VIVIEN, Joseph - b. 1657 Lyon, d. 1734 Bonn - WGA

VIVIEN, Joseph

(b. 1657 Lyon, d. 1734 Bonn)

French painter and pastellist, active in Germany. He trained in Paris in 1672 with the painter François Bonnemers (1638-1689), also attending the Académie Royale, where his oil painting the Punishment of Adam and Eve (untraced) won a second prize in 1678. Only in 1698 was he received (reçu) at the Académie, as a pastellist, on presentation of portraits of the sculptor François Girardon and of the architect Robert de Cotte (both Paris, Louvre). Having been commissioned to execute a pastel Self-portrait (Florence, Uffizi) by Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, in 1699, the following year he was appointed the Elector’s principal court painter. He henceforth divided his time between Paris, the Elector’s courts at Brussels and Munich, and the court of Maximilian Emanuel’s son, Clemens August, Elector of Cologne, at Bonn.

Fénélon, Archbishop of Cambrai
Fénélon, Archbishop of Cambrai by

Fénélon, Archbishop of Cambrai

Joseph Vivien was a French painter who worked mainly in pastels. He brought the influence of the French portrait into Germany.

Maximilian Emanuel, Prince Elector of Bavaria
Maximilian Emanuel, Prince Elector of Bavaria by

Maximilian Emanuel, Prince Elector of Bavaria

The Sculptor François Girardon
The Sculptor François Girardon by

The Sculptor François Girardon

This portrait is one of the two admission pieces that Vivien presented in 1701 to the Acad�mie Royal de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris. Utilising either paint or pastel, candidates for portraiture were required to depict two former members occupying a high position in the hierarchy of the Acad�mie, and were admitted or refused on the strength of these two pieces.

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