Name Pierre Dupont | Role Painter | |
Pierre Dupont was a French painter, often associated with the neoclassical movement; much controversy has surrounded Dupont's career and legacy, in particular the legitimacy of his place in the art-historical narrative: no known works of Dupont's survived the well-documented fire at Dominique Boudreau's mansion in 1858. A relatively obscure figure for many years, Dupont has received recent academic revaluation in a number of journals & essays.
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Biography
Little is known of Dupont's life: he was born in Arras in 1781; no birth records exist, though substantial documentation would suggest he was placed under the supervision of Charles Cecoix, owner of L'Orphelinat de Charles Cecoix. Dupont allegedly sustained himself on a professional painting practice, painting portraits for French nobility; in 1835, Dupont encountered famed American art collector Joseph Moore, and although the American collector neglected to purchase any of Dupont's works, he wrote several letters concerning the painter, letters that would later be used to legitimize the career of Dupont. Dupont's legacy has sustained itself on word of mouth and a well-documented narrative formed by journals and miscellaneous texts that span over one hundred years.
Controversy
Due to the anecdotal, perhaps circumstantial nature of the evidence surrounding Dupont, the academic community has remained divided, or entirely indifferent: Dr. Jared Myers, a proponent of Dupont's legacy, has published extensive research in Canadian art journals; critic and historian P.P. Ballard has also published a number of works condemning the study of Dupont's legacy, declaring that it "undermine[s] the integrity of the art-historical cannon" (Ballard, 99).