CHARLES CAMOIN - "unfauveenliberté"

The Musée de Montmartre’s new Charles Camoin exhibit appeared prominently in the culture section of April 4’s edition of Le Figaro. Running from March 11 through September 11, the exhibit presents the paintings and drawings of the self-proclaimed wild beast, “un fauve en liberté.” Camoin’s career began at the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille before he moved to the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, joining the studio of Gustave Moreau, where he met Matisse, Marquet, and Manguin. These artists would form the core of the Fauvist movement, which favored strong color and bold strokes over the impressionist style.

Camoin would remain fiercely independent, spurning the emerging Cubism, until, in 1914, an artistic crisis prompted him to destroy his studio, tearing apart and disposing of around 80 pieces. Those pieces were mysteriously reconstructed and, later, appeared in the sale of Francis Carco’s collection. Camoin’s subsequent legal proceedings in many ways prefigured our modern understanding of intellectual property. Reinvigorated, Camoin returned to his bright palette, and critic Guillaume Apollinaire deemed his subsequent works to be among his most interesting.

The Musée currently houses about 100 of Camoin’s paintings and drawings, whose vibrant style is matched only by the artist’s “wild” life.

ALLOW THE MUSÉE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO CHARLES CAMOIN (1879-1965): ICONIC MONTMARTRE ARTIST, FRIEND OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS, DESTROYER OF PAINTINGS, AND SELF-PROCLAIMED “WILD BEAST.”

The work of Charles Camoin returns to Number 12 this year, 114 years after he first rented a studio here in 1908. The exhibit will run until September 11th, 2022.