Provenance: Kaplan Gallery, London.
Acquired from the above by the late owner in 1975.
To be included in the forthcoming Achille Laugé Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Nicole Tamburini.
Achille Laugé was born in 1861 in a village near Carcassonne in south west France, into a wealthy farming family. His parents sent him to study pharmacy in Toulouse. Instead, Laugé enrolled at the École des Beaux Arts in Toulouse, and in 1881 travelled to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Art. There he was introduced to Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) by a fellow student from Toulouse, the sculptor Antone Bourdelle (1861-1929), and the three formed a lifelong friendship.
During his years in Paris Laugé became very influenced by Neo Impressionism, particularly the pointillist paintings of Georges Seurat (1859-1891) which were currently being exhibited in Paris. In 1894 Laugé exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and subsequently at mixed exhibitions with Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), Paul Sérusier (1863-1927), Theodore Casimir Roussel (1847-1926), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) and Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940). Laugé continued to exhibit regularly in Paris even after he moved back to the Carcassonne area in1888, having a series of one-man exhibitions between 1907-1930. Several of these were held at renowned Parisian galleries - Galerie Bernheim Jeune and Galerie Georges Petit.
On returning to the South, settling in Cailhau, he continued to develop his own version of pointillism in his paintings. He would use small, systematically placed strokes of paint and later on, after 1905, applying the same strokes with impasto. Both techniques created a harmonious, partly translucent effect, both delicate and striking in his unique vision. His subtle palette captured the shining effect of light on all his subjects.
His friend Antoine Bourdelle noted that ‘Laugé’s art is one of great sensitivity and controlled reason; he is a master of light.’ His serene landscapes were also greatly admired by the critic Gustave Geffroy, who wrote of his paintings that ‘everything is filled with sunlight, but through a harmonious prism; to an acute and discerning vision is added the delicate ethereal quality of imagination.’
Like many of his contemporaries, such as Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910) and Henri Martin (1860-1943), Laugé enjoyed painting at the coastal town of Collioure each year, in a mobile studio of his own design.
Retrospective exhibitions of his work were held in 1958 at the Musée de Limoux, in 1961 at the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, in 1966 and 1968 in London, in New York in 1967 and in Paris in 1969. Examples of his work were included in an exhibition dedicated to Neo-Impressionism at the Guggenheim Museum in New York held in 1968, A second exhibition devoted to Neo-Impressionism was held in Paris at the Musée d’Orsay Paris in 2005 where his work was represented.
Achille Laugé died in Cailhau in June 1944.
Examples of his work may be found in Museums: Musée des Beaux-Arts in Carcassonne, Geneva, Musée des Beaux-Arts Grenoble, Musée D’Orsay in Paris, Musée de Limoux, Montauban, Montpellier, Morlaix, Perpignan, Rome and Musée des Augustins Toulouse.
