Henri Lebasque Paintings “of Joy & Light”
Henri Lebasque was a French post-impressionism painter. He was born in 25 September 1865 in Champigné. Lebasque started his art studies at the School of Beaux-Arts in Angers. From there and at the age of twenty, Lebasque made his way to Paris, the epicenter of the art world in the 19th century.
The Influence of Impressionism on his Style
During his time in the French capital, Henri Lebasque exhibited his paintings in the Paris Salon and in other group exhibitions. He came befriended many of the emerging impressionists, such as Camille Pissarro and Auguste Renoir, who greatly influenced his style.
Experimenting with Pointillism
In 1890 he participated in the Salon des Indépendants. In this exhibition Lebasque met the pointillism artists Maximilien Luce and Paul Signac, with whom he maintained a close friendship. During these years Lebasque experimented with pointillism painting. However, a few years later, he abandoned this technique for a more natural brush-stroke.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Henri Lebasque settled for five years in a small town not far from Paris called Lagny. Here he painted many landscapes of the region. His focus during this period was on how to interpret the light with the use of color.
Over the next few years Lebasque traveled around France and captured onto his canvases the landscapes of Normandy, Brittany, Vendée, Saint Tropez and other places in Southern France.
Lebasque is Stunned by the Wild Fauves!
Now active in the art world, Lebasque & Henri Matisse founded the Salon d’Autumne in 1903. He exhibited alongside Henri Matisse, Albert Gleizes and Jacques Villon.
Two years later, the Salon d’Autumne hosted the first ever exhibition of the Fauves (the wild beasts). This exhibition created a huge noise. Many did not like the way the Fauves used bold and unnatural colors. However, Lebasque was stunned (in a positive way). The Fauves exhibition greatly influenced is later works, giving him the encouragement to experiment with bolder and brighter colors.
This below affiliate link is for a products that I recommend. If you make a purchase through this link I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
The Move to Sunny Southern France
Another influence on Henri Lebasque’s paintings and his brighter palette of colors, was his move in 1924 to the French Riviera in Southern France. To capture the bright light and landscapes of this region, he needed to use brighter colors.
Lebasque moved with his family to a small hilltop village called Le Cannet . Here he shared a model with his friend and neighbor Pierre Bonnard. He remained in Le Cannet until his death in 1937.
During these last years, Lebasque enjoyed painting portraits of his wife and children, interiors and gardens, river banks and scenery of Provence, and the French Riviera.
Lebasque also spent time with the younger generation of artists who lived in the region, such as Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard. He was always open to new art forms and experimented with their ideas of painting tranquil, domestic scenes known as intimism.
Henri Lebasque is buried in Notre-Dame-des-Anges cemetery in Le Cannet, not far from his friend and fellow painter Pierre Bonnard.
Art Museums Showing Henri Lebasque’s Paintings
Museums in France:
- Musee D’Orsay, Paris
- Bemberg Fondation, Toulouse
- Musée Des Beaux-Arts, Chambéry
- Saint-Tropez ; Musée de l’Annonciade
- Musée Des Beaux-Arts, Caen, Normandy
Art Museums in Europe:
- Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne
- Albertina Museum, Vienna
- Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
- Magyar Nemzeti Galeria (Hungarian National Gallery), Budapest
- Statens Museum for Kunst (National Gallery of Denmark), Copenhagen
In the United States:
- The Harvard University Art Museum, Massachusetts
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Museum of Modern Art, New York City
- National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
- Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
Museums in other countries:
- National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
- Chi-Mei Museum, Taiwan
- Christchurch Art Gallery / Te Puna O Waiwhetu, New Zealand
For more articles about wonderful and lesser known impressionism & post-impressionism painters, see below:
Let's hear your comments!