1862 -1894 · Synthetism and School of Pont-Aven

Tropical colors, simplified shapes and interior landscapes place Charles Laval among the rare but essential players in synthetism around Gauguin.

Born in Paris in 1862, Charles Laval trained in academic painting before meeting Paul Gauguin in Pont-Aven in 1886. The two artists left the following year for Panama then Martinique, in search of light and patterns capable of renewing their art. Laval painted a small series of landscapes in bright colors, several of which were long attributed to Gauguin. Returning to Brittany, he participated in the decisive exchanges which gave rise to synthetism and sent Vincent van Gogh a famous self-portrait in 1888. He exhibited with Gauguin's group at the Volpini café in 1889. He died at the Volpini café in 1889. He exhibited with Gauguin's group at the Volpini café in 1889. He died at only thirty-two years old, he left a very restricted, dispersed and still partially corpus rediscovered. The "Charles Laval" selection notably compares Paysage de Martinique. Its reading favors details.

Laval simplifies the landscape without impoverishing it: color, curve and rhythm make the intensity of a place visible.