Edmond Fournier (1832 - 8 September 1855, Sebastopol), lieutenant in the 96th infantry killed - beaten to death in a trench - at the capture of Sebastopol during the Crimean War. He was a maternal first cousin of the painter Édouard Manet; they were born the same year. Fournier shared the same name as his father, Edmond Fournier, a former artillery officer and aide-de-camp to the duc de Montpensier. The elder Fournier was instrumental in steering his young nephew Manet toward an art career. The twenty-three year old artist was deeply affected by the death of his cousin and visited his uncle a few weeks later. The following day his uncle expressed his thanks: "Pontcelles, 1 October 1855, I am so unhappy and so sad, my dear Édouard, that I am afraid I have not expressed to you strongly enough how grateful I am for the visit you made us yesterday. In almost all of his letters, my poor Edmond told us about you and asked us about your work and your successes. [...]"
 |
| Edmond Fournier, by Charles Gleyre, 1856. |
Intended as an oval format, the portrait was made posthumously - painted the year after Fournier's death - with the likeness almost certainly taken from a photograph.
*
And then there's this fellow, this particular Fournier; other than his name, I have no idea who he is. I searched and searched online and... nothing. In the upper right corner Ingres wrote, "Rome, 1815." And at the top, at center, is inscribed calligraphically in pen and ink, "À L'amitié." To friendship. The latter, at least, leads me to the radical hypothesis that the handsome fellow portrayed here may very well have been a good friend of the artist. Beyond that...?
 |
| Jean-Joseph Fournier, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1815. |
*
 |
| General François Louis Fournier, later Fournier-Sarlovèze, by Antoine-Jean Gros, before 1812. |
 |
| As is obvious from the pentimento of the figure's left leg, the general was first posed in a different stance. |
