Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours

Wrestling at The Olympic Games, 1786–1791, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva, 209.5 × 386cm

Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours (4 April 1752 – 6 April 1809) was a Swiss painter from Geneva.[1][2]

The Selection of Children in Sparta, small version of 1785, 56 cm (22 in) × 100 cm (39.3 in), Neue Pinakothek, Munich

As well as relatively informal portraits, he specialized in ambitious history paintings of subjects from ancient, especially classical, history. These are in a Neoclassical style, several with large groups of figures, inevitably drawing comparison with the works of his contemporary Jacques-Louis David, who was four years older.[3] But many of Saint-Ours's works are far smaller, if only because he lacked the commissions to realize them at the full sizes he intended. His major compositions mostly exist as drawings with various degrees of finish, small painted versions and, if he received a commission, the full-size oil paintings, which can often be very large.

Portrait of Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours, from his "funeral elegy", 1809

After the French Revolution, Saint-Ours returned to Geneva and entered politics, initially as a keen supporter of revolutionary ideas. He later became disillusioned and returned to painting, now mainly as a portraitist of wealthy Genevans.

  1. ^ entry in ULAN
  2. ^ de Herdt, Anne. "Saint-Ours, Jean-Pierre". Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse [Historical Dictionary of Switzerland] (in French).
  3. ^ SIKART; Krull, 180

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