French art posters

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I don't know why the French are so supremely good at art: but of course they are. Maybe it's the light. Maybe it's just another expression of la difference Francaise. Whatever, vive la difference... 

The artists covered here are Bonnard, Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Matisse, Monet,  Renoir and Toulouse Lautrec. This page covers a brief biography of each, and a link to a page which tells about them in greater detail, and shows some of their paintings. You can look at admire and wonder at these, or buy them as posters for your wall. 

Enjoy! In time, we will add Sisley, Courbet and Delacroix

Pierre Bonnard born Oct. 3, 1867, d. Jan. 23, 1947
Bonnard, like most of the French artists, was born into the bourgeoisie. Trained as a lawyer, he became a full time artist in the 1890s. Bonnard was a founder member of the Nabis (hewbrew for prophets), drawing on Japanese prints for his striking simplifications of form and his bold use of bright colours. He was influential in art nouveau. Eventually, he was drawn to live in the south of France permanently.

To read a longer biography of him, click here: Bonnard (Pierre)  (with posters of some paintings for sale)

Click here:  For some fine word paintings of France

Paul Cezanne born Jan. 19, 1839, Aix-en-Provence, France.--died. Oct. 22, 1906, Aix-en-Provence
 Cezanne was a French painter, one of the greatest of the Postimpressionists, whose works and ideas were influential in the aesthetic development of many 20th-century artists and art movements, especially Cubism. Cézanne's art, misunderstood and discredited by the public during most of his life, grew out of Impressionism and eventually challenged all of the conventional values of painting in the 19th century, through its insistence on personal expression and on the integrity of the painting itself. He has been called the father of modern painting. 

To read a longer biography of him, click here: Cezanne (Paul)  (with posters of some paintings for sale)

Click here: For some fine word paintings of France

Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917) was born on July 19th, 1834 into an affluent Paris banking family. As a young man, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. While there, he developed the great drawing ability essential to his style. Originally painting classic academic subjects, Degas switched after 1865 to more of his age's contemporary themes. 

Late in life, Degas began losing his eyesight, and with this loss resorted to a change of medium. He began working with sculpture and pastels. This work, although very different than his earlier paintings, also has gained a notoriety of its own largely from its use of simple design or vibrant colors. Never really successful in life, Degas was largely discovered as a master after his death in 1917.

To read a longer biography of him, click here:  Degas (Edgar)  (with posters of some paintings for sale)

Click here: For some fine word paintings of France

Paul Gauguin (1848- 1903) was a French postimpressionist painter whose lush color, flat two-dimensional forms, and subject matter helped form the basis of modern art.

Gauguin was born in Paris on June 7, 1848, into a liberal middle-class family. After an adventurous early life he became a successful Parisian stockbroker, settling into a comfortable bourgeois existence with his wife and five children.
In 1874, after meeting the artist Camille Pissarro and viewing the first impressionist exhibition, he became a collector and amateur painter. In 1883 he gave up his secure existence to devote himself to painting. His wife and children, without adequate subsistence, were forced to return to her family. From 1886 to 1891 Gauguin lived mainly in  Brittany  where he was the center of a small group of experimental painters known as the school of Pont-Aven. In 1891, ruined and in debt, Gauguin sailed for the South Seas to escape European civilization and “everything that is artificial and conventional.” Except for one visit to France from 1893 to 1895, he remained in the Tropics for the rest of his life, first in Tahiti and later in the Marquesas Islands. A modest stipend from a Parisian art dealer sustained him until his death at Atuana in Marquesas on May 9, 1903.

To read a longer biography of him, click here:  Gauguin (Paul)  (with posters of some paintings for sale)

Click here: For some fine word paintings of France

Manet - Edouard (1832 - 1883)

Edouard Manet was born into the ranks of the Parisian bourgeoisie on January 29, 1832. His Mother, Eugenie-Desiree Fournier, was a woman of refinement and god daughter of Charles Bernadotte, the Crown Prince of Sweden. 
Although well educated, Manet did not particularly excel within the academic environment but he showed a propensity toward drawing and the arts.  In 1850 after serving in the merchant marines, Manet entered the studio of Thomas Couture where he studied until 1856. Manet sought to follow the advice of Baudelaire...to depict a contemporary realism, to be "le peintre de la vie moderne." He produced such masters as Dejeuner sur l'herbe and A Bar at the Folies-Bergere. Always controversial, Manet sought to record the days of his life using his own unique vision. From beggars, to prostitutes, to the bourgeoisie he sought to be true to himself and to reproduce "not great art, but sincere art." He died, in Paris, on April 30, 1883

To read a longer biography of him, click here:  Manet (Edouard)  (with posters of some paintings for sale)

Click here: For some fine word paintings of France

To read a longer biography of him, click here:  Henri Matisse  (with posters of some paintings for sale)

Click here: For some fine word paintings of France

Oscar-Claude Monet born November 14, 1840 , Paris, died December 5, 1926 , Giverny
Monet was the initiator, leader, and unswerving advocate of the Impressionist style. In his mature works, Monet developed his method of producing repeated studies of the same motif in series, changing canvases with the light or as his interest shifted. Many of his great works were produced at Giverny, in his garden. 

To read a longer biography of him, click here:  Monet (Claude)  (with posters of some paintings for sale)

Click here: For some fine word paintings of France

Renoir, Pierre-Auguste. born Born Feb. 25, 1841, Limoges, France died Dec. 3, 1919, Cagnes

Renoir, unlike most of the great French artists, was born poor. He struggled for many years in poverty before finally becoming successful in his late thirties. A friend of Monet and Sisley, he was one of the founders of Impressionism. This, however, he later forsook, preferring a more solid style. Crippled by rheumatism, he retired to the south of France. His subject matter was happiness and gaiety (in its real meaning!). He painted women, flowers, and Parisians at play, such as when bathing. These happy subjects have made him one of the most popular of French artists

To read a longer biography of him, click here:  Renoir  (with posters of some paintings for sale)

Click here: For some fine word paintings of France

Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de (1864-1901), 

French postimpressionist painter, lithographer, and illustrator. Toulouse-Lautrec started painting in childhood and later studied with French academic painters. He frequented the Moulin Rouge and other cabarets of the Montmartre district of Paris, as well as the theater, the circus, and brothels. Toulouse-Lautrec preserved his impressions of these places and their celebrities in portraits and sketches of striking originality and power. He was a prolific artist, creating great numbers of paintings, drawings, etchings, lithographs, posters, and newspaper illustrations. Toulouse-Lautrec was influenced by various contemporary artists, including Edgar Degas and Paul Gaugin.

To read a longer biography of him, click here:  Toulouse Lautrec  (with posters of some paintings)

Click here: For some fine word paintings of France