Gaston La Touche French, 1854-1913

Gaston La Touche, a self-taught artist, became a famous and successful French painter and printmaker. From childhood he was determined to be a painter and was supported in this ambition by his well-to-do parents. He admired Zola and provided drypoint illustrations for his novel L'Assommoir (1879). His first paintings (1880s) were domestic scenes in the style of the Dutch 17th century. They were vigorous, harsh and sombre and met with no success: he burnt most of them in 1891. The influence of his friend Felix Bracquemond prompted him to discard his early style and to use the colours favoured by the Impressionists; his brushwork is characterized by small, petal-like strokes of colour. In 1890 he showed Phlox and Peonies (untraced), both colourful scenes of women, children and flowers, at the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts, which brought him immediate success. His fetes galantes and singeries recall French 18th-century art, and he also specialized in Breton subjects, such as Pardon in Brittany (1896; Chicago, IL, Art Institute).His paintings are represented in many important collections, including the Museums of Alencon, Le Mans, and most importantly the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.