Jean-Eugène Buland

Biography of Jean-Eugène Buland ( 1852-1926 )

Son of an engraver, Jean-Eugène Buland started at the Fine Arts school of Paris in the studio of Alexandre Cabanel. He first met success with the representation of antique scenes. He gained the second Great Prize of Rome in 1878 and once again in 1879, allowing him to stay at the Villa Medicis for five years. Back to France, Buland was confronted with Jules Bastien-Lepage' success and his realistic themes. Without delay, he gave up with symbolists and antique scenes to turn to the representation of everyday life. He joined the movement of naturalist painting with Bastien-Lepage. He frequently used photography to paint his models with the most precision.

From 1886, Buland left Paris to settle in Charly-sur-Marne, a little village in the French department of Aisne, near Château-Thierry. He took his inspiration from everyday life, that he painted with the greatest meticulousness. Jean-Eugène Buland obtained many public orders for great institutions, like the Luxembourg Museum in Paris and many museums in provinces. He made several paintings for the salon des Sciences in the Paris’ City Hall and also decorated the ceiling of the City Hall of Château-Thierry.

He gained many rewards including a third class medal at the Universal Exhibition in Barcelona in 1888. In the 1889s Universal Exhibition in Paris, he was awarded a second class medal and was also awarded during the International Exhibition in London in 1890. Finally, he received the Legion of honor in 1894.

Eugène Buland was a meticulous painter who never forgot any details regarding the appearance and the costumes of his persons. Through the conscientious and careful light’s treatment on his models and on the area, the artist reproduced perfectly well the impression of resemblance.

By representations as objective as possible, Buland tried to give us an account of the everyday life around him. This same momentum has been found in many naturalist artists of his generation. Nevertheless, his scenes were always deprived of judgement. Buland adopted the attitude of an ethnographer who showed his observations to the public. His paintings are like an everyday life chronicle, combining portraits and scenes of genre.

The Fine Arts Museum of Carcassonne, in which Buland’s painting named "Innocent wedding" is now kept, dedicated him an important exhibition from October 2007 to January 2008 and published a catalog of his works for the occasion.