A French painter, illustrator and stage designer, disdaining the traditional art schools, Georges D’Espagnat studied part-time at the Académie Colarossi in Paris under Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois and Jean-André Rixens, but was mostly self-taught. In 1891, he exhibited at the Salon des Refusés, and the following year at the Salon des Indépendants. His early works showed a strong debt to Impressionism. He was a friend of Renoir as well as of Paul Signac, Henri Edmond Cross, Louis Valtat and later Maurice Denis, Bonnard and Vuillard.
After his return to France from a visit to Morocco in 1898, he concentrated on studies from nature, paintings of women, children and flowers and decorative projects for private patrons. In 1904, he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, becoming its Vice-President in 1935. In 1906, he illustrated Remy de Gourmont’s book Sixtine, published in Paris. In the early 1910s, he painted a number of portraits, including several musician friends, one being Albert Roussel, by which time his work was more simplified, fluid and intimate. In 1914, he provided the decor for a production of Alfred de Musset’s play Fantasio at the Théâtre de Batignolles in Paris.
After working in a camouflage unit during World War I, d’Espagnat bought a country house in the Quercy region, and over the next decade painted numerous landscapes and interiors there. During the 1930s, he worked in various media. He illustrated Alphonse Daudet’s L’Immortel, and also produced theatre designs. Ironically, considering his earlier attitudes, from 1936 to 1940 he was a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Though disrupted by World War II, he continued to paint until his death, and with his pupil Suzanne Humbert, illustrated Francis Jammes’s Clairières dans le ciel, 1902–1906.
Salon des Refuses, Palais des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France, 1891
Salon des Indépendents, Paris, France, 1892
Le Barc de Boutteville Gallery, Paris, France, 1895
Exhibition with Claude Monet, 1899
Solo exhibition, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, France, 1902
Salon d’Automne, Paris, France, 1903
Group Exhibition with Bonnard, Cezanne, Matisse, Pissarro, Rouault, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Marcel Bernheim Gallery, 1907
Group Exhibition with Andre, Bonnard, Braque, Chagall, Matisse, Picasso, and Signac, Marcel Bernheim Gallery, 1926
Georges Ginoux Gallery, Brussels, Belgium, 1929
Wildenstein, London, England, 1934
Solo exhibition, Bourdon Gallery, Paris, France, 1945
Retrospective, Salon d’Automne, Paris, France, 1954
Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
Musée Toulouse-Lautre, Albi, France
Musée Leon Alegre, Barnois-sur Creze, France
Musée des Beaux Arts, Bordeaux, France
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Musée Royal des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Musée d’Art Moderne, Ceret, France
Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai, France
Petit Palais, Geneve, Switzerland
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Havre, France
Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Metz, France
Musée du Chateau, Montbeliard, France
Musée de Morlaix, France
Museum Pouchkine, Moscow, Russia
Musée des Beaux Arts, Nancy, France
Musée des Beaux Arts, Nantes, France
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Musée Masseret et Cheret, Nice, France
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris, France
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
Musée du Theatre National de l’Opera, Paris, France
Musée des Beaux Arts et de la Ceramique, Rouen, France
Musée d’Art et d’Industrie, Saint-Etienne, France
Musée de l’Annonciade, Saint Tropez, France
Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
Musée Paul Valery, Sete, France
National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan
Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, France
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain
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