Russell Collection Inventory

Jean-Francois Raffaellli was born in Paris on April 20, 1850 and died in the same city on February 29, 1924. During his illustrious career he was a portrait painter, landscape artist, genre painter, engraver, lithographer and sculptor.

In 1870 Raffaelli enrolled into the studio of Gerome and made his debut at the Salon of 1870. Rafaelli was a great friend of the Impressionists, particularly Degas, Pissaro and Mary Cassatt, however, as he achieved greater success in the Salons, he eventually moved away from this group of painters, with the exception of Mary Cassatt, with whom he shared a love of color etching, and more towards the world of the official art establishment. Rafaelli was basically an Impressionist and he remained faithful to the subjects he knew best, such as the suburbs of Paris, the landscape and villages along the Seine, the animals of the countryside, the factories and various landmarks around Paris, scenes of working class people, the beggars and the rag pickers.

A one-man show, which he mounted in 1884, established Raffaelli’s reputation as a painter. After executing a few portraits, most notably those of “Edmond de Goncourt” and “Clemenceau”, he resumed painting genre scenes, successfully reproducing scenes of middle-class life. Raffaelli quite often made a preliminary drawing in black and white of most of his canvases.

His spirited Paris landscapes reached a large public. He accurately captured the city’s slums and fortifications, which have since disappeared from the city’s silhouette. Some examples of this genre are “Sur le Zone” (“In the Slum”), “Chioffonnier” (“Rag-picker”), “Le Chemineau” (“The Railroad Worker”), “Le Carriere de Sable” (“The Sand Quarry”), and “Coin de Fortifications” (“Corner with Fortifications”).

It is suggested that the figure in the “Study of a Man”, ink drawing on paper, is a depiction of the painter, Cezanne.

Rafaelli also produced prints with remarkable colors. Some of the honors bestowed upon him include an Honorable Mention at the 1885 Salon, the Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1889, a gold medal at the Exposition Universal of 1889 and he became an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1906. He was also a member of the Societe des Beaux-Arts.

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