Auguste Chabaud

Blue Period, Parasols, The Beach, Côté d'Azur.

1920's

Auguste Chabaud was a French painter and sculptor. At the age of 14, Chabaud joined the École des Beaux-Arts in Avignon. In 1899, he went to Paris to continue his artistic training at the Académie Julian and the Écoledes Beaux-Arts. There he met Henri Matisse and André Derain. In 1900, he returned to his parents' vineyard in southern France, because the business was affected by a crisis there. In 1901, he was forced to leave Paris in order to secure his livelihood. He worked on a ship and got to know the West African coast. In the following years, he became acquainted with the Parisian nightlife and art collectors interested in growing for him. In the Paris neighborhood Montmartre, where he had his studio, he painted various scenes of Parisian life. Chabaud’s Cubist phase began in 1911, where he also began sculpting. In the following years, he had many exhibitions, including 1913 in New York, where his works were exhibited alongside those of artists such as Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck and Picasso. After his return from the First World War, Chabaud settled down in Graveson. From 1920, he had his blue period. He used the Prussian Blue as the only color in his works. From then, he focused exclusively on the south of France. He painted scenes of rural life, the farmers and the hills and trails of the Alpilles. In 1992, the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur opened the Musée Auguste Chabaud in his honor.