Jean-Marie Toulgouat
Jean-Marie Toulgouat (1927–2006)
2018
opposite
1. Reflets
d’été
oil on paper 45 x 32 cms 173⁄4 x 125⁄8 ins
www.messums.com 28 Cork Street, London W1S 3NG Telephone: +44 (0)20 7437 5545
Out in the grounds of Giverny, early Summer 1929
Jean-Marie Toulgouat Giverny needs little introduction to anyone interested in the history of European art. The gardens that Claude Monet created in this little Normandy village, the ponds of water lilies and the Japanese bridge – and the pictures he painted of them – are among the most famous in the world. It was in to this artistic, impressionistic world that JeanMarie Toulgouat was born in September 1927, nine months after Monet’s death. His connection to the great French painter was close (if also a little convoluted!): Toulgouat’s grandfather, the American painter Theodore Butler, had married Suzanne Hoschedé, daughter of Monet’s second-
On the Japanese Bridge, Giverny, early summer 1929.
wife. Jean-Marie Toulgouat was thus Monet’s great-grandson by marriage and he was born, grew up in and died at Giverny
1914. Blanche still lived in Monet’s house at Giverny when
– just around the corner from Monet’s home and garden.
Toulgouat was a child, and was the only person to whom
It was there, in Monet’s old house and studio, among his
the great artist ever gave advice on painting. She had often
audacious late canvases, that the young Toulgouat played
painted by Monet’s side, and became a respected and highly
– as contemporary photographs endearingly reveal. And
valued artist in her own right.
it wasn’t just Monet’s gardens and paintings that the boy witnessed first hand, imbued and came to admire: there was
And Toulgouat also took painting lessons from his American
also Monet’s astonishing collection of paintings by his friends
grandfather. Theodore Butler had settled in Giverny in 1888
to discover – works by Pisarro, Manet, Cezanne, Renoir.
to be close to the master, living there until his death in 1936. Thus, as The Telegraph observed in its obituary in January
Young Toulgouat only slowly came to recognise the
2006, Jean-Marie Toulgouat became ‘the last remaining link
significance of the art that surrounded him. (According to
with Claude Monet at Giverny.’
one legend, as a teenager he even used strips of canvas from some of Monet’s rejected paintings to finish off a canoe he
That link, though subtle, is clearly visible in Toulgouat’s own
was building.) But when Toulgouat took up brushes and
distinctive, brightly impressionistic yet also searingly modern
started to paint, aged about seven, it was his great-aunt,
pictures of flowers and gardens. Painting was, however,
Blanche Hoschedé-Monet, who gave him lessons. Another
something Toulgouat initially resisted. When he left Giverny
of the daughters of Monet’s second wife, Blanche was also
in 1947 to begin his adult studies he went to Nice, to train
the widow of Monet’s eldest son, Jean, who had died in
as an architect. For sixteen years he practiced as a landscape
left: Alice Hoschedé-Monet, second wife of Claude Monet, with her grand-daughter, Lilly
Butler, on the Japanese Bridge at Giverny, summer 1910. Lilly Butler was the daughter of the American painter Theodore Butler (1861-1936), and Jean-Marie Toulgouat’s mother. collection archives du musée Marmottan
architect in Paris, designing municipal parks and gardens. Then, in 1964, he decided to focus on his painting. Selling the only original work by Monet he possessed, he returned to Giverny with Claire, the art historian Claire Joyes. Once more he lived in the house that he had grown up in as a child, embracing the life of a painter. When in 1966 Monet’s only surviving son, Michel, died, it transpired that he had bequeathed his father’s entire estate to the Académie des beaux-arts. The collection of paintings was shipped to Paris, and a campaign began to restore the long–neglected gardens. Since Toulgouat was the closest living link to how they had looked in Monet’s lifetime, it was natural that he should draw up the plans for their renewal, and compile the inventory of flowers. Toulgouat not only painted Monet’s garden at Giverny, however. He was quite clearly his own man, and a keen gardener in his own right. Many of his Giverny paintings are thus of Manotte, the garden he created with his wife, with its ranks of wild poppies, cosmos, nasturtiums and touch-me-
The politician Georges Clemenceau and Claude Monet on the Japanese Bridge with Toulgouat’s mother, Lilly Butler, summer 1921.
nots. He also painted in his summer home in the Garonne, in south-west France, as well as in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was a frequent visitor. His paintings are impressions, too, but they are more modern in their idiom than Monet’s: a subtle mix of bold and pastel colours in a restricted but carefully Giverny garden design by Jean-Marie Toulgouat.
selected palette, painted in oils or watercolour directly on to
2.
Les Soleils, 1995 oil on canvas 120 x 120 cms 47 1⁄4 x 471⁄4 ins
In a way, Toulgouat’s sparer, bolder paintings fit even better than Monet’s the description of Giverny that Marcel Proust wrote in 1907. Proust had never actually visited Giverny, but had heard accounts of it, and had seen Monet’s paintings. Imagining what it must be like, he wrote in an article published in Le Figaro how he would see, ‘in a garden of tones and colours more even than of flowers, a garden that must be not so much a flower garden as a colour garden, as one might call it … forming an infinity of harmonies in drifts of blues or pinks, and somehow dematerialized by this powerfully manifested painterly will, of everything but their colour.’ In his lifetime Toulgouat exhibited in France, The Netherlands and the USA. He also had regular shows in London, where his paintings proved very popular. The late, great critic Brian Sewell was one admirer. ‘Often the pictures work both as a sea of colour and as an organized pictorial distance, as bright abstraction and the reality of summer heat,’ Sewell wrote in World of Interiors way back in February 1987. ‘Nothing Claire Toulgouat née Joyes, on the Japanese Bridge
is left to accident or serendipitous disorder – the limited palette and the underlying discipline of the technique ensure that the effects are precisely predictable, and that no picture expresses more or less than Toulgouat intended, in spite of
paper. Whilst his early works veered towards abstraction, he
the impressions of breath, speed and spontaneity implied
soon developed a mature style in which we always know that
in the handling ... The inheritance from Claude Monet is
we are dealing with landscapes and gardens.
unmistakable.’ David Boyd Haycock Author and curator
3.
Les Soleil dans les Iris Mauves, 1992 oil on canvas 121 x 120 cms 47 1⁄2 x 47 1⁄4 ins
4.
Les Tulips Rouges au Printemps, 1991 oil on paper 49 x 61 cms 191⁄4 x 237⁄8 ins
5.
Les Pavots, Giverny, 1995 oil on canvas 80 x 80 cms 311⁄2 x 311⁄2 ins
6.
Hêtres rouges dans le champ, 1987 oil on card 45 x 46 cms 173⁄4 x 177⁄8 ins
7.
Capucines et Pois de Senteur Sauvage, 1992 oil on canvas 65 x 54 cms 255⁄8 x 211⁄4 ins
8.
Les Rudbekias, 1992 oil on canvas 65 x 65 cms 255⁄8 x 255⁄8 ins
9.
Couleurs de l’Automne, I, 1973 oil on paper 44 x 44 cms 173⁄8 x 173⁄8 ins
10.
La Plate Bond du Fond, 1997 oil on card 45 x 46 cms 173⁄4 x 17 7⁄8 ins
11.
Parterre de Géraniums, 1985 oil on card 38 x 53 cms 15 x 20 7⁄8 ins
12.
Effet d’Automne, 1997 oil on card 45 x 46 cms 173⁄4 x 17 7⁄8 ins
13.
Les Soleils (Manotte), 2002 oil on canvas 55 x 46 cms 215⁄8 x 18 1⁄8 ins
14.
Les Grands Dahlias, Prince Noir, 2004 oil on canvas 73 x 60 cms 283⁄4 x 235⁄8 ins
15.
Dahlias Etoile, 2004 oil on canvas 80 x 65 cms 311⁄2 x 255⁄8 ins
16.
Glycine au Jardin d’Eau, 2004 oil on canvas 50 x 50 cms 19 5⁄8 x 19 5⁄8 ins
17.
Les Tulipes oil on canvas 46 x 55 cms 181⁄8 x 215⁄8 ins
18.
Bassin Couvert, 1989 oil on paper 45 x 44 cms 17 3⁄4 x 17 3⁄8 ins
19.
Iris dans Parterre de Fleurs, 1987 oil on card 46 x 45 cms 181⁄8 x 173⁄4 ins
20.
Les Dahlias, 1995 oil on canvas 120 x 120 cms 47 1⁄4 x 47 1⁄4 ins
21.
Les Pavots, 2001 oil on canvas 40 x 41 cms 153â „4 x 16 ins
22.
Les Coqueliquots de Giverny, 1999 oil on canvas 65 x 54 cms 255⁄8 x 211⁄4 ins
23.
Groupe de Dahlias Dans la Grand Jardin, 1994 oil on canvas 92 x 73 cms 361⁄4 x 283⁄4 ins
24.
Parterre d’Azalées, 1990 oil on card 38 x 53 cms 15 x 20 7⁄8 ins
25.
L’Orée du Bois, 1985 oil on card 38 x 53 cms 143⁄4 x 205⁄8 ins
26.
Les Iris Jaunes, 2001 oil on canvas 25 x 33 cms 9 5â „8 x 13 ins
27.
Les Pommes du Japon en Fleur, 2001 oil on canvas 28 x 35 cms 10 7⁄8 x 133⁄4 ins
28.
Les Arbres en Fleur, 2004 oil on canvas 46 x 56 cms 181â „8 x 22 ins
29.
Groupe de Glycines Wisteria, 2004 oil on canvas 46 x 55 cms 181⁄8 x 215⁄8 ins
30.
Azalees au Bassin, 2004 oil on canvas 50 x 50 cms 195⁄8 x 195⁄8 ins
31.
Dans le Jardin I, 1997 oil on canvas 50 x 50 cms 19 5⁄8 x 19 5⁄8 ins
32.
Les Grands Pavots, 2004 oil on canvas 80 x 80 cms 311⁄2 x 311⁄2 ins
33.
Dans le Jardin II, 1997 oil on canvas 50 x 50 cms 19 5⁄8 x 19 5⁄8 ins
34.
Harmonie Mauve des Tulipes, 1997 oil on canvas 50 x 50 cms 19 5⁄8 x 19 5⁄8 ins
35.
Les Tulipes, 2001 oil on canvas 40 x 41 cms 153â „4 x 16 ins
36.
Pavots Roses et Harmonie de Feuillages Jaunes, 2004 oil on canvas 60 x 73 cms 235⁄8 x 285⁄8 ins
37.
Les Soleils (Manotte), 2002 oil on canvas 46 x 56 cms 181â „8 x 22 ins
38.
Les Grands Parots, 1992 oil on card 53 x 38 cms 207â „8 x 15 ins
39.
Feuilles Mortes de l’Automne, Manotte, 1994 oil on card 45 x 46 cms 17 3⁄4 x 181⁄8 ins
40.
L’Arrivée à Manotte, 1997 oil on paper 45 x 46 cms 173⁄4 x 181⁄8 ins
41.
Le Font du Jardin (Monet), 2001 oil on canvas 28 x 35 cms 10 7⁄8 x 13 3⁄4 ins
42.
La Côte de la Maison, 2001 oil on canvas 25 x 33 cms 95⁄8 x 13 ins
43.
Le Poteau Telegraphique à Giverny, 1998 oil on canvas 30 x 30 cms 113⁄4 x 113⁄4 ins
44.
L’Automne au Bassin, Giverny, 1998 oil on canvas 24 x 33 cms 91⁄2 x 13 ins
45. Les Iris, 2004 oil on canvas 41 x 41 cms 16 x 16 ins
46.
Le Grande Bassin, 1997 oil on paper 45 x 46 cms 171⁄2 x 177⁄8 ins
Clare Joyes Jean-Marie Toulgouat’s widow, the art historian Claire Joyes, still lives at Manotte, the home they shared for many years in Giverny. An expert on Impressionism, she continues to tend their garden, to promote the work of her late husband, and to safeguard the integrity of Monet’s last home in an era of international tourism. It was a chance meeting at Giverny in 1977 between Claire and an English friend of David Messum’s that eventually brought Toulgouat’s work to Cork Street. And when David and his wife visited Giverny in June 2018, it was Clare who showed them round, and who helped select the works for
Claire Toulgouat née Joyes with David Messum at Giverny.
this new exhibition. She is a mine of information on Monet’s life in Normandy, and her husband’s contribution to the restoration of his house and gardens. ‘The walls were damp
but the house tidy,’ she recalls of the first time she entered Monet’s long-neglected home in the 1960s. ‘I remember on the second studio’s stairs, we walked on Toulouse-Lautrec’s posters! Viewed from the gate, the garden simply consisted of lawns. There was no structure at all and the flowerbeds were not planted. The biggest problem? The big water lilies studio where a volleyball net had been installed!’ Jean-Marie Toulgouat played an integral part in the renovation. ‘As an architect he mapped out the garden with precision,’ she recalls, and with the help of his uncle, James Butler, was able to restore the original plantings. Jean-Marie’s recollections of growing up at Giverny in the 1930s were also invaluable for the restoration of the house. It is because of him, Claire proudly states, that ‘in the house, the colours on the walls are the true colours!’ Claire Joyes’ books include Claude Monet: Life at Giverny (1985), Monet’s Cookery Notebooks (1996) and The
Claire Toulgouat née Joyes with Millie Messum going through work at Manotte, the artist’s home and studio, at Giverny.
Taste of Giverny: At Home with Monet and the American Impressionists (2000).
47.
Peupliers d’Italie près de Marais, 1991 oil on papers 38 x 53 cms 143⁄4 x 207⁄8 ins
Biography
Jean-Marie Toulgouat was born in Giverny in 1928 into
Having studied architecture and worked for a number of
a highly creative family. His mother, Lilly Butler, was
years in Paris, in the mid-1960s Toulgouat returned to
a fashion designer for Harper’s Bazaar and the grand-
Giverny with his wife, and took up painting and gardening
daughter of Claude Monet’s second wife, Alice Hoschedé
full-time. He also became closely involved in the restoration
Monet. His father, Roger Toulgouat, designed children’s
of Monet’s garden. His background inspired his art. ‘Over
furniture, and his grand-father was the American
the years,’ he later declared, ‘my painting has evolved from
Impressionist painter, Theodore Butler.
the abstract to a more gentle reflection on nature.’
Growing up in Giverny, Toulgouat was surrounded by
‘Perhaps flowers were the reason why I became a painter,’
world-class art and beautiful gardens. In Monet’s house
Monet observed in 1924. And perhaps Toulgouat became
nearby there were still three hundred or more works by the
a painter for the same reason. Yet however we interpret
great Impressionist, as well as his collection of paintings
his relationship with Monet and Giverny, it is quite clear
by friends including Pisarro, Manet, Cézanne and Renoir.
that Jean-Marie Toulgouat successfully created his own
‘I took it all for granted,’ Toulgouat later admitted, though
distinctive vision, an oeuvre of paintings that capture
he added that he did not allow this artistic legacy to be a
one man’s intimate relationship with the landscapes and
burden upon him. ‘I would have been a painter no mater
gardens that surrounded him. He enjoyed considerable
who my family had been. If some people want to make
recognition in his lifetime, both in France and abroad, and
an issue of it, they can. But if I let it get to me I couldn’t
on his death in January 2006 obituaries appeared in all
carry on.’
the major British newspapers. Messum’s represents the artist’s estate.
48. Couleurs
de l’Autumne, II, 1973
oil on paper 57 x 30 cms 221⁄2 x 113⁄4 ins
ISBN 978-1-910993-38-5 Publication CDXLVI No: CDXLVI Published by David Messum Fine Art © David Messum Fine Art All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Studio, Lords Wood, Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Tel: 01628 486565 www.messums.com Photography: Steve Russell Printed by DLM-Creative
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