Léonce Bénédite (14 January 1859 – 12 May 1925) was a French art historian and éonceBénécurator. He was a co-founder of the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français (Society for French Orienalist Painters) and was instrumental in establishing Orientalist art as a legitimate genre.
He was the assistant curator at the Chateau de Versailles between 1882 and 1886; the assistant curator at the Chateau de Versailles between 1886; and from 1886 he was the first assistant director at Étienne Arago at the Musée du Luxembourg until 1892 when he became the director. For Bénédite, writing was inseparable from his function as curator. He was a prolific writer, contributing to books, catalogs and art journals.
Bénédite was one of the executors of Auguste Rodin's will, with responsibility for managing Rodin's artistic heritage. He was a key figure in establishing the Rodin Museum at the Hôtel Biron in 1919 and became the museum's first curator.
Life and career
Bénédite was born in Nîmes, the son of Samuel Bénédite and Isabelle Lisbonne and brother of Georges Bénédite the egyptologist. Isabelle, widowed, married the distinguished curator at the Louvre, Georges Lafenestre. This connection provided Léonce with privileged access to practising contemporary artists. He trained in law and art history. Very early on, Bénédite became involved in the artistic world as a member of the Salon des Artistes Français from 1880 to 1881. In contact with artists, he developed a network of close relationships that he maintained throughout his life, particularly through his active involvement in various art societies such as the Society of French Orientalist Painters, the Society of French Engraving Painters, the Society of Lithographic Painters or the Society of Painters of Paris.
Between 1882 and 1886, he was the assistant curator at the Chateau de Versailles. In 1886, he became the first assistant director at Étienne Arago at the Musée du Luxembourg; an art museum primarily devoted to French painting. He was appointed director in 1892 and set about defining a conservation policy that evolved little over time and which he outlined in the catalogs of the collection. In 1919, he became the first curator of the Musée Rodin. He also managed art acquisitions for the French state for almost 30 years.
Bénédite established his career at Luxembourg, where he developed a conservation policy, acquisitions policy and insisted on the exhibition of all artistic techniques. He rejected hierarchies between the art forms and refused to favour painting only. Thus, the acquisition policy focussed on the development of non-existent sections or works that predecessors have not managed to organize sustainably. He did neglected neither sculpture nor lithography nor print-making and encouraged the collection of art objects, including medals. He also encouraged museums to display one representative work of all major artists in an attempt to encourage younger painters.
He founded the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français in 1893 with Alphonse-Étienne Dinet.
Bénédite was the first art historian to explicitly acknowledge the similarities between Manet's Olympia and Titian's Venus of Urbino.
Bénédite died in Paris in 1925, aged 69 years. His archives are maintained by the central library of the national museums of the Louvre in Paris.
Selected publications
Books
Meissonier: biographie critique published by H. Laurens, Paris, 1910
La peinture au XIXième siècle: d'après les chefs-d'oeuvre des maitres et les meilleurs tableaux des principaux artistes, published by E. Flammarion, Paris, 1909 Gustave Courbet, published by J.B. Lippincott Co., London, 1913 Histoire des Beaux-Arts 1800-1900: peinture, sculpture, architecture, médaille et glyptique, gravure, art décoratif en France et à l’étranger, Ernest Flammarion, Paris, 1909 Albert Lebourg, Georges Petit, Paris, 1923 Rodin published by John Lane, London, 1926 Théodore Chassériau; sa vie et son oeuvre, published by Les Éditions Braun, Paris, 1931