Charles-Edouard de Beaumont

Painter of religious subjects, genre, landscapes. Watercolourist, draughtsman, illustrator and lithographer.

Cupid and Psyche, circa 1850
Oil on canvas
Signed lower right and on the back
Dimensions: 56.5 x 46.5cm
With frame: 76 x 65 cm

Charles-Édouard de Beaumont painted a famous scene from ancient mythology; the story of Cupid and Psyche. He depicted the moment Cupid falls in love with her. The scene is pleasant: the colors are as warm and delicate as the smile and the skin of the protagonists. The painter anticipated the public’s taste for paintings that were both intimate and mythological.

Son of a sculptor, he was educated by the painter Boisselier. If he models a few statuettes, he has an attraction for painting from an early age. He began his career as a landscape painter at the Salon of 1838. Thereafter, he undertook a trip to Italy until 1847. From then on, he made genre paintings.

In addition to his career as a painter, he is a collector of old weapons. He wrote two books on the iconography of female swords and sold his collection to the Cluny museum upon his death. When he is not painting or collecting, he participates in the social and bourgeois life of society. He founded the Society of Watercolourists with his painter friend, Vibert.

Beaumont’s reputation rests primarily on his watercolors and his lithographic and illustrative work. Lithographer, he belongs to the galaxy of talents selected by the publisher Aubert. As a watercolourist, however, his style is very personal, and it’s safe to say that his work has pushed the boundaries of his field.

Museums:

• Museum of Fine Arts and David D’Angers gallery; Tours Museum of Fine Arts; National Center for Plastic Arts in Paris

Bibliography:

• art. “Charles-Édouard de Beaumont”, Bénézit, Oxford Art Online, 2011

• Étienne Arago, Notice of paintings, sculptures and drawings of the Modern School: exhibited in the galleries of the National Museum of Luxembourg, 1886, p. 3

• Émile Bellier de la Chavignerie, Louis Auvray, Dictionary of artists of the French school , Volume 1, Librairie Renouard, Paris, 1885, p. 59

• Charles-Édouard de Beaumont, The Sword and Women, 1882

• Charles-Édouard de Beaumont, Flower of the beautiful swords , 1885

• Gérard Schurr, Pierre Cabanne, The little masters of my painting, Value of Tomorrow , Les Éditions de L’Amateur, Volume V

Museums:

• In Paris: City of Paris Museum of Modern Art, Petit Palais.

• In France: Fine arts museums of Carcassonne, Mulhouse, Nice, Orléans, Le Havre.

• Internationally: Metropolitan Museum in New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Bucharest, National Museum in Budapest.