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Faré, Michel

    Full Name: Faré, Michel

    Other Names:

    • Michel Faré
    • Michel A. Faré
    • M.-A. Faré
    • Michel-Ange Faré

    Gender: male

    Date Born: 14 November 1913

    Date Died: 22 July 1985

    Place Born: Paris, Île-de-France, France

    Place Died: Paris, Île-de-France, France

    Home Country/ies: France

    Subject Area(s): painting (visual works) and still lifes

    Career(s): curators

    Institution(s): Musée du Louvre


    Overview

    Chief curator of the Musée des arts décoratifs and the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris from 1962-1968; art historian specializing in French still life painting; professor at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, and later the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts. Faré was born in the 9e arrondissement, Paris, in 1931 to André Faré (1876-1944), an Avocat à la Cour d’appel de Paris, Négociant, (appellate lawyer) and Madeleine Blanche Laurence Mompez (Faré) (1882-1958).  His grandfather, Léonce Faré (1839-1905), founded the Magasins du Louvre (department store).  He obtained his baccalauréat from the lycée Sainte-Croix in Neuilly, and then studied under Henri Focillon at the Sorbonne (Faculté des Lettres de Paris, Institut d’Art et d’Archéologie), and with Robert Rey at the École du Louvre. He fought as a soldier beginning in 1939, participating in the French Campaign of World War II. He completed a thesis at the École in 1942 on French still life painting from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a topic which would remain for him of lifelong interest. The following year, Faré began working with curator René Huyghe at the Musée du Louvre, and at the Musée des arts décoratifs, where he was assistant curator from 1943 and chief curator from 1962 until 1968. He began teaching concurrently in 1946 at the École normale supérieure des arts décoratifs. In 1952, Faré completed a thèse de Lettres on French still life (titled Les origines de la nature morte dans la peinture d’objets du Moyen  ge et de la Renaissance) at the Université de Paris, and published his first book on the same subject ten years later, titled La Nature morte en France: son histoire et son évolution du XVII au XX siècle (1962). In 1970 he took over Hippolyte Taine’s position as the chair of art history at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts. In 1975, Faré received the Prix Broquette-Gonin from the Académie des beaux-arts for his book, Le Grand siècle de la nature morte en France: le XVIIe siècle (1974). Faré was elected as a member to the same institution on March 4, 1981. He died in the 15e arrondissement, Paris, in 1985.

    As curator of the Musée des arts décoratifs, Faré organized several exhibitions and wrote prefaces for the accompanying catalogs on art of diverse media, such as tapestry and ceramics, testifying to his “admirable eclecticism” as a scholar of early-modern French material culture (Bettencourt).


    Selected Bibliography

    • [dissertation:] Les Origines de la nature morte dans la peinture d’objets du Moyen  ge et de la Renaissance. Thèse de Lettres, l’Université de Paris, 1952;
    • La Céramique contemporaine. Paris: Compagnie des arts photomécaniques, 1954;
    • “Attrait de la Nature morte au XVIIe siècle.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 54 (January 1959): 129-144;
    • “Actualité de la tapisserie.” La Revue Française 107, Supplément “Tapisseries contemporaines” (February 1959);
    • La Nature morte en France: son histoire et son évolution du XVII au XX siècle. 2 vols. Genéve: P. Cailler, 1962;
    • [and Germain Bazin, Marcel Brion, Mathieu Matégot]. Les Tapisseries de Mathieu Matégot. Paris: La Demeure, 1962;
    • Bijoux de Braque réalisés par Heger de Löwenfeld. Paris: Musée des arts décoratifs, 1963;
    • Eugène Claudius-Petit, Georges Combet, Michel Faré, et al., Formes industrielles, 1963;
    • Georges Jouve céramiste. Paris: Art et Industrie (impr. R. Mourral), 1965;
    • Le Grand siècle de la nature morte en France: le XVIIe siècle. Fribourg: Office du livre, Paris: Société française du livre, 1974;
    • [and Fabrice Faré]. La Vie silencieuse en France: la nature morte au XVIIIe siècle. Fribourg: Office du Livre, 1976;

    Sources

  • Who’s who in France 1959-1960: Dictionnaire biographique paraissant tous les deux ans (France – Communautés et Français de l’Étranger). Fourth edition. Paris: J. Lafitte, 1959;
  • “Mort du critique d’art Michel Faré.” Le Monde (Paris, France). July 26, 1985;
  • Leygue, Louis. Obsèques de Michel Faré, membre libre, en l’église Notre-Dame de Grâce de Passy. Paris: Institut de France, Académie des beaux-arts, July 26, 1985;
  • Leygue, Louis. Discours prononcés… pour la réception de M. Michel Faré. Institut de France, Académie des Beaux-Arts, December 2, 1981. Paris: Institut de France, 1981;
  • Hours, Magdeleine. Une vie au Louvre. Paris: R. Laffont, 1987, p. 52;
  • “Élection de M. Michel Faré.” Le Monde (Paris, France). March 6, 1981; 
  • Bettencourt, André. Notice sur la vie et les travaux de M. Michel Faré (1913-1985)… Address, Institut de France, Académie des Beaux-Arts, Paris during November 30, 1988 session; Académie française. “Michel FARE.” Accessed July 20, 2020. http://www.academie-francaise.fr/michel-fare;


  • Contributors: Yasemin Altun


    Citation

    Yasemin Altun. "Faré, Michel." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/farem/.


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