Background
André Lhote was born on July 5, 1885 in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France, into a modest family.
critic painter sculptor writer
André Lhote was born on July 5, 1885 in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France, into a modest family.
After André's primary school certificate in 1897, André Lhote became apprenticed in a woodworking workshop, where he learned ornamental wood sculpting. Lhote studied decorative sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux from 1898 to 1904.
In 1905, André decided to focus on painting full-time. Accordingly, the following year, he left home and moved to Paris where he set up his own studio. Fauvism was a popular style when Lhote arrived in the French capital, but 1906 was also the year of the great Gauguin exhibition at the Salon d'Automne, and 1907 saw the famous Cezanne retrospective at the same venue. So although his first works were colourful Fauvist-style landscapes, he was hugely inspired by both these revered masters.
In 1910, four years after moving to Paris, Lhote held his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Druet. By this time he was already shifting towards Analytical Cubism, the first, most austere, and most abstract form of Cubism. In 1912 Lhote pursued his interest in abstract art by joining the Section d'Or a group of 20th century painters associated with Cubism, and a derivative called Orphism, who were active from 1912 to 1914. The group held only one exhibition in 1912 at the Galerie La Boetie.
The outbreak of World War I put Lhote's career on hold until 1917 when, following his discharge from the army, he was one of a group of Cubist painters supported by the Parisian gallery owner and dealer Leonce Rosenberg. Leonce Rosenberg became one of the most influential French art collectors of the interwar years. An early champion of Cubism - a style to which he remained faithful all his life - he took over the role of "Cubist art dealer" from the German Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler when the latter's collection was sequestered by the French state. And from 1918 to 1941, his Galerie de L'Effort Moderne was an important market for drawing and oil painting by Cubist artists.
In 1918, Lhote began to write regular articles on painting and sculpture for the prestigious arts journal Nouvelle Revue Francaise, a task he continued until 1940. Later, he completed major treatises on landscape painting and figure painting. In addition, he lectured widely throughout France and other countries, including Belgium, Italy, Britain, and - in the 1950s - Egypt and Brazil. In fact he opened a South American branch of his school in Rio de Janeiro in 1952.
At the same time he began a highly successful career as an art teacher. From 1918 to 1920 he taught at the Academy of Notre-Dame des Champs, and later at other art schools in Paris - such as the Academy of La Grande Chaumiere. In 1922 he founded his own school, the Academy Montparnasse. It was largely through his teaching that Lhote had an extensive influence over succeeding generations of 20th-century painters, from both France and overseas. In 1955, at the age of 70, he received the Grand Prix National de Peinture, and UNESCO appointed him President of the International Association of Painters, Engravers and Sculptors. Andre Lhote died in Paris at the age of 77. Today, his works are included in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Albertina in Vienna, among others.
Le Port de Bordeaux
La Plage
Acacias
Les deux amies
L'escale
L’Atelier sur la terrasse de Mirmande
Nu a sa toilette
Le Judgment de Paris
Le Nile
Les Palmiers à Thèbes
Mirmande
Nature Morte au Chinois
Vue de Paris ou La Seine au point du jour
La Plage
Portrait de Jeanne
Mirmande jaune
Les joueurs de Rugby
Cordes
Route à la Cadière
Paysage au Lambrequin Rose
Mirmande
Nu Assis
The entrance to the tidal basin in Bordeaux
Sur La Terrasse
During his career, his main interest was Cubism, a style he applied to his figure painting, his portraiture and his landscapes, as well as his still lifes. Marked by meticulous composition, his pictures were characterized by complex systems of interacting planes and geometrical forms, with precise unmodulated colours.
Quotations: “To use color well is as difficult as for a fish to pass from water to air or earth.”