André Lançon also known as Auguste Lançon (Saint-Claude, Jura, 16 december 1836 – Paris, 14 april 1885)

“Man defeated by a lion”

Oil on canvas
Dated : 1867
Signed : Auguste Lançon
Dimensions : 195,5 x 233 cm (with frame) & 164 x 200 cm (without frame)
This painting is a part of a diptych with “Woman defeated by a tiger”

Auguste-André Lançon was born the 16 december 1836 in Saint-Claude. He studied in the secondary school of Saint-Claude, at the age of 7 he enter as an apprentice in a priting shop of Lons-le-Saunier It was a short learning in Lyon he will master his job as a lithographer In the meantime he took part of an entry competition at the School of beaux-art of Lyon receives at the school, he was immediatly allowed to follow courses of the director, the paintor Bonnefont who had noticed his ability in drawings after his stay in Lyon from 1853 to 1857, il went to Paris and enter, in 1858, the workshol of Picot, where he didn’t stay for long The multiple performances, on the street, the zoological garden, the Morgue was much more entertaining for him than a frigid and correct teaching of a member of the institut In 1861, he made his first paintings, we saw at the exhibition of Lyon some “Tucors” and in Paris ” The portrait of Mr. Lançon father” Fron 1860 Lançon worked in “Temps, illustrateur universel” ith Daumier and in ‘l’Illustration” No salon in 1862, in 1863 the jury accept one of his painting “Cimetière des moines” However they refused his second work “La sentinelle et le Clairon” Lançon wasn’t the first to be wiped by the jury: he was in the company of Mant, Jongkind, Whistler, Pissarro, Fantin-Latour and others in the next salon he exposed “un ours dans un paysage” (1864),”cuirassier en vedette” (1866) … in th influence of Delcrois he painted “an arab defeated by a lioness” and ” a tiger drinking” in the salon of 1868, he took a big turn, this shows his large knowledge in the muscles and fur of the felines in the salon of 1869, two paintings where there “mille huit cent treize” and “Lions” His talent growing will gave a free career in the strong water he used his drawing to illusrate “la troisième invasion” of Eugène Veron (July 1870 – march 1871) It was the most dismal commentary on the war The name of Goya was pronoced when we saw exposed in the Salon of 1873 a followinf of the 17 strong-water dedicated to the Franco-german campaign The connoisseurs were’nt wrong And without doing a parallel between de strong waters of Lançon and the planks of disaster of the war of th spanish master, we can confirm that this engraver attained the dramatic power of Goya In the next salons, he produced new series of stong-waters that gave his reputation He will expose in the salons of 1874,1876,1877,1879,1880,1882 of painters

Lançon was an untiring worker till his lastg moment, he was really sick with diabetes and was transported in the hospital Necker where he died the 14 april 1885, he had 48yo He was buried in the cemetery Montparnasse : on his tom was inaugurated in november 1891 a monument elevated with subscription : a headstone with a mask of the artist in bronze by Charles Gautier, with a low relief reproducing one of his strong-waters : “Lion drinking”.

(Bibliography : Excerpt of “la gazette des beaux-arts” of 1920 by Charles Léger)