Maxime Maufra (17 May 1861 – 23 May 1918) was a French landscape and marine painter, etcher and lithographer.

Life

Maufra first began painting at 18. He was encouraged to do so by two artists from Nantes such as the brothers Charles Leduc and Alfred Leduc and the landscape painter

Charles Le Roux Marie-Guillaume Charles Le Roux (1814–1895) was a landscape painter of the Barbizon school. He was born and died in Nantes, and is noted for his paintings of the Loire and its surroundings. He was a pupil of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot a ...

.Patrick Ramade. "Maufra, Maxime." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 1 Jun. 2016Maufra
at Fada However, he did not fully embrace his painting career right away. He remained in the first place a businessman and only painted in his spare time from 1884 to 1890. During this period, Maufra discovered the work of the Impressionists. He also displayed his works at the Paris Salon of 1886. In 1890, Maufra decided to give up business and to become a full-time painter. He left Nantes for Pont-Aven in the Finistère department of Brittany, where he was met

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...

and

Paul Sérusier Paul Sérusier (9 November 1864 – 7 October 1927) was a French painter who was a pioneer of abstract art and an inspiration for the avant-garde Nabis movement, Synthetism and Cloisonnism. Education Sérusier was born in Paris. He studied a ...

. Maufra had his first solo exhibition in Paris in 1894, at Le Barc de Toutteville. He subsequently exhibited with Durand-Ruel, to whom he remained under contract for the rest of his life. Returning from Brittany, Maufra was the first painter to take up residence in the

Bateau-Lavoir The Bateau-Lavoir ("Washhouse Boat") is the nickname of a building in the Montmartre district of the 18th arrondissement of Paris that is famous in art history as the residence and meeting place for a group of outstanding early 20th-century artist ...

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

, a famous Parisian residence for artists. He returned to Brittany each year, in particular to the Quiberon region. He found inspiration for his art in his travels which took him to the Dauphiné (1904), the Midi (1912),

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

(1913) and

Savoy Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Savo ...

(1914).

Work

Maufra was mainly an artist of landscapes and marine views. In his compositions, Maufra sometimes quoted the pointillist technique of

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...

or Alfred Sisley, and also took from the strong colors and powerful drawing of the Pont-Aven School. Maufra remained an independent artist his whole life through and dedicated his art to recording the beauty of nature. He also explored etching and lithography.

Gallery

File:Maxime-Maufra-The-Port-of-Sauzon-Belle-Isle-en-Mer.jpg, ''The Port of Sauzon-Belle-Isle-en-Mer'' (1910) File:341 Maxime Maufra.JPG, ''Yellow dusk on the mudflats, Loctudy'' (1898) File:The Road from Gaud (La Route de Gaud) MET DP838465.jpg, ''The Road from Gaud'', lithograph (1893)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maufra, Maxime 19th-century French painters French male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists 1861 births 1918 deaths People of Montmartre 19th-century French male artists