André Bauchant (April 24, 1873 – August 12, 1958) was a French painter. His paintings are mostly influenced by
historical
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...
,
mythological
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
and
religious
Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...
Indre-et-Loire
Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079. After demobilization in 1919 he found his nurseries destroyed. He and his wife relocated to Auzouer-en-Touraine, where he found work on local farms. Inspired by the rural environment, at the age of 45, he dedicated himself to a career as a painter.
Many of his early works depict biblical or mythological themes. His first exhibit was in 1921 at the Salon d'Automne, where he showed a large ''Ulysses and the Sirens'' and eight other paintings.
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...
and Amédée Ozenfant wrote an article about him for the journal ''L'Esprit Nouveau'' in 1922, and Le Corbusier became an important collector of his work. In 1927 Bauchant was commissioned by Diaghilev to design sets for
Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...
's '' Apollon Musagète''.Pouillon
Subsequently, Bauchant's most frequent subjects were floral still lifes and landscapes with figures. The German art dealer and gallery owner Wilhelm Uhde exhibited works by Bauchant in his Galerie des Quatre Chemins in Paris in 1928 in the exhibition Les Peintres du cœur sacré together with works by Camille Bombois, Séraphine Louis,
Henri Rousseau
Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Gug ...
and Louis Vivin. In 1937 his paintings were included in the exhibition ''Maîtres Populaires de la Réalité'', which traveled to Paris, Zurich, and London. In 1938–1939, a version of the same exhibition was presented at eight US museums, beginning with the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
in New York. In 1949, a retrospective exhibition of 215 of his works was mounted by the Galerie Charpentier in Paris.
According to the art historian Nadine Pouillon, "Bauchant's treatment of figures, frozen in attitudes indicating a certain awkwardness and as if enshrined in foliage, manifest a poetic and mysterious quality sometimes reminiscent of medieval paintings. This association was further emphasized by his use of unglazed colours in the manner of quattrocento frescoes and by a colour sense similar to that of Giotto."
Works by Bauchant are now part of the collection of the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
in New York, the
Tate Gallery
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...
* ''Exhibition 01. André Bauchant , Camille Bombois , Séraphine Louis , Henri Rousseau , Louis Vivin''. Zander Collection, Cologne (25.11.2023–24.4.2024)
* ''Welche Moderne? In- und Outsider der Avantgarde''. Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hanover (6.5.2023–17.9.2023), Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Chemnitz (22.10.2023–14.1.2024)
* ''Die Maler des Heiligen Herzens''. Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden (16.7.2022–20.11.2022), Museen Böttcherstraße, Bremen (3.12.2022–12.3.2023)
* ''Du Dounier Rousseau à Seraphine. Le grands maître naïfs''. Musée Maillol, Paris (11.9.2019–23.2.2020)
* ''27 Artists, 209 Works''. Zander Collection, Bönnigheim (23.3.–28.8.2016)
* ''Der Schatten der Avantgarde. Rousseau und die vergessenen Maler''. Folkwang Museum, Essen (2.10.2015–10.1.2016)
* ''André Bauchant (1873–1958). Maler und Gärtner. Retrospektive''. Museum Charlotte Zander, Bönnigheim (4.2.2001–24.6.2001)
* ''André Bauchant''. Musée Maillol, Paris (9.3.1995–15.10.1995)
* ''Die Kunst der Naiven. Themen und Beziehungen''.
Haus der Kunst
The ''Haus der Kunst'' (, ''House of Art'') is a museum for modern and contemporary art in Munich, Bavaria. It is located at Prinzregentenstraße 1 at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, Munich's largest park. It was built between 1933 an ...
Stedelijk Museum
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
, Amsterdam (5.1949–6.1949)
* ''André Bauchant''. Galerie Charpentier, Paris (1949)
* ''Masters of Popular Painting. Modern Primitives of Europe and America''.
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
, New York (27.4.–24.7.1938)
* ''André Bauchant'', Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris (21.12.1927–6.1.1928)
* ''Les Peintres du cœur sacré''. Galerie des Quatres Chemins, Paris (8.6.–21.6.1928)
* ''Salon d'Automne''.
Grand Palais
The (; ), commonly known as the , is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris between the Champs-Élysées and the Seine, France. Construction of the began in 1897 following the demolitio ...
, Paris (1921 – 1928)
Notes
Bibliography
*
* Zander, Charlotte (1996). ''Die Maler des heiligen Herzens''. Bönnigheim: WachterVerlag.
* Zander, Charlotte (2000). ''André Bauchant''. Heidelberg: Edition Braus.
* Brettell, Richard R., Paul Hayes Tucker, and Natalie Henderson Lee (2009). ''Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century Paintings''. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. .
* Vierny, Dina, Cabana, Pierre (2009). ''André Bauchant. Catalogue Raisonné''. Wabern: Benteli.
* Pouillon, Nadine. "Bauchant, André." ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University Press. Web.
* Zander, Susanne (2023). ''26 Artists. Works from the Zander Collection''. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König. p. 7.