The ''little masters'' of painting

The term "little master of painting" found its consecration with the Dictionary of Little Masters of Painting 1820-1920 by Gérard Schurr and Pierre Cabanne. The expression applies, rightly and wrongly, to a plethora of artists active throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, for whom the history of art has not yet found a niche. But who are they? Do you know Edmond Coppenolle, Jules Coignet, Pierre Ballue, Charles Beauverie, Eugène Henri Cauchois, Léon François Comerre, Jules Hervé, Jean Charles Cazin, Léon Richet, Maurice Lévy, Albert Sorkau, Eugène Péchaubes? So many painters described as "little masters" but nevertheless exhibited in prestigious museums....In fact three great successive waves in the history of art have contributed to forgetting a large number of painters.The first of these waves, the Barbizon School, included Corot, Millet and Rousseau. It was followed by that of the stars of impressionism and by the great moderns like Picasso and Matisse.

Which obscures a lot of people.... Ultimately, shouldn't it be better to buy the painting for the painting and not for the name of the artist? Shouldn't it be better to buy a painting by a lesser-known painter than a failed painting by a well-known painter? As for the media, they only talk about a few names: Monet, Renoir, Chagall, Van Gogh or Toulouse-Lautrec and are partly responsible for the passing into oblivion of many of our French artists.