Louis Béroud (1852-1930)

Louis Béroud (1852-1930) was a French painter, a student of Léon Bonnat, renowned for his detailed and realistic works, often depicting interior scenes of famous museums, including the Louvre.

Some of his paintings are visible at the Musée Carnavalet and The Louvre in Paris.

He was awarded the medal of honour at the Salon in 1882 and won the bronze medal at the Universal.

After visiting the Louvre in the 1870s, an American traveler noted that "along the galleries are numerous temporary stands, easels, etc., at which artists are constantly at work copying such paintings as they may have orders for, or hope to find purchasers for" (as quoted in Barbara Stern Shapiro, Pleasures of Paris: Daumier to Picasso, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1991, p. 108).

Stumbling across a working artist and his accoutrements was not a rare occurrence for the museumgoer in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Viewing and copying the museum's masterpieces was a traditional part of an artist's education, and a practice Beroud both enjoyed and used as the subject of at least twenty-six of his compositions.

On August 22, 1911, Louis Béroud went to The Louvre to draw his work of art Mona Lisa au Louvre (Mona Lisa at the Louvre) yet where the acclaimed La Gioconda (Mona Lisa) by Leonardo da Vinci, ought to have stood, he discovered four iron pegs.

Louis Béroud contacted the section head of the guards, who thought the Mona Lisa was being photographed for advertising purposes.

A couple of hours later, Béroud sought out the area leader of the exhibition hall, and it was affirmed that the Mona Lisa was not with the photographers.

The Louvre was shut down for a whole week to help in the examination of the robbery.

Louis Béroud had a unique claim to fame as the only painter whose detailed paintings contained even more famous paintings that were hanging on the museum walls.

Besides the Mona Lisa that he had to paint within a painting, he also did his own exceptional oil painting reproduction of the Mona Lisa.

Béroud who did not do many paintings has five hanging in the Louvre in Paris.

Louis Béroud (1852-1930) è stato un pittore Francese.

La famiglia di Louis Béroud si trasferì a Parigi nel 1861.

Inizialmente lavorò con i decoratori Jean-Baptiste Lavastre e Pierre-Eugène Gourdet, prima di entrare nello studio di Léon Bonnat per studiare pittura.

Dal 1873 espose al Salon, dove gli fu conferita la medaglia d'onore nel 1882.

L'anno seguente ottenne una borsa di viaggio e divenne hors-competition.

Vinse la medaglia di bronzo all'Esposizione Universale del 1889 ed a quella del 1900.

Espone nei Salons figure (ritratti ed allegorie), alcune vedute di Parigi e soprattutto gli interni dei principali monumenti parigini, in particolare: Al Louvre (1883, terza medaglia); Enrico III a Venezia (1885); la Galleria dei busti al Senato (1892); il Foyer degli artisti alla Comédie-Française (1894, al Théâtre-Français); il Salon Carré al Louvre (1900, Esposizione Universale; medaglia di bronzo); Confidenze, pastello (1905); Birrificio alsaziano (1910).

Uno dei suoi dipinti, Au Salon carré du Louvre, presentato all'esposizione annuale di pittura del 1883, è conservato a Montpellier presso il museo Fabre.

Dipinse la Fata dei giocattoli (Parigi, municipio del X arrondissement)-

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Episodio di Mona Lisa

Il 22 agosto 1911, mentre si recava al Museo del Louvre per realizzare uno schizzo per il suo dipinto successivo, la Gioconda del Louvre, la Gioconda di Leonardo da Vinci non c'era più.

Contatta le guardie, che gli indicano che il famoso cartello deve trovarsi nello studio fotografico.

Dopo aver chiesto nuovamente conferma alle guardie qualche ora dopo, gli fu detto che la Monna Lisa non era con i fotografi.

Il Louvre ha quindi chiuso le sue porte per un'intera settimana per facilitare le indagini della polizia sul furto di questo dipinto.