Biography

French painter. Born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis. He first studied law but became determined to become a painter. Thus, in 1891, he studied under Gustave Moreau at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. At the art exhibition Salon d'Automne held in 1905, his work was exhibited in the same room as creations by such artists as Andre Derain, Georges Rouault and Maurice de Vlaminck. Critic Louis Vauxcelles referred to that exhibition room as the “cage aux fauves (cage of wild beasts).” Via his experiment to flatten and simplify his compositions, he established a unique painting style in which the surface plane was composed of color fields. In addition, from around 1900, he began printmaking using various techniques, such as etching, linocut, lithography, and pochoir. In his lifetime, he created over 800 printworks. In his later years, he designed the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, France.