Félix Lionnet

Félix Lionnet was a French Painter born at La Châtaigneraie Vendée on December 15, 1832, the son of Félix Lionnet (1797–1842), a goldsmith, and his wife Marthe Clémentine Lebel (1810–1866). The Lebels were a staunchly republican family. Marthe Clémentine's grandfather, a member of the National Guard, was massacred by Vendéen rebels on 14 March 1796. Lionnet's paternal grandfather served in a republican hussar regiment and then in the navy as a medical officer. He appears to have taken part in the Battle of Trafalgar and later in the Battle of Grand Port in Mauritius where he died.[1]

Félix Lionnet was educated at the Nantes Lycée. After leaving college he studied under a Nantais painter named Fortin and then in Paris under Camille Corot.

He left for Italy in April 1857 and also visited Greece before returning to France in 1861. Lionnet was part of circle which included the composer Georges Bizet and the painters Elie Delaunay, Edgar Degas, Gustave Moreau and Léon Bonnat.

After the fall of Napoleon III he served as mayor of La Châtaigneraie for five months. He was deputy mayor of the town between 1882 and 1892. His only son, born in 1869, Félix Léon Jean Baptiste Lionnet[2] died in 1887 crushed between two railway carriages on the day the town's railway station was opened. He was 18 years of age.[3]

Félix Lionnet died in La Châtaigneraie on November 11, 1896.

Works

References

  1. Edward Duyker ed., Mauritian Heritage: An Anthology of the Lionnet, Commins and Related Families, Australian Mauritian Research Group, Ferntree Gully, 1986, p. 368, ISBN 0 9590883 2 6.
  2. Archives numérisées de la Vendée, Naissances (La Châtaigneraie) 1855-1869, registre AD2E059/12-13-14, acte no. 1 27 janvier 1869
  3. Archives numérisées de la Vendée, Décès (La Châtaigneraie) 1884-1897, registre AD2E059/20, acte no. 39 en date du 13 septembre 1887

Further reading

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