Andr̩ Lhote (5 July 1885 Р24 January 1962) was a French
Cubist painter of
figure subjects, portraits, landscapes, and
still life
A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...
. He was also active and influential as a teacher and writer on art.
Early life and education
Lhote was born 5 July 1885 in
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
, France, and learned
wood carving
Wood carving (or woodcarving) is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculpture, ...
and sculpture from the age of 12, when his father apprenticed him to a local furniture maker to be trained as a sculptor in wood. He enrolled at the
École des Beaux-Arts
; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...
in Bordeaux in 1898 and studied decorative sculpture until 1904.
Whilst there, he began to paint in his spare time and he left home in 1905, moving into his own studio to devote himself to painting. He was influenced by
Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...
and
Cézanne and held his first one-man exhibition at the Galerie Druet in 1910, four years after he had moved to Paris.
Career
After initially working in a
Fauvist style, Lhote shifted towards
Cubism
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture.
Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...
and joined the
Section d'Or group in 1912, exhibiting at the Salon de la Section d'Or. He was alongside some of the fathers of modern art, including
Gleizes,
Villon,
Duchamp,
Metzinger,
Picabia and
La Fresnaye.
The outbreak of the First World War interrupted his work and, after discharge from the army in 1917, he became one of the group of Cubists supported by
Léonce Rosenberg. In 1918, he co-founded ''Nouvelle Revue Française'', the art journal to which he contributed articles on art theory until 1940.
Lhote taught at the Académie Notre-Dame des Champs from 1918 to 1920, and later taught at other Paris art schools—including the
Académie de la Grande Chaumière and his own school, Academy André Lhote which he founded in
Montparnasse
Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split betwee ...
in 1922.
He taught dozens of younger artists who would go on to become famous, including a remarkable number of whom (considering the era) were female:
Elena Mumm Thornton Wilson,
Kristin Saleri,
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French artist and Humanist photography, humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 135 film, 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street ...
,
Conrad O'Brien-ffrench,
Adamson-Eric,
Simon Elwes,
William Crozier,
William Geissler,
William Gillies, Elvire Geblesco Bibesco,
Kuno Veeber,
Charlotte van Pallandt, Wesley E. Johnson,
Sava Šumanović
Sava Šumanović ( sr-Cyrl, Сава Шумановић; 22 January 1896 – 30 August 1942) was a Serbian painter. He is considered to be one of the most important Serbian painters of the 20th century. Šumanović's opus includes around 800 pa ...
,
Margaret Lefranc,
Shirley Russell,
Gwyneth Johnstone,
Paul Kane,
Julie van der Veen,
Michael Wishart,
Lino Spilimbergo,
Amalia Nieto,
Héctor Sgarbi,
Tamara de Lempicka,
Sárika Góth,
Berthe Edersheim,
Nancy van Overveldt,
Pierrette Bloch,
Samir Rafi,
Gerda Sutton,
Sarah Marindah Baker,
,
,
,
,
,
Elizabeth Rivers,
Mainie Jellett,
Helen Stewart,
Anna-Eva Bergman,
and
Hans Hartung.
Lhote lectured extensively in France and other countries, including Belgium, England, Italy and, from the 1950s, also in Egypt and Brazil. In Egypt, Lhote worked with
Effat Nagy using Egyptian archaeology as subject matter for their work.
[Pioneers: Saad El-Khadem and Effat Nagy Museum]
Youmna Salah, 1 January 2011, Masress.com, Retrieved 17 September 2015
His work was rewarded with the Grand Prix National de Peinture for 1955, and the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
commission for sculpture appointed Lhote president of the International Association of Painters, Engravers and Sculptors.
Death
Lhote died in Paris in 1962.
Gallery of works
File:André Lhote, 1912, Paysage français, oil on canvas, 89 x 116 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux.JPG, ''French Landscape'', 1912, oil on canvas, 89 x 116 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux
File:André Lhote, 1913, L'Escale, oil on canvas, 210 x 185 cm, Musée d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris.jpg, ''L'Escale (The Stopover)'', 1913, oil on canvas, 210 x 185 cm, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
File:André Lhote, 1913, Dessin pour L'escale, published in Montjoie, n.5, 14 April 1913.jpg, ''Sketch for L'Escale'', 1913, published in ''Montjoie!'', n.5, 14 April 1913
File:André Lhote, 1913-14, Port de Bordeaux-Poincaré, 14 juillet, oil on canvas, 65 x 81.5 cm.jpg, ''14 July, Port de Bordeaux-Poincaré'', 1913–14, oil on canvas, 65 x 81.5 cm, private collection
File:Property of a Gentleman.png, ''Paysage de Mirmande or Le Guetteur'', 1939, oil on canvas, 77.5 x 104.5 cm, private collection
References
External links
André Lhote at artcyclopedia.com*
Agence Photographique de la Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lhote, Andre
1885 births
1962 deaths
20th-century French painters
20th-century French male artists
French male painters
French cubist artists
Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery
Painters of the Return to Order