For the artist François Bonvin (1817-1887), lack of food was one of the ways in which he knew neglect during childhood after his mother died when he was four years old. Looking at some of his paintings and etchings that depict children eating, one wonders what he might have been thinking and feeling when creating those images.
François Bonvin (1817-1887). Girl Drinking from a Bowl. Circa 1847. The Walters Art Museum. → https://art.thewalters.org/detail/15814/girl-drinking-from-a-bowl/
François Bonvin (1817-1887). Boy Eating Soup (Enfant mangeant sa soupe). 1861. The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. → https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.138960.html
Kitchens and cooks appear often in the works of François Bonvin:
- 1849, La Cuisinière
- 1855, La Cuisinière
- 1856, Intérieur de cuisine avec jeune femme moulant du café
- 1859, Intérieur de cuisine
- 1861, La Cuisinière → https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/SAHADVpvMtqo_A
- 1861, La Fontaine en cuivre ; intérieur de cuisine, dit servante tirant de l’eau → https://www.pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/joconde/000PE000175
- 1863, Intérieur de cuisine
- 1868, La Cuisinière → https://archive.org/stream/cataloguedestabl00gale_0/cataloguedestabl00gale_0#page/n38/mode/1up
- 1875, La Cuisinière → https://www.artic.edu/artworks/117477/the-maid
- 1879, La Cuisine de la rue des Coches
- 1879, La Cuisine des Sœurs de Charité → https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl020037210
- 1880, La Cuisine, rue des Coches
- 1881, Le Cuisinier
François Bonvin (1817-1887). Nuns Going to Distribute Food (Religieuses allant distribuer des vivres, intérieur). 1866. Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of William H. Herriman, 21.96 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 21.96_cropped_bw.jpg) → https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/11752
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References & Suggested Reading
Berès, Anisabelle. François Bonvin, the Master of the “Realist School,” 1817-1887. Pittsburgh, Pa.: Frick Art and Historical Center, 1999. / Paris: Galerie Berès, 1999.
“Bonvin, (François).” Dictionnaire général des artistes de l’Ecole française depuis l’origine des arts du dessin jusqu’à nos jours ; architectes, peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs et lithographes ; ouvrage commencé par Émile Bellier de la Chavignerie, continué par Louis Auvray. 1882.
Bonvin, François, and Charles-Jérôme Lecour. Le peintre François Bonvin : lettres et souvenirs. Blois: C. Migault, 1897.
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Alain Accardo. La misère du monde. Paris: Êditions du Seuil, 1998.
Bourdieu, Pierre, et al. The Weight of the World: Social Suffering in Contemporary Society. Translated by Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson et al. Stanford UP, 2000.
Child, Theodore. “François Bonvin.” The Art Amateur, vol. 18, no. 3, 1888, p.61. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25628744.
Miller, Jill. “The Advent of the Modern Child and Student: François Bonvin’s ‘Seated Boy with a Portfolio’.” The Reincarnating Mind, or the Ontopoietic Outburst in Creative Virtualities. Springer, 1998, pp.345-362.
Moreau-Nélaton, Etienne. Bonvin raconté par lui-même. Paris: H. Laurens, 1927.
Weisberg, Gabriel P. Bonvin. Traduction française et adaptation d’André Watteau. Paris: Éditions Geoffroy-Dechaume, 1979.
– – – . François Bonvin and the Critics of His Art. London: Apollo Press, 1974.
– – – . François Bonvin 1817-1887: An Exhibition of Paintings, 26 April-24 May 1984. Wheelock Whitney & Company, 1984.
– – – . “The Traditional Realism of François Bonvin.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 65, no. 9, 1978, pp.281–298. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25159602.
