1865 -1937 · Paris, Saint-Tropez and Le Cannet

Family, bathers and gardens of the South make Henri Lebasque a painter of daily joy, nourished by divisionism, the Nabis and the fawn color.

Henri Lebasque was born in Champigné, in Anjou, in 1865. Installed in Paris, he studied at the School of Fine Arts with Léon Bonnat then Ferdinand Humbert. His first years were built through contact with Maximilien Luce, Paul Signac and Georges Seurat. He retained from divisionism the use of complements and a touch capable of circulating light, but refused any rigidity of system. Close to Bonnard and Vuillard, he shared with the Nabis a taste for family scenes, interiors and decorative surfaces. In 1903, he shared with the Nabis a taste for family scenes, interiors and decorative surfaces. In 1903, he shared with the Nabis a taste for family scenes, interiors and decorative surfaces. In 1903, he shared with the Nabis a taste for family scenes, interiors and decorative surfaces. In 1903, he shared with the Nabis a taste for family scenes, interiors and decorative surfaces. In 1903, he shared with the Nabis a taste for family scenes, interiors and decorative surfaces. In 1903, he shared with the Nabis a taste for family scenes, interiors and decorative surfaces. In 1903, he shared with the Nabis a taste for family scenes, interiors and decorative surfaces. provocative. From a stay in Saint-Tropez in 1906, Le Midi profoundly transformed his work. Sanary, Nice, Sainte-Maxime, Cannes then Le Cannet offered him beaches, pines, terraces and enveloping light. In 1924, he settled permanently in Le Cannet, near Bonnard. His wife Catherine and their children Marthe, Hélène known as Nono, and Pierre became his essential models. Nono in Japanese dress unites family intimacy with the modern taste for patterns and flat areas. Young woman in an umbrella makes colorful shade a subject as important as the figure. The Bathers in Pierrefonds and the Nude lying in a landscape of Saint-Tropez show how the body integrates with trees, water and the sun without losing its human softness. Lebasque seeks neither the manifesto nor the scandal: he paints meals, readings, games, baths and moments of rest as lasting forms of fragile happiness. His touch widens in the Mediterranean years, the contours become simpler and the warm colors spread throughout the composition. Died at Le Cannet in 1937, he left a luminous testimony to family life and modern leisure activities at the beginning of the 20th century. The "Henri Lebasque" selection notably compares Young Woman with an Umbrella and Nono in a Japanese Dress. His reading favors composition.

In Lebasque, the fawn color does not scream: it envelops the family, the garden and the body in a familiar warmth where daily life becomes an art of happiness.