1861 -1945 · Paris, Brittany and black band

Breton families, parties, mourning and landscapes find in Lucien Simon a broad, dark and deeply human painting.

Lucien Simon was born in Paris in 1861. Trained in academia, he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes français in the 1880s and built a career as a portraitist, decorator and painter of contemporary life. His marriage to Jeanne Dauchez attached him to Brittany, particularly to Sainte-Marine and the Bigouden country. He observed pardons, markets, circuses, families, cafes, beaches and daily work without reducing the inhabitants to folklore. With Charles Cottet, André Dauchez and other artists, he was associated with the "black band", so named for its deep tones opposed to impressionist clarity. But his palette is never uniform: reds, headdress whites and shards of sky emerge in browns and blacks. Bigoudène family in mourning transforms traditional costume into a language of collective pain. A fairground circus, Finistère on the contrary captures popular energy, while Baigneuses and Jour d'été show a brighter family intimacy. During the Great War, Simon painted the departure of the leavers and recorded national history in a local station. Professor at the School of Fine Arts, member of the Institute and regular exhibitor until 1943, he transmitted an art of the group, gesture and atmosphere. He died in Sainte-Marine in 1945. The "Lucien Simon" selection notably compares Baigneuses and Bretons. His reading prioritize color.

Simon does not paint Brittany as a setting: he paints the density of links, silences and gestures that make a community.