François Depeaux (13 July 1853 - 11 October 1920) was a French industrialist, art collector and patron. He was one of the defenders of the
Rouen School.
Life
He was born in
Bois-Guillaume
Bois-Guillaume () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
Geography
The town is a wealthy, residential hilltop suburb of Rouen, semi-rural, semi-suburban with a little farming and some light indu ...
. He bought a coal mine near
Swansea
Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...
in Wales and developed the coal industry. In 1886 he was one of the founder members of the Société des
Amis des Monuments Rouennais.
Between 1880 and 1920 he acquired almost 600 paintings. Following his divorce, part of his collection was split up in 1901 at the
hôtel Drouot
Hôtel Drouot is a large auction venue in Paris, known for fine art, antiques, and antiquities. It consists of 16 halls hosting 70 independent auction firms, which operate under the umbrella grouping of Drouot.
The firm's main location, called D ...
and in 1906 through a sale due to judicial reasons at the
Georges Petit gallery. In 1903 he offered 300 paintings to the
Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen
The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen () is an art museum in Rouen, in Normandy in north-western France. It was established by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1801, and is housed in a building designed by and built between 1877, and 1888. Its collections in ...
. In 1909 the curator accepted a gift of 53 impressionist and
post-impressionist
Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...
paintings.
He died at
Mesnil-Esnard and on his death his remaining collection was split up at three public sales. His coal business was inherited by his son Edmond Depeaux, who was denounced by the ''Kommandantur'' during the German occupation of France in the 1940s, sentenced to death for storing arms and shot on 17 December 1941.
[Gontran Pailhès (préf. Pierre Varenne), Rouen et sa région pendant la guerre 1939-1945, Rouen, Henri Defontaine, 1949, 309 p., p. 104-105, p. 283]
On 20 October 2012 a François-Depeaux wing was opened on the site of the Château du Vracq (one of Depeaux's properties) at
La Bouille (
Seine-Maritime
Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Inf� ...
).
Works
* ''Remarques sur les projets de voirie dans le quartier du Mont-Riboudet'', Rouen, Lecerf, 1901, 51 p. (OCLC 457662262)
* ''Remarques sur le projet de loi pour la vente et la répartition des charbons en France'', 1915, 4 p. (OCLC 459179735)
* ''Importation des houilles étrangères en France'', Rouen, Lecerf, 1915, 51 p. (OCLC 493966068)
* ''Flotte charbonnière française. Transports par chalands de mer'', 1917, 24 p. (OCLC 459179716)
* ''Projet de loi pour le développement de la marine marchande'', Rouen, Lecerf, 4 p. (OCLC 459179731)
Bibliography
* François Lespinasse (preface by Laurent Salomé), François Depeaux (1853-1920) : Portrait d'un collectionneur d'impressionnistes, Rouen, 2016, 316 p. ()
* Marc-Henri Tellier, François Depeaux : Le charbonnier et les impressionnistes, Rouen, 2010, 304 p., 24 cm × 32 cm, relié (, OCLC 651049214)
* Le 11 décembre 2010, l'Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen a décerné à l'auteur le prix Gossier 2010 pour cet ouvrage.
* Marc-Henri Tellier, François Depeaux (1853-1920), collectionneur et mécène d'artistes de son temps, mémoire de maîtrise d'histoire de l'art, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, sous la dir. de M. le Professeur Éric Darragon, septembre 2005
* François Bergot, « La donation François Depeaux au musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen », in Hommage à Hubert Landais, Blanchard Éditeur, 1987, p. 205-211
* François Lespinasse (preface by François Bergot), L'École de Rouen, Sotteville-lès-Rouen, Rouen-Offset, 1980, 221 p. (OCLC 18496892, LCCN 80155566), p. 10-11
* Laurent Salomé (ed.), Une ville pour l'impressionnisme : Monet, Pissarro et Gauguin à Rouen, Skira Flammarion, 2010, 396 p. (), « François Depeaux, une grande collection rouennaise », p. 124-165
References
External links
François Depeaux
{{DEFAULTSORT:Depeaux
French industrialists
1853 births
French art collectors
1920 deaths
French art patrons
People from Seine-Maritime