Henri Lebasque

(French, 1865–1937)

Henri Lebasque was a French Post-Impressionist painter. Much like his friends Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, and Henri Matisse, Lebasque was profoundly influenced by his time painting in the South of France, where his palette became more luminous and colorful. He would go on to paint both domestic interiors and landscapes throughout his life, gradually adopting the Fauvist style. Though the flatness of form and color took on a subtler effect in Lebasque’s work than that of other Fauves, he was championed by critics for the intimacy of his themes and the joy in his paint handling. Born on September 25, 1865 in Champigné, France, he moved to Paris in 1886 where he came under the influence of Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissaro, and started exhibiting at the Salon des Indépendants. Lebasque’s work can be found in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. He died on August 7, 1937 in Le Cannet, France.