“You ask me from a point of view of technique, how I go about it, this seems impossible to explain as I never go about it in the same way, sometimes I do a drawing, other times I paint without a hint of drawing. I allow myself to be taken with nature, and I work in total freedom and merely sticking with one method, always the same thing, is in my opinion wrong and easily becomes a habit. You always should look to go about it in a different way and avoid routine.”
– Pierre-Eugene Montezin Excerpt From a letter to his grandson
Pierre-Eugene Montezin
(1874-1946)
Pierre-Eugene Montézin was a painter of landscapes, of rural scenes, yet he spent his life in Paris. He loved the open air and the country areas of the Ile-de-France, yet he was born on a narrow street in the French capital. In his vigorous old age, still producing beautiful landscapes, he remarked to the famous French critic, Louis Vauxcelles, “The subjects of the landscape painter are less in front of the artist’s eyes, than in his heart.”
Pierre-Eugene Montézin was born in 1874 in the very heart of Paris. His father was both an artisan and an artist as he created designs for lace. He was, in addition, a lover of nature who took his young son on expeditions to the country. For Pierre, accompanying his father in the early morning through the still countryside and long riverside paths, a deep communion was established with the beauty of real nature. Later when he was an artist, he was to welcome in his work the farmers who live and work in the fields, making them a part of his picture. He shows us real people working under the sun on farms which Montézin painted between curtains of trees, under the light Ile-de-France skies reflected in the slowly moving rivers.
In 1893, Montézin made up his mind to gain acceptance in the Salon. For ten years he painted ceaselessly and sent his work to the Salon and was regularly turned down. At last, he was accepted in 1903. He was still a young painter, but now he was esteemed and appreciated by the great public.
When war broke out in 1914, Montézin enlisted and fought at the front, receiving the Médaille Militaire after the battles of the Meuse. At the end of the war, he returned to Paris and resumed
painting. Montézin spent very little time in his studio; he could really work only from nature. He concentrated on landscape scenes in the towns of Dreux and Moret in the Île de France region. His work was shown at the Salon des Artistes Français, where, by this time, he had earned a respectable position. He was awarded second and third place in 1907 and 1910 respectively and won the Prix Rosa Bonheur in 1920.
In 1923 he was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Art. In 1932 he obtained the Medal of Honor at the Salon des Artistes Français. Critical reaction to this nomination was explosive. For thirty years no landscape had received the Medal of Honor which, since 1897, had been awarded only to figure painters and painters of compositions. For three decades landscapes had been considered a minor form of painting, a fact which made Montèzin’s triumph all the more real. In the same year, the artist had a major exhibition in Paris to which the public flocked, 237 canvases were shown, all landscapes full of poetry. All the charms of the Ile-de-France were displayed before the eyes of an admiring urban population. To cap a great year, he was then unanimously chosen to be a member of the committee and the jury of the Salon. Similar successful exhibitions in Paris followed in 1936, 1938 and in 1940 he was also selected to be a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1940 to replace Edouard Vuillard, who had died that same year.
Montezin’s final Parisian exhibition came in 1943; he died suddenly while on a painting trip through Brittany. Montézin left behind a legacy of works that profoundly influenced younger followers of post-Impressionist landscape painting.
Moret was born in Cherbourg, but little is known of his life until he began his military service in 1875. Jules La Villette, his commander in Lorient, who first noticed his artistic talents, introduced him to Ernest Corroller, a drawing teacher and marine painter. Corroller taught him the art of landscape painting as practiced by masters such as Corot and Courbet, enabling him to register at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris where in 1876 he studied under Rudolf Lehmann, Jean-Léon Gérôme and later, from about 1880, under the history painter Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian.
Moret first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1880, presenting La plage de Locqueltas à marée basse; côte de Bretagne. He maintained contacts with Corroller, often returning to Brittany. In 1888, he arrived in Pont-Aven which had begun to attract a number of artists including Ernest de Chamaillard, Émile Jourdan, and Charles Laval, with Paul Gauguin playing the leading role. Moret was one of the first painters to move to nearby le Pouldu which soon became the new centre of attraction for the Pont-Aven artists. His work began to show signs of Symbolism, probably as a result of Gauguin’s influence.
After Gauguin left the area in 1891, Moret began to develop his own style. In 1895, he established a fruitful relationship with Paul Durand-Ruel who maintained a number of galleries in Paris, London and New York, with an emphasis on Impressionism. During their relationship, Moret completed over 600 paintings, many of which were exhibited in Paris and New York leading to a growing clientele for his work. Moret also exhibited seven of his Breton paintings at the Salon des Indépendants. After 1900, Moret became more immersed in Impressionism, applying small flecks of paint to his work rather than the broad strokes favoured by the PontAven artists. Increasingly he focused on landscapes where his light effects can be seen in the sunsets and storm scenes he painted around 1909. In addition to his oils for Durand-Ruel, he also completed some 800 watercolours and drawings. He died in Paris, aged 56.
Pointe de Beg-er-Morg, Finistere, 1908 oil on canvas 22 1/2 x 32 in.
Achille-Émile Othon Friesz (1879–1949) was a painter primarily associated with Fauvism. Born in Le Havre, Friesz attended classes at the municipal art college there, where he met and befriended artist Raoul Dufy, who was also a native of Le Havre. He and Dufy trained at the Le Havre School of Fine Arts under well-known 19th-century painter Charles Lhuillier. In 1899, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied under Leon Bonnat and met Henri Matisse.
Though he was influenced by Matisse, Friesz’s early works were largely impressionistic in style. In 1904, he held his first solo exhibition at the Galerie du collectionneur in Paris, and also showed works at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne. Beginning around 1905, Friesz began experimenting with Fauvism, using stronger colors and broader brushstrokes.
Despite the commercial success that Friesz experienced working in the Fauvist style, by 1907, his work had become less colorful and more structured, placing greater emphasis on composition. The artist increasingly distanced himself from pure color and violent contrasts, preferring a more discreet palette and constrained forms. During this time, Friesz developed what would become his signature style, taking a slightly looser approach to traditional oil painting.
After serving in World War I, Friesz returned to Paris. In 1929, he was appointed a professor at the Académie Scandinave, and, later, served at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. By the mid-1940s, Friesz was exhibiting at museums around the world.
He died in Paris, at the age of 70.
Today, his works can be found in prestigious international collections, including the Tate Gallery in London, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Musee d’Orsay in Paris.
(1893-1972)
Jacques MArtin-Ferreries
Jacques Martin-Ferrières, born in St. Paul (Tarn), was the son of the great Post-Impressionist artist Henri Martin (1860-1943). In addition to studying with and being profoundly influenced by his father, Martin-Ferrières studied with Fréderic Cormon (1854-1924) and Ernest Laurent (1859-1929). He exhibited regularly at the annual Salon des Artistes Français in Paris, where he became an hors-concours member. He won medals at the Salon in 1920 and 1923, and received a travel scholarship in 1924. In addition, Martin-Ferrières was awarded the prestigious Prix National in 1925 for Le Peintre, which was later exhibited at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. His important work, Marche d’Assisi, won him both the Gold Medal at the Paris Salon in 1928 and the Institut Français’ Prix Legay-Lebrun - it was acquired by the City of Paris. In 1937, Martin-Ferrières received a Gold Medal at the Exposition Universelle.
During World War II, Martin-Ferrières joined the Resistance in the Dordogne, was captured and sentenced to be executed. His life was spared and, by 1950, he was painting and traveling again, most frequently to his beloved Venice. In 1856, the artist was made an Officer of the Légion d’Honneur. Major retrospective exhibitions of the artist’s work were held in Paris in 1939 and 1965.
A painter, lithographer and draftsman, Maximilien Luce (1858–1941) was born into a poor family in Paris on March 13, 1858. After initial training as a wood carver at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, he began to study engraving in 1872, and took evening courses to deepen his knowledge. In 1876, he entered the shop of the engraver Eugène Froment, with whom he traveled to London in 1877. After his return to Paris in 1879, Luce began a four-year military service. During his service, and later, through 1885, he studied at the Académie Suisse and in the studio of Carolus-Duran at the École des Beaux-Arts, with his paintings displaying impressionistic influences. In the 1880s, he met and established friendly contacts with many Parisian painters, including Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Luce, along with these well-known artists, became the founders of NeoImpressionism (Pointillism).
Through Pissarro, Luce came under the influence of anarchist ideas, and formed friendships with the anarchist writers and journalists Jules Christophe, Jean Grave, Georges Darien, and Emile Pouget. In 1894, he became involved in the Trial of the Thirty, and served a short term of imprisonment.
Until 1904, Luce lived in Montmartre, the streets of which appeared in many of his works. Between 1904 and 1924, he lived in Auteuil, then moved back to Paris. Apart from street scenes, factories, and wharfs, he painted numerous landscapes on his travels through the Etampes, Normandy, and Brittany. During the First World War, he also painted war scenes, including portraits of wounded and homecoming soldiers. In 1934, Maximilien Luce was elected president of the Société des Artistes Indépendants after Signac’s retirement, but soon resigned in a protest against the society’s policy to restrict the admission of Jewish artists. Luce died in Paris in 1941.
Robert Antoine Pinchon
(1886-1943)
Robert Antoine Pinchon was a French Post-Impressionist painter known for his depictions of ports, bridges, and rolling countryside. Born on July 1, 1886 in Rouen, France, his father was a playwright and close friend of the famed writer Guy de Mauspassant, who encouraged Pinchon to explore art as a youth. He began his studies at the Lycée Pierre-Corneille in Rouen in 1901, where he met both Marcel Duchamp and Pierre Dumont. Pinchon participated in the Salon d’Automne in 1907, where he and his contemporaries were lauded as the second group of talented artists to emerge after French Impressionists such as Claude Monet. In 1914, Pinchon was called to serve in World War I, where he was wounded several times being taken as a prisoner of war by Germany. The artist managed to escape captivity and returned to Rouen in 1918. He went on to reestablish his career, and exhibited works alongside Pierre Bonnard and Albert Marquet, among others. Pinchon died on January 3, 1943 in Bois-Guillaume, France. Today, many of his paintings are held in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen.
