Pierre-Eugène Montézin | Painter of Paris

Pierre-Eugène Montézin (1874-1946) was born in the very heart of Paris.

His father was a lace artist, but also a lover of nature who took his young son on expeditions to the country.

These trips were to have a profound effect on his later life and work.

Montézin’s father apprenticed his son to the workshop of a decorator specialising in murals.

However, Montézin also studied under the painter Ernest Quost (1844-1931) and it was Quost together with Montézin’s interest in the Impressionists that persuaded him to embark on a career as a painter.

In 1893 Montézin made up his mind to gain acceptance in the Salon.

For ten years he painted ceaselessly and sent his work to the Salon, and was regularly turned down.

At last, he was accepted in 1903, and his career began in earnest.

When war broke out in 1914, Montézin enlisted and fought at the front, receiving the Médaille Militaire after the battles of the Meuse.

At the end of the war, he returned to Paris and resumed painting, spending a year at Dreux and Moret-sur-Loing, concentrating on the rivers, villages, and agricultural scenes of the region.

Montézin spent very little time in his studio; he could really work only from nature.

Montézin began to win honours as early as 1920 when he received the Rosa Bonheur Prize.

In 1923 he was named a Chevalier of the Legion d’honneur.

In 1932 he received the Medal of Honor at the Salon des Artistes Français.

Critical reaction to this nomination was explosive.

For thirty years no landscape had received the Medal of Honor which, since 1897, had been awarded only to figure painters and painters of compositions.

For three decades landscapes had been considered a minor form of painting, a fact which made Montézin’s triumph all the more exceptional.

In 1932 the painters of the Salon unanimously elected Montézin president of the Salon jury.

The same year he had a great exhibition in Paris to which the public flocked.

237 canvases were shown, all landscapes, and similar successful exhibitions in Paris followed in 1936, 1938 and 1943.

Montézin painted to the end of his long life, dying suddenly in 1946 while he was painting during a trip to Brittany.

Pierre-Eugène Montézin (1874-1946) nacque a Parigi e studiò presso l'Ecole des Decoratifs su insistenza del padre.

Sebbene Montézin continuò a lavorare come muralista, la sua vera vocazione rimase sempre la pittura, che alla fine prese nel 1893.

Tuttavia, fu solo dopo dieci anni che il suo lavoro fu accettato ai Salons di Parigi, e la sua carriera come pittore fu affermato.

Montézin fu fortemente influenzato dagli impressionisti e in particolare dalle opere di Claude Monet.

Ha adottato molte delle sue tecniche nello sviluppo del proprio linguaggio e ha continuato a dipingere in questo stile per tutta la sua carriera.

Nonostante viva nella vivace metropoli parigina, Montézin è intimamente connesso con la natura e i paesaggi, soprattutto nella sua opera, richiamandosi all'epoca in cui suo padre lo portava a fare lunghe passeggiate in campagna.

Quando scoppiò la prima guerra mondiale nel 1914, Montézin si arruolò nell'esercito, in seguito ricevette il Médaille Militaire per il suo servizio.

Alla fine della guerra, l'artista tornò a Parigi e riprese la pittura.

Montézin ha trascorso pochissimo tempo nel suo studio, perché poteva essere soddisfatto solo lavorando in armonia con la natura.

Gli onori cominciarono a venire a Montézin già nel 1920, quando ricevette il premio Rosa Bonheur.

Nel 1923 fu nominato Cavaliere della Legion of Art.

Nel 1932 fu insignito della Medal of Honor al Salon des Artistes Français, segnando per la prima volta da trent'anni che un paesaggio aveva vinto questo onore.

Lo stesso anno Montèzin fu eletto all'unanimità presidente della giuria del Salon.

Montèzin dipinse fino alla fine della sua vita, morendo improvvisamente nel 1946 durante un viaggio pittorico in Bretagna.