Background
Friesz was born in Le Havre, France, on February 6, 1879. He was the descendant of a family of shipbuilders and sea captains.
2 Rue Giuseppe Verdi, 76000 Rouen, France
École supérieure d'art et design Le Havre-Rouen.
14 Rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris, France
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.
14 Rue de la Grande Chaumière, 75006 Paris, France
Academie de la Grande Chaumiere.
Friesz was born in Le Havre, France, on February 6, 1879. He was the descendant of a family of shipbuilders and sea captains.
Othon Friesz studied at the Lycée and also attended evening classes at the municipal art college. There he met his lifelong friend Raoul Dufy. Along with Dufy he trained at the Le Havre School of Fine Arts (or École supérieure d'art et design Le Havre-Rouen) between 1895 and 1897 under the guidance of Charles Lhuillier, a former pupil of J.A.D.Ingres. Soon he received a grant to study in Paris. In 1899 he started his education at the Parisian Ecole des Beaux Arts, where he studied until 1904, under the renowned Professor Leon Bonnat. It was during his time at the School of Fine Arts that he met Henri Matisse for the first time. While in Paris, Friesz also got acquainted with Albert Marquet and Georges Rouault.
In spite of the fact that Othon Friesz was mainly influenced by Matisse, his early artworks were largely impressionistic in their style. In 1904 the artist held his first solo exhibition at the Galerie des Collectionneurs, Paris, and also presented his works at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne.
In 1905, after several painting trips to the South of France, Friesz began experimenting with Fauvism, using stronger colours and broader brushstrokes. In 1905 he painted in La Ciotat, mid-way between Marseilles and Toulon. He participated in group exhibits in 1906 and 1907, and it was during this period that he shared a studio in Montmartre with Raoul Dufy. About this time he created his best paintings.
Despite the commercial success that Friesz experienced working in the Fauvist style, by 1907, his work had become less colourful and more structured, placing greater emphasis on composition and form. The artist increasingly distanced himself from pure colour and violent contrasts, preferring a more discreet palette and constrained forms.
In 1908 Friesz left Paris and returned to Le Havre, with a determination to copy the more structured approach of Cezanne. In 1909 he moved to Munich with Dufy where he mainly painted rigidly structured urban views. After his painting trip to Portugal in 1911, Othon Friesz developed what would become his signature style, taking a slightly looser approach to traditional oil painting.
In 1912 the artist opened his own studio where he taught until the onset of war in 1914. He served in the French army until the armistice, then he moved back to Paris. During the 1920s he worked in the South of France, at Toulon and in Provence. From 1929 he occupied the post of an academic professor at the Academie Scandinave in Paris, and later, during the early 1940s at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere.
By the mid-1940s, Friesz was exhibiting at museums around the world and his artworks were purchased by many collectors. In 1940, collaborating with his friend Dufy, he completed a large mural painting in the Palais de Chaillot, Paris. After the war, Friesz frequently painted at Honfleur on the Normandy coast. During the last two decades of his life, Othon Friesz created a number of book illustrations and tapestry designs.
The Cottage
La Ciotat
Le Haver, the Port Entrance
Bec de l’Aigle, La Ciotat
Figures in a Landscape
Dufy in the Studio
The Port of Anvers
Calanque du Mugel à la Ciotat
Landscape with Figures
Roofs and Cathedral in Rouen
The Pont de Grenelle, Paris
Temptation
Self-Portrait
The Pont Neuf, Paris
Portrait of the Artist's Mother
Valley of the Creuse, Crozant
Paysage (Le Bec de l’Aigle, La Ciotat)
La Ciotat
Rocky Coast
La Ciotat
Landscape, Crozant
Sainte-Victoire Mountain
Falaise, Calvados France
La Ciotat
Port de Toulon
Le jardin près de l'église
Nu (allégorie)
Deux femmes assises
Bouquet d'anémones et de tulipes
Vase d'anémones
Port breton
Femmes dans une calanque
Houses in a hillside landscape