André Eugène Dauchez (17 May 1870 – 15 May 1948), born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, was a French

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

watercolourist Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

pastel A pastel () is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder (material), binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The pigments used in pastels are ...

list, engraver, draughtsman and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

known for

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

, waterscapes and seascapes.

Biography

Born in a family of lawyers, his elder sister Jeanne would be an artist and André Dauchez showed early predispositions for graphic arts. His early influence was the works of

Gustave Doré Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6January 1832 – 23January 1883) was a French printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings illustrati ...

. While pursuing his studies, he was encouraged in the way of art by his mother, who found Gaston Rodriguez, an artist-engraver who from 1885 to 1887 taught and educated the young man's ability to see and transcribe only the essential. André Dauchez never abandoned this mode of expression, handling with dexterity the technique of

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...

. In 1887, his teacher allowed him to present his work after a painting by Eugène Isabey at the ''Salon des Artistes français''. It was the first success for the young man of seventeen who received the encouragements of his peers. Between the years 1887 and 1893 André Dauchez continued working on etching and painting and further studied with

Luc-Olivier Merson Luc-Olivier Merson (21 May 1846 - 13 November 1920) was a French academic painter and illustrator. He was also known for his postage stamp and currency designs. Biography Born Nicolas Luc-Olivier Merson in Paris, France, he grew up in an arti ...

and at the

Académie Julian The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...

. The influence that nourished the engraved works of André Dauchez was

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

's work. André Dauchez had led a comprehensive study of the master and learned the art of light and the importance of values of white and black in a landscape rendering.
He also studied Dutch landscape painter of the seventeenth century

Jacob van Ruisdael Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael (; 1629 – 10 March 1682) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achie ...

, as well as some of his contemporaries and friends like Georges Gobo, Raoul André Ulmann, Albert Decaris, , Pierre-Louis Moreau. When his sister, Jeanne, married artist Lucien Simon, Dauchez was introduced to a circle of other artists like

Émile-René Ménard Émile-René Ménard (15 April 1862 – 13 January 1930) was a French people, French Painting, painter. From early childhood he was immersed in an artistic environment: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Corot, Jean-François Millet, Millet and the Ba ...

, Edmond Aman-Jean,

Charles Cottet Charles Cottet (; 12 July 1863 – 20 September 1925) was a French painter, born at Le Puy-en-Velay and died in Paris. A famed Post-Impressionist, Cottet is known for his dark, evocative painting of rural Brittany and seascapes. He led a sch ...

George Desvallières George Desvallières (; 1861–1950) was a French painter. A native of Paris, Desvallières was a great-grandson of academician Gabriel-Marie Legouvé, and received a religion, religious upbringing. He studied at the Académie Julian with Tony ...

Maurice Denis Maurice Denis (; 25 November 1870 – 13 November 1943) was a French painter, decorative artist, and writer. An important figure in the transitional period between impressionism and modern art, he is associated with '' Les Nabis'', symbolism, ...

and above all discovered coastal

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

and

Cornouaille Cornouaille (; , ) is a historical region on the west coast of Brittany in West France. The name is cognate with Cornwall in neighbouring Great Britain. This can be explained by the settlement of Cornouaille by migrant princes from Cornwall ...

, the bay of

Douarnenez Douarnenez (, ; meaning ''douar'' (land) ''an enez'' (the island) or land of the island), is a commune in the French department of Finistère, region of Brittany, northwestern France. It is located at the mouth of the Pouldavid River, an estua ...

, Belle-Île-en-Mer, Bénodet, the river

Odet The Odet (; ) is a river in western France (Finistère department), which runs from Saint-Goazec (near Leuhan, in the Montagnes Noires of Brittany) into the Atlantic Ocean at Bénodet. The name of the town of Bénodet comes from the river; '' ...

and the charm of the area. Dauchez was seduced by the lines and force of the landscape. From then on, he will dedicate his work to transcribe the many faces of the

Finistère Finistère (, ; ) is a Departments of France, department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. Its prefecture is Quimper and its largest city is Brest, France, Brest. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

". From the end of 1893, and for over half a century André Dauchez will find an inexhaustible source of inspiration in the landscapes of the Cornish coast: heath, dunes, villages, fishermen, estuaries and coves lined with pine trees, edges of coastline and rivers, rocks at low tide, open landscapes are his favorite motifs. He was an outdoor painter who described the effects on his soul of trees, stones, water and light. André Dauchez' works often present a cluster of trees, a trail, or a body of water, while in the background fades the rest of the composition with contrasts of light and shadow giving intensity to his work in a composition in which one feels life vibrating, transcribing the different effects of shade, sun or wind that alter the appearance of a landscape. Dauchez' talent lies in landscape drawing allied to a subtle artistic sensibility.

Collections

* Musée d’Orsay * Chicago Art Institute *

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

* Tokyo

National Museum of Western Art The is the premier public art gallery in Japan specializing in art from the Western tradition. The museum is in the Ueno Park in Taitō, central Tokyo. It received 1,162,345 visitors in 2016. History The NMWA was established on June 10, 1959 ...

* Finnish National Gallery *

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Honors

* 1900 - Silver medal from the

Exposition Universelle (1900) The Exposition Universelle of 1900 (), better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate develop ...

* 1900 -

Carnegie Prize The Carnegie Prize is an international art prize awarded by the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It currently consists of a $10,000 cash prize accompanied by a gold medal. History The Carnegie Prize was established in 1896, t ...

for ''The Kelp Gatherers'', Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania * 1911 - Dauchez is named knight of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

. He was named an officer in 1932. * 1920 - Jury member at the Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania * 1922 - Appointed official painter of the Navy * 1938 - Elected President of the

Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (SNBA; ; ) was the term under which two groups of French artists united, the first for some exhibitions in the early 1860s, the second since 1890 for annual exhibitions. 1862 Established in 1862 by the painter a ...

, succeeding

Jean-Louis Forain Jean-Louis Forain (; 23 October 1852 – 11 July 1931) was a French Impressionist painter and printmaker, working in media including oils, watercolour, pastel, etching and lithograph. Compared to many of his Impressionist colleagues, he was m ...

* 1938 - Elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts, engraving' section.

Publication

* Notice sur la vie et les œuvres de Émile Brulant, Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1940

References

External links

André Dauchez on Askart
* , including two at

National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales (, ) in Aberystwyth is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million books and periodicals, and the l ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dauchez, Andre 1870 births 1948 deaths 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French watercolourists French engravers French draughtsmen French illustrators Members of the Académie des beaux-arts Académie Julian alumni Painters from Paris