SUVÉE, Joseph-Benoit

Flemish painter from Bruges. He was always referred to by Jacques-Louis David as 'l'ignare Suvée', and was, like David, a pupil of Vien, and David's lifelong rival for the leadership of NeoclassicismGLOSSARYA style in European art and architecture from the mid 18th century until the end of the 19th century. Based as it was on the use of ancient Greek and Roman models and motifs, its development was greatly influenced by the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, and by the theories of the German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768). Intellectually and politically it was closely linked to the Enlightenment's rejection of the aristocratic frivolity of Rococo, the style of the Ancien Régime. Among Neoclassicism's leading figures were the French painter Jacques-Louis David (1744-1825), the German painter Anton Raffael Mengs (1728-1729), and the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822). in France. He came from Bruges to Paris and won the Prix de RomeGLOSSARYA scholarship, founded concurrently with the French Academy in Rome (1666), that enabled prize-winning students at the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris to spend a period (usually 4 years) in Rome at the state's expense. Prizes for architecture began to be awarded regularly in 1723, and prizes for engravers and musicians were added in the 19th century. The prizes were meant to perpetuate the academic tradition and during the 18th and 19th centuries winning the award was the traditional stepping stone to the highest honours for painters and sculptors. Many distinguished artists (as well as many nonentities) were Prix de Rome winners, notably David, Fragonard, and Ingres among painters and Clodion, Girardon, and Houdon among sculptors. The prizes are still awarded and the system has been adopted by other countries. against David in 1771, spending a year at the École des Élèves protégés, and then going to Rome 1772-78, after which he returned to Paris and became Agréé (1779) and Member of the Academy (1780) and Painter to the King. He returned to Rome as Director of the French Academy there, in 1792, but lost his job when David became dictator of the arts. He was imprisoned (like David) under the Terror. 1794-95, but was reappointed to Rome by Napoleon in 1801 and remained there until his death. His works are now largely forgotten, but there are several in Bruges and others in French provincial museums, including Besançon and Lille.