Évariste Vital Luminais

Lore & Background

Luminais was born in Nantes into a parliamentary and legal family. He studied in Paris with Auguste Debay, Léon Cogniet, and Constant Troyon. He made his official début at the Paris Salon of 1843 and won medals at the Salons of 1852, 1855, 1857, 1861, and 1889. He was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1869 and won the gold medal at the 1889 Exposition. He was a founder member of the Société des Artistes Français. He divided his time between his Paris studio and a summer house in Douadic, where he painted works reflecting his love of nature and hunting. He died in Paris at age 75 and was buried in Douadic.

Reader's Guide

Luminais played an important part in disseminating the iconography of the Gauls, with their long hair and winged helmets, as part of 19th-century French historical examination. He also depicted early medieval clashes between peoples, such as Romans and Celts, and Merovingian subjects emphasizing barbaric cruelty. His painting 'The Sons of Clovis II' (1880) was his most famous Merovingian work, based on a legend of two princes set adrift after being enervated. The painting created a sensation at the 1880 Salon and is now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Luminais also collaborated on a monumental fresco for the Paris Commercial Bourse. His works contain anachronisms common to historical painters of the time, and he was among academic painters who satisfied a social demand for historical works in the early Third Republic, later condemned by advocates of modern art.

Did You Know?

• Luminais was one of the few Academy painters who would teach women.
• He used a local legend for his painting 'La Folle du Tertre'.
• His painting 'The Sons of Clovis II' was sold to Australia and is now in Sydney.
• He was buried in the little cemetery in Douadic.