SCHNETZ, Jean-Victor - b. 1787 Versailles, d. 1870 Paris

French painter and printmaker. He trained first under Jacques-Louis David and then under Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Antoine-Jean Gros and François Gérard. He made his début at the Salon in 1808 and exhibited there until 1867. It was in 1819, however, that he established his reputation by winning the gold medal for history painting. The following year he exhibited one of his most important paintings, A Gypsy Predicting the Future of Sixte-Quinte (1820; untraced). After this there followed a number of paintings on historical and religious subjects such as General Condé at the Battle of Rocroy (1824; Versailles, Château), Eudes, Comte de Paris, Raising the Siege of Paris in 886 (1837; Versailles, Château) and Procession of Crusaders around Jerusalem the Day Before the Taking of the Town, 14 July 1099 (1841; Versailles, Château).

In all these works he took subjects of the type favoured by the Romantics and enhanced their dramatic potential by the dominant use of reds and yellows. The paintings had however an underlying coolness resulting from his Neoclassical training under David, and their main importance lies in this bridging of the two schools of Romanticism and Neo-classicism.

The Battle for the Town Hall, 28 July 1830

Schnetz’s painting depicts the same event as represented in Delacroix’s famous Liberty Leading the People (Louvre, Paris). In Schnetz’s version, shown at the Salon of 1834, the composition is also designed to heighten the drama of the event, but Schnetz has refrained from the use of symbolism.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 12 minutes):

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: The Battle, suite