Georges d'Espagnat

A French painter, illustrator and stage designer, disdaining the traditional art schools, Georges D’Espagnat studied part-time at the Académie Colarossi in Paris under Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois and Jean-André Rixens, but was mostly self-taught. In 1891, he exhibited at the Salon des Refusés, and the following year at the Salon des Indépendants. His early works showed a strong debt to Impressionism. He was a friend of Renoir as well as of Paul Signac, Henri Edmond Cross, Louis Valtat and later Maurice Denis, Bonnard and Vuillard.

After his return to France from a visit to Morocco in 1898, he concentrated on studies from nature, paintings of women, children and flowers and decorative projects for private patrons. In 1904, he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, becoming its Vice-President in 1935. In 1906, he illustrated Remy de Gourmont’s book Sixtine, published in Paris. In the early 1910s, he painted a number of portraits, including several musician friends, one being Albert Roussel, by which time his work was more simplified, fluid and intimate. In 1914, he provided the decor for a production of Alfred de Musset’s play Fantasio at the Théâtre de Batignolles in Paris.

After working in a camouflage unit during World War I, d’Espagnat bought a country house in the Quercy region, and over the next decade painted numerous landscapes and interiors there. During the 1930s, he worked in various media. He illustrated Alphonse Daudet’s L’Immortel, and also produced theatre designs. Ironically, considering his earlier attitudes, from 1936 to 1940 he was a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Though disrupted by World War II, he continued to paint until his death, and with his pupil Suzanne Humbert, illustrated Francis Jammes’s Clairières dans le ciel, 1902–1906.

Salon des Refuses, Palais des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France, 1891

Salon des Indépendents, Paris, France, 1892

Le Barc de Boutteville Gallery, Paris, France, 1895

Exhibition with Claude Monet, 1899

Solo exhibition, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, France, 1902

Salon d’Automne, Paris, France, 1903

Group Exhibition with Bonnard, Cezanne, Matisse, Pissarro, Rouault, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Marcel Bernheim Gallery, 1907

Group Exhibition with Andre, Bonnard, Braque, Chagall, Matisse, Picasso, and Signac, Marcel Bernheim Gallery, 1926

Georges Ginoux Gallery, Brussels, Belgium, 1929

Wildenstein, London, England, 1934

Solo exhibition, Bourdon Gallery, Paris, France, 1945

Retrospective, Salon d’Automne, Paris, France, 1954

Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois

Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana

Musée Toulouse-Lautre, Albi, France

Musée Leon Alegre, Barnois-sur Creze, France

Musée des Beaux Arts, Bordeaux, France

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

Musée Royal des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium

Musée d’Art Moderne, Ceret, France

Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai, France

Petit Palais, Geneve, Switzerland

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Havre, France

Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana

Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Metz, France

Musée du Chateau, Montbeliard, France

Musée de Morlaix, France

Museum Pouchkine, Moscow, Russia

Musée des Beaux Arts, Nancy, France

Musée des Beaux Arts, Nantes, France

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York

Musée Masseret et Cheret, Nice, France

Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris, France

Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

Musée du Theatre National de l’Opera, Paris, France

Musée des Beaux Arts et de la Ceramique, Rouen, France

Musée d’Art et d’Industrie, Saint-Etienne, France

Musée de l’Annonciade, Saint Tropez, France

Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California

Musée Paul Valery, Sete, France

National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan

Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio

Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, France

Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

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