page_title: Gaston La Touche
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Gaston La Touche / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: In his youth, La Touche frequented the same Paris caf&#233;s as the Impressionists and is reputed to have received advice from Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas. As a mature artist, he broke with his realist beginnings to paint in a harmonious decorative style that reflects the influence of the Rococo painters of the 18th century. For his wealthy clients, such scenes may have evoked nostalgia for the ancien r&#233;gime of pre-Revolutionary France. La Touche joined Pierre Puvis de Chavannes in breaking with the official salons to become a member of the rival Soci&#233;t&#233; nationale des Beaux-Arts. In this scene, reminiscent of 17th-century f&#234;tes-galantes, several women in colorful dress are relaxing in a park, either at Versailles or St.-Cloud. Two women resting in chairs in the foreground ignore a monkey who torments a white parrot perched in the bars of a gold cage. One woman holds a fan and one has hung her straw hat on the back of her chair. Another women stands off to the right, leaning against the arbor. There is a large, elaborate stone fountain in the background, with a nude sculpture at the top and putti figures encircling the base. It shoots several streams of water into the air. Thick vines and flowers grow over the arbor, and the grass is a lush green. The scene is bathed in a golden-orange light, which reflects on everything from the water in the fountain to the clothing of the women. La Touche's brilliant jewel tones and the relaxed poses of the women contribute to the airy and carefree atmosphere of this painting, recalling the Rococo scenes of the previous generation.
context_page_description: Gaston La Touche, or de La Touche, was a French painter, illustrator, engraver and sculptor.
context_section_description: His family originally came from Normandy. He was born in Saint-Cloud. His passion for art began at a very early age and he finally persuaded his parents to give him drawing lessons, which he took for ten years from a local instructor at the rate of three Francs per month. His lessons had to be cancelled at the start of the Franco-Prussian War, when his family returned to Normandy to ensure their safety. This would be all the formal art training he ever received.
  Nevertheless, in 1875 he was able to make his début at the Salon with a bas-relief portrait medallion of François Jules Edmond Got, an actor at the Comédie-Française, and several etchings. Between 1877 and 1879, he made the acquaintance of Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet, who he met with frequently at the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes. It was there that he was introduced to Émile Zola, some of whose works he would later illustrate.
  Beginning in 1880, he produced dark toned works of social realism in the style of the Dutch Masters. His first painting was shown at the Salon the following year. Félix Bracquemond, a friend and associate, suggested that he might be more successful if he brightened his color palette and chose different subjects, recommending Antoine Watteau and François Boucher as models. He also painted landscapes and portraits in the style of Puvis de Chavannes, which brought him his first major successes at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 1891, he burned most of his earlier paintings.
  Later, he received commissions to provide decorations for the Town Hall in Saint-Cloud and the reception hall at the Ministry of Justice (Hôtel de Bourvallais), although the latter were never installed there and are now at the Palais du Luxembourg. In 1900, he was one of several artists who provided decorations for Le Train Bleu, a famous restaurant near the Gare de Lyon.
  In his later years, he divided his time between his studio in Saint-Cloud and his family's properties in Champsecret. In 1909, he was named an Officer in the Legion d'Honneur. In 1912, he completed his last major decorative project at "Villa Arnaga", Edmond Rostand's home in Cambo-les-Bains, which is now a museum. He died in Paris while painting.
  Among the works he illustrated are L'Assommoir (The Dram Shop) by Zola, Aux flancs du Vase by Albert Samain, and Poèmes by Henri de Régnier.
caption: The Arbor, a frequently reproduced painting from c. 1906 (Walters Museum)
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