Henri Victor Gabriel Le Fauconnier (July 5, 1881 – December 25, 1946) was a French

Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

painter born in

Hesdin Hesdin (; vls, Heusdin) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. Geography The N39, from Arras to Montreuil, used to be the main thoroughfare of the town. In the 1950s, a circular route was created to help traffic fl ...

. Le Fauconnier was seen as one of the leading figures among the Montparnasse Cubists. At the 1911

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (Pa ...

Le Fauconnier and colleagues

Jean Metzinger Jean Dominique Antony Metzinger (; 24 June 1883 – 3 November 1956) was a major 20th-century French painter, theorist, writer, critic and poet, who along with Albert Gleizes wrote the first theoretical work on Cubism. His earliest works, from 1 ...

Albert Gleizes Albert Gleizes (; 8 December 1881 – 23 June 1953) was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise on ...

, Fernand Léger and

Robert Delaunay Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstra ...

caused a scandal with their Cubist paintings. He was in contacts with many European avant-garde artists such as

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

, writing a theoretical text for the catalogue of the Neue Künstlervereinigung in Munich, of which he became a member. His paintings were exhibited in Moscow reproduced as examples of the latest art in '' Der Blaue Reiter Almanach'' (''The Blue Rider Almanac'').Hermitage Amsterdam, Artist biographies, Henri Le Fauconnier
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Career

In 1901 Henri Le Fauconnier moved from northern France to Paris, where he studied law, then attended painting classes in the studio of

Jean-Paul Laurens Jean-Paul Laurens (; 28 March 1838 – 23 March 1921) was a French painter and sculptor, and one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style. Biography Laurens was born in Fourquevaux and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alexa ...

, then in the Academie Julian. He changed his name from Fauconnier to ''Le'' Fauconnier and exhibited at the

in 1904 and 1905, implementing bold colors in line with

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...

. He moved to

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

in 1907 and painted the rocky landscapes of Ploumanac'h in a proto-Cubist style characterized by chastened tones of brown and greens with thick outlines delimiting the simplified forms. He explored a personal style and put it into practice; painting nudes or portraits (such as that of the poet

Pierre Jean Jouve Pierre Jean Jouve (11 October 1887 – 8 January 1976) was a French writer, novelist and poet.Michael Sheringham, 'Jouve, Pierre-Jean', ''Oxford Companion to French Literature''Onlineat answers.com He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Litera ...

in 1909 (

Musée National d'Art Moderne The Musée National d'Art Moderne (; "National Museum of Modern Art") is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou in the 4th arrondissement of the city. In 2021 it ranked 10th in t ...

). Under the influence of

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...

he developed his own form of Cubism. Back in Paris, he mingles with the artistic and literary gathered around

Paul Fort Jules-Jean-Paul Fort (1 February 1872 – 20 April 1960) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. At the age of 18, reacting against the Naturalistic theatre, Fort founded the Théâtre d'Art (1890–93). He also founded and edit ...

at the Closerie des Lilas in

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...

. At the 1909 Salon d’Automne Le Fauconnier exhibited alongside Constantin Brâncuși,

and Fernand Léger.

Louis Vauxcelles Louis Vauxcelles (born Louis Meyer; 1 January 187021 July 1943) was a French art critic. He is credited with coining the terms '' Fauvism'' (1905) and ''Cubism'' (1908). He used several pseudonyms in various publications: Pinturrichio, Vasari, ...

, in his review of the 1910

, made a passing and inaccurate reference to Le Fauconnier, Jean Metzinger,

and Fernand Léger, as "ignorant geometers, reducing the human body, the site, to pallid cubes." Metzinger had written in 1910 of 'mobile perspective' as an interpretation of what would soon become known as "Cubism" with respect to Picasso, Braque, Delaunay and Le Fauconnier. At the invitation of

, Le Fauconnier published a theoretical text in the catalog of the Neue Künstlervereinigung (Munich, 1910). He opened his Rue Visconti studio in Paris to artists eager like him to apply the lessons of Cézanne. With Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, he contributed to the Cubist scandal of the 1911

. Le Fauconnier exhibited his vast ''Les Montagnards attaqués par des ours'' (''Mountaineers Attacked by Bears'') at the Salon d'Automne of 1912 (Paris). February 1912 Henri Le Fauconnier was appointed to succeed Jacques-Émile Blanche as ''chef d'atelier'' of the

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

school of art Académie de La Palette. Le Fauconnier commissioned

and

André Dunoyer de Segonzac André Dunoyer de Segonzac (6 July 1884 – 17 September 1974) was a French painter and graphic artist. Biography Segonzac was born in Boussy-Saint-Antoine and spent his childhood there and in Paris. His parents wanted him to attend the military ...

as full-time instructors for the morning sessions; Eugeniusz Żak (Eugène Zak) and Jean Francis Auburtin took over in the afternoon.Academies in Paris, Kubisme.info (Dutch)
In 1912, Le Fauconnier participated in the first exhibition of Cubism in Spain, at

Galeries Dalmau Galeries Dalmau was an art gallery in Barcelona, Spain, from 1906 to 1930 (also known as Sala Dalmau, Les Galeries Dalmau, Galería Dalmau, and Galeries J. Dalmau). The gallery was founded and managed by the Symbolist painter and restorer . Th ...

, Barcelona, with

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...

Marie Laurencin Marie Laurencin (31 October 1883 – 8 June 1956) was a French painter and printmaker. She became an important figure in the Parisian avant-garde as a member of the Cubists associated with the Section d'Or. Biography Laurencin was born in Paris ...

, and August Agero.Mercè Vidal, ''L'exposició d'Art Cubista de les Galeries Dalmau 1912''
Edicions Universitat Barcelona, 1996, Elisenda Andrés Pàmies, ''Les Galeries Dalmau, un projecte de modernitat a la ciutat de Barcelona''
2012-13, Facultat d’Humanitats, Universitat Pompeu FabraWilliam H. Robinson, Jordi Falgàs, Carmen Belen Lord, ''Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí''
Cleveland Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Yale University Press, 2006, Le Fauconnier was a contributing member of the

Section d'Or The Section d'Or ("Golden Section"), also known as Groupe de Puteaux or Puteaux Group, was a collective of Painting, painters, sculptors, poets and critics associated with Cubism and Orphism (art), Orphism. Based in the Parisian suburbs, the grou ...

(Puteaux Group). At the outset of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Le Fauconnier moved to the Netherlands where he stayed for six years. His work at this time combined Cubism and Expressionism, which generated considerable success and influence in the Netherlands. He returned to France in 1920 where his paintings became more realistic. He died of a heart attack in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

(1946).

Works

Henri Le Fauconnier, 1911-12, Le Chasseur (The Huntsman), oil on canvas, 203 x 166

* ''Femme nue dans un intérieur'', Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts * ''L’Église de Grosrouvre'', Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts * ''L’Enfant breton'', Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts * ''Nature morte aux fleurs'', Beauvais, Musée Départemental de l’Oise * ''Paysage'', Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts * ''Portrait de vieille femme'', Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts * ''Maisons dans les rochers à Ploumanac'h'', Brest, Musée des Beaux-Arts

References

External links

Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
''The Lake'', 1911, ''Village among the Rocks'', ca.1910, ''Little Schoolgirl'', 1907, ''The Signal'', 1915
''The Huntsman'' (Le chasseur), 1912

The Modernist Journals Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Fauconnier, Henri Cubist artists 19th-century French painters French male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists 1881 births 1946 deaths Art educators 19th-century French male artists