Crypt of the Church of St Roch, Paris
First Communion in the Interior of the Crypt of the Church of St Roch, Paris by

First Communion in the Interior of the Crypt of the Church of St Roch, Paris

Besides being the co-proprietor of the Diorama theatre in Paris, Bouton, as a painter, reproduced interiors of French churches.

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Gothic Chapel
Gothic Chapel by

Gothic Chapel

This painting relies on pronounced perspective and crepuscular light to convey a romantic effect that displaces narrative content, evoking the spectacle of the Diorama theatre, developed by Bouton and Louis Daguerre, on a small scale.

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