page_title: Maxime Dethomas
section_title: Early life and formal education
hierarchical_section_title: Maxime Dethomas / Early life and formal education
caption_attribution_description: English: Maxime Dethomas and an unknown model at the Bulteau Estate c.1900
context_page_description: Maxime-Pierre Jules Dethomas was a French painter, draughtsman, printmaker, illustrator, and was among the best known theater-set and costume designers of his era. As an artist, Dethomas was highly regarded by his contemporaries and exhibited widely, both within France and abroad. He was a regular contributor to the Impressionistes et Symbolistes, and a founding committee member of the Salon d'Automne. In 1912, he was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur for his contributions to French art.
  During the latter part of his career, he is remembered for his work overseeing set and costume design for the Théâtre des Arts and the Paris Opera. His works appear in many important national collections, including the Musée d'Orsay, the Hermitage Museum and the National Gallery of Art. A large collection of his theatrically related work is held at the Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra National de Paris. Dethomas is also remembered for his close friendship with the artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, his brother in-law Ignacio Zuloaga and his association with Les Nabis and other important Post-Impressionist and Symbolist artists and writers.
context_section_description: Born in the Paris suburb of Garges-lès-Gonesse in 1867, Maxime Dethomas was the eldest of six children, including four half-siblings. His family came from a long line of painter-printers on one side, and lawyers on the other. His father, Jean-Albert Dethomas (1842–1891), was an important Parisian politician and lawyer. His mother, Laure-Elizabeth Antoinette Béchet, died at the age of 27 in 1874. His step mother, Marie Louise Thierrée, belonged to the affluent middle-class of Bordeaux.
  During 1885, Dethomas first met Augustine Bulteau (1860-1922), matriarch of the Parisian arts community and one-time wife of prominent author and playwright, Jules Ricard (1848-1903). Bulteau would go on to become a pivotal figure in his life, helping him navigate a difficult relationship with his father, guiding his academic direction and encouraging his development as an artist. Each year, Dethomas would take extended breaks at Bulteau's estates in Léry and Venice - trips that would feature prominently in his art. 
  
  In 1887, Dethomas enrolled at the École des Arts Décoratifs at which he studied briefly, preferring instead to pass much of his time at the bookshop of the Revue Indépendante, a favourite haunt of young artists and writers run by Edouard Dujardin. It was here that he first met Louis Anquetin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It is an often repeated, yet erroneous claim that Dethomas' relationship with Toulouse-Lautrec was one of master and student - at least in the formal sense of the term - though their shared experiences and mutual respect for each other as artists was of undeniable consequence. In an 1898 letter, Dethomas reflected on Toulouse-Lautrec's art:  
  The things I see by him always give me an intense desire to work. The things of this boy, who, if he has no talent, certainly has a little genius, are always for me a whiplash [coup de fouet]. It's as if I was shown the way with a sudden invitation to advance. The master paintings do not give me that, we are stupefied with admiration. We are blocked, discouraged, after them we are let down, we are in prison.
  Disgruntled with his experiences at the École des Arts Décoratifs, Dethomas began taking informal instruction at the private workshop of the young master, Henri Gervex. In 1888, Gervex began his tenure as instructor at l'Académie Libre on rue Verniquet - Dethomas applied and was accepted, continuing his formal education under Gervex. During this period, Dethomas became firm friends with fellow Gervex student and future brother-in-law, Ignacio Zuloaga. Through Dethomas, Zuloaga gained entrée into French artistic circles; reciprocally, Zuloaga introduced Dethomas to other Spanish expatriate artists, including the so-called Catalan Band: Santiago Rusiñol, Ramon Casas, and Miquel Utrillo.
  The final phase of Dethomas' formal education commenced from 1891 onwards, where he followed a more varied course at the Académie de La Palette, 104 Boulevard de Clichy, Montmartre, under Henri Gervex, Puvis de Chavannes and Eugène Carrière. Carrière's tutelage played a significant role in the early development of Dethomas' art, and he would go on to be a close friend of both the artist and his family.
caption: Maxime Dethomas and unknown model at the Bulteau Estate (c.1900)
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