|  Auguste
Chabaud
Born in Nîmes in 1882, Chabaud went to the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts in Avignon in 1896 at the age of 14. Among other courses, he attended
Pierre Grivolas' outdoor painting classes. In 1899 he moved to Paris to continue
his art studies at the Ecole nationale des Beaux-Arts where he was a free
student at Fernand Cormon's studio.
He also went to the Académie Julian and the
Académie Carrière where he met Henri Matisse, André Derain and Jean Puy.
Unfortunately his family's financial problems obliged him to interrupt his
studies and he joined the merchant navy, sailing up and down the coasts of
Senegal and Dahomey.
He did his military service in Tunisia and returned
to Paris in 1907 where he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon
d'Automne with the leading protagonists of Fauvism:
his emphatic brushwork, a
certain 'unfinished' feeling (conveyed in his work by great simplification of
form) and his pure vibrant colours are all characteristics he shared with the
Fauve artists.
He painted the lively street scenes and deserted squares, the
nightlife and brothels of Montmartre where he had his studio with a rapid,
synthetic style which sometimes came very close to caricature.
Contrasting
harsh colours and outlining forms in thick black paint, he depicted his figures
full-face or starkly defined their profiles to express man's solitude in the
modern world.
After the First World War Chabaud settled down
permanently in his family's estate near Avignon. From then on, the South he had
never ceased to paint while in Paris was to absorb all his energy.
There is
nothing folkloric about Chabaud's Provence which is simply awe-inspiring under
the scorching sunshine. His landscapes emerge from a few emblematic elements and
a limited palette of colours gradually dominated by vivid Prussian
blue.
Proud of his roots, he always claimed his artistic
gift was instinctive and that he was on the fringe of the artistic world. In the
preface to his exhibition at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery, in Paris, in 1912 he
explained that:
"The little I know was not learnt in all those stifling studios
[...], but following in the footsteps of ploughmen and shepherds".
|
Alpilles
