Léon Germain Pelouse (1 October 1838 – 31 July 1891) was a self-taught

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

painter born in

Pierrelaye Pierrelaye () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France. Pierrelaye station has rail connections to Pontoise and Paris. Population See also *Communes of the Val-d'Oise department The following is a list o ...

(

Val-d'Oise Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674.

, France). At sixteen, he began working as a traveling salesman. He began painting when he was twenty, as he was serving in the French army as a conscript. His professional painting career began at twenty-seven, with the exhibition of his ''Les Environs de Précy'' (''Near

Précy Précy () is a commune in the Cher department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. Geography An area of forestry and farming comprising the village and a couple of hamlets situated some east of Bourges, at the junction of the D51, D920, ...

'') at the

Salon de Paris The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

of 1865. Despite severe criticism, he continued painting. He moved to

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

, and there, inspired by nature around

Pont-Aven Pont-Aven (, Breton: 'River Bridge') is a commune in the Finistère department in the Brittany region in Northwestern France. In 2019, it had a population of 2,821. Demographics Inhabitants of Pont-Aven are called ''Pontavenistes'' in French. ...

and

Rochefort-en-Terre Rochefort-en-Terre (; ) is a commune in the Morbihan department of Brittany in north-western France. Rochefort-en-Terre is a designated “Petite Cité de Caractère”. The medieval chateau located in the town was the home of American painter ...

, Pelouse painted landscapes which were exhibited at the Salon de Paris in the following years. He received his first medal in 1873 for ''Vallée de Cernay'' (''Cernay Valley''). He finally gained success and critical approval. The French government bought many of his works which are now in the holdings of museums including the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

, the Musée Malraux, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes.Pelouse Léon Germain
, ''Portail des collections des musées de France'', Paris, Joconde, 2013 Raingo-Pelouse family tree

By his adoption of his wife's son, Lucien Jean Léon Raingo-Pelouse, he was the grandfather of the French artist (1893-1963; their lifespans did not overlap). Pelouse and his friends and students who socialized and painted together in the region have become known as the . Image:Pelouse Leon Germain Les Premieres Feuilles.jpg, ''Les Premieres Feuilles'' file:Beaux-Arts de Carcassonne - Grandcamp à marée basse 1884 - Leon-Germain Pelouse.jpg, left, ''Grandcamp at low tide'', 1884 File:Léon Germaine Pelouse--forest at dusk--1885.jpg, ''Forest at dusk'', 1885

References

*Champlin, John Denison. ''Cyclopedia of painters and paintings'', New York: Scribner, 1892. *de Lassus, Priscille. "Pelouse, Chef de File" i
''Vallée de Chevreuse: le Petit Moulin des Vaux de Cernay''
L'Object d'Art Hors-Série no. 106, Dijon: Éditions Faton, Sept. 2016, pp. 40–43. *Dutat, Dimitri. "La colonie de Cernay, trois générations d’artistes" in ''Vallée de Chevreuse: le Petit Moulin des Vaux de Cernay'', L'Object d'Art Hors-Série no. 106, Dijon: Éditions Faton, Sept. 2016, pp. 20–27. *Fresneau, Estelle. ''Pont-Aven : du paysage à l'œuvre'', Pont-Aven: Musée de Pont-Aven, 2007. *Grand Palais. ''Le Musee du Luxembourg en 1874. Peintures'', Paris: Grand Palais, 1974. *Harambourg, Lydia. ''Cernay, une étape pour les paysagistes de Barbizon'', catalogue on the exposition at the Centre Culturel Léon-Germain Pelouse de Cernay-la-Ville, 1997. *Levesque, Patrick and Stéphan, Édouard. ''Léon Germain Pelouse, 1838-1891, Catalogue Raisonné'', Cernay-la-Ville: Chez l'Auteur, 2005. *Schubert, Philippe and Schubert, France. ''Les peintres de la Vallée de Chevreuse'', Paris: Éditions de l’Amateur, 2001.

External links

Léon Germain Pelouse
at cernaylaville.fr 1838 births 1891 deaths French landscape painters 19th-century French painters {{France-artist-stub

References

Further reading

External links