CAMOIN Charles Old French impressionist painting early 20th century Still life with pitcher Oil on canvas signed Certificat

Biography

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.
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CAMOIN Charles (1879 / 1965)
Charles Camoin was born in Marseille on September 23, 1879, the last of a family of four children. His father, Joseph Camoin, managed the painting and decoration company "Camoin Jeune", founded in 1851 in Marseille.

After the death of their father in 1885, the children were placed under guardianship and lived alternately in Marseille and Paris. Destined for commerce, Camoin nevertheless took drawing lessons at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Marseille from 1895.

The following year he received a “first figure prize” which decided him to continue on this path. In January 1898, settled in Paris with his mother, Camoin enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Admitted to Gustave Moreau's workshop, he only briefly received instruction from the master who died in April of the same year.

However, it was there that he met Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet and Henri Manguin. Like his comrades, Camoin decided to leave the Fine Arts and worked in free workshops. The paintings of this period are characterized by very precise drawing as well as strong contrasts.
Like Matisse, Camoin has already evolved his palette towards light tones. In fact, from this time, he had knowledge of the Impressionists, whose works he was able to discover at the Luxembourg Museum, following the Caillebotte legacy or in the Parisian galleries, at Durand-Ruel, or at Vollard.

The first landscapes date from this period, notably views of Paris or the South. In November 1900, Camoin had to leave for his military service which then lasted three years. While his regiment was in Aix-en-Provence in October 1901, the young soldier dared to go to Paul Cézanne's house one evening. The old master, adored by the younger generation of artists, was known for his difficult character. But Cézanne takes sympathy for the man he calls "the valiant Marseillais" Carlo Camoin. Cézanne regularly invites him to Sunday meals in the company of the poet Leo Larguier and Louis Aurenche.
Subsequently, the two artists remained in contact and exchanged regular correspondence, some extracts of which were published in 1905 in the magazine Mercure de France. THE FAUVER PERIOD Returning from his military period in September 1903, Camoin settled in Paris. He moved into a workshop at Place Dauphine. From this time, he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, as well as at the Salon d’Automne and began to be noticed by critics. He joined the group of artists then gathered around Matisse: Manguin, Marquet and Jean Puy. They exhibited together, notably in Berthe Weill's small gallery, rue Victor Massé, in Paris. When he was not in the capital, Camoin traveled around his native region, traveling to Italy (in 1904, he went to Rome, Naples and Capri).
His landscapes are then characterized by a more lively, broader and expressive touch than before. In 1905, Camoin participated with Matisse, Manguin, Marquet, Derain and Vlaminck in room VII of the Salon d'Automne of 1905 which launched Fauvism, to which he would henceforth be attached. Unlike the Impressionists, Camoin was not interested in the atmospheric effect or the refinements of retinal perception but rather in the arrangement of shapes and planes in perspective space, putting into practice the lesson of Cézanne who advised him to “do Poussin on nature”. His Mediterranean landscapes where he had just spent the summer season with Manguin and Marquet, exuded a luminosity then specific to the group of Fauves. However, Camoin did not never jeopardizes the cohesion of the painted image and rarely transposes its colors, unlike Matisse or Derain at the same time. It is in his figures that he is closest to the Fauvist aesthetic, particularly in the sometimes provocative evocation of the world of the margins. The Parisian workshops follow one another: in January 1907, he was at 28 bd de Clichy, at 6, rue Mansart in October 1907, then at 12 rue Cortot in 1908, and at 46 rue Lepic in 1910. 1908, Camoin had his first private exhibition, at the gallery of the young dealer of German origin, Daniel Henri Kahnweiler.
It was at this time that he entered into a contract with the German merchant from Frankfurt, Ludwig Schames. His paintings circulated in European avant-garde exhibitions, at the Salon de la Toison d'or in Moscow, at the Société Mànes in Prague, at the Salon de la Libre Esthétique in Brussels, at the Sonderbund in Düsseldorf and at the famous Armory Show in New York in 1913. In 1912, he signed a contract with the Galerie Eugène Druet. From 1908, Camoin reintroduced black into his palette. Less attentive to details and structure, colorful writing places increasing importance on the gestures of the touch. Certain views of Paris, of Montmartre in particular, where Camoin settled, bear the same melancholy stamp as those contemporary by Marquet with whom he remained very close, as also with Matisse. From this period dates his affair with the female painter Emilie Charmy with whom he stayed in Corsica.
Camoin then remained faithful to the colorist vein inaugurated by Fauvism and remained refractory to Cubism. Camoin joined Matisse in Tangier where he spent the winter season of 1912-1913. On his return from Tangier, Camoin destroyed a large part of the paintings in his workshop. He cuts them into several pieces before throwing them in his trash can, on the sidewalk of rue Lepic. The debris was fortunately saved, collected and offered at the Flea Market where they were bought by Father Soulier, a famous merchant on Rue des Martyrs, who collected them. It seems that the story quickly went around Paris since it was reported in the press, notably by Apollinaire who considered these paintings "among the most interesting by this painter" (Paris-Journal, July 25, 1914).
Once restored more or less skillfully, some of them were acquired at this time by knowledgeable collectors, notably art critics like André Warnod, Félix Fénéon, Francis Carco and Gustave Coquiot. The Moulin rouge aux fiacres, today at the Menton Museum, is an example. The painting was bequeathed to the Museum but beforehand, it was signed by the artist who thus recognized his authorship, even after having destroyed it years before.THE WAR AND POST-WARAs for most artists of his generation who were enlisted, the war of 1914-18 marked a break in Camoin's career. Mobilized, he was first sent as a stretcher bearer to the Vosges front then in 1916 to the brand new camouflage sections where he painted canvases by the kilometer. He shared an abundant correspondence with Matisse who regularly sent him packages and shared his aesthetic thoughts with him. In camouflage, he met the writer and merchant Charles Vildrac as well as Dunoyer de Segonzac and the poet Léon-Paul Fargue with whom he became friends.
On his return to civilian life in 1919, he settled back into his workshop at 46 rue Lepic in Montmartre. Camoin married Charlotte Prost in March 1920. They had a daughter, Anne-Marie, born in 1933. The post-war paintings, numerous views of the South, Cannes, Antibes, Aix-en-Provence, reconnect with the delicacy of the Tangier period.

This quality of light as well as the intimate atmosphere that emanates from it is very close to the contemporary paintings of Matisse, his neighbor, living in Nice since 1917. It was also together that they visited the old Renoir in Cagnes, in November 1918. Camoin's admiration for Renoir's painting, shared by many artists of his generation, will continue to be felt in his work from now on. His mark will in fact be particularly noticeable in a number of portraits and still lifes in which Camoin seeks to achieve the prettiness and quality of touch so characteristic of Renoir. After the war, Camoin increasingly asserted his taste for sensual, voluptuous and spontaneous painting, devoid of any intellectual pretension. A new life began for the painter which he shared between his Montmartre studio and long stays in the South, notably in Saint-Tropez where he settled in 1921.
He regularly exhibits and sells his production at the Vildrac, Druet, Marcel Bernheim, Bernheim-Jeune, or Charpentier galleries without signing an exclusive contract with any of them. He also continued to exhibit almost every year at the Salons d'Automne and des Indépendants, as well as at the Salon des Tuileries. During the 1940 war, in Saint-Tropez, Camoin painted numerous views of the gulf and its surroundings. He fixes his work around chosen motifs which become recurring, such as the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, Ramatuelle or even the Place des Lices. In 1946, he rented a workshop overlooking the Saint-Tropez port, which would become his favorite motif. In 1955, he was promoted to officer of the Legion of Honor and received the grand prize at the Menton Biennale. He died in his studio in Montmartre on May 20, 1965. The Marseille Museum of Fine Arts dedicated a retrospective to him in 1966 (41 paintings). In 1971, a second retrospective took place at the Palais de la Méditerranée in Nice (72 paintings) followed by the publication of a monograph by Danièle Giraudy. In 1998, a traveling retrospective exhibition was organized at the Cantini museum in Marseille and at the Fondation de l'Hermitage in Lausanne (90 paintings, 90 drawings). His works are present in numerous museums in France and abroad.
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