Louis Latapie

Léda and the Swan

Circa 1920

Louis Latapie was a French painter, known mostly for his Cubist compositions and still life and nude paintings. Born Louis Robert Arthur Latapie, he showed interest in art as a boy and luckily for him, his family moved to Paris in 1900. Latapie’s earliest training was under Jean-Paul Laurens and enrolled in the Julien Academy in 1911. That same year, Latapie also took courses at the Ranson Academie, where he discovered Cubism under the supervision of Paul Serusier. World War I put a temporary damper on Latapie’s career, when he was stationed in Albi and later mobilized in 1914. The war took a great toll on Latapie because he was wounded three times and also lost one of his brothers in the war. By 1920, Latapie was able to again devote himself to art and also became a professor at the Ranson Academy. Latapie was finally able to expose his work in 1922, including several well-received one-man shows at the Galerie Druet. However, Latapie was set back again when his wife mysteriously disappeared that same year. As a result, Latapie moved to Toulon in 1925 and met fellow artist Juan Gris. In 1927, Latapie remarried and moved to Paris and spent the next few years teaching and living between Toulon and Paris. During this time, Latapie continued to paint in a Cubist style. Latapie served in the war again briefly during World War II in 1939 and in the mid-1940s he bought a workshop in Seine-Port. During this time, Latapie would exhibit along Desnoyer, Fautrier and others and became associated with the School of Paris. Latapie also began to create designs for tapestries in the early 1950s and shortly afterwards, his work began to sway towards Abstraction. Towards the end of his career, Latapie was commissioned to create murals and mosaics for public buildings. Throughout his career, his styles and techniques changed often, and he sometimes signed his work “Latapie” in cursive on the front of his canvas. Latapie continued to work himself until his mysterious disappearance in 1972, which is the assumed date of his death. Today his work is housed all over Europe and perhaps in your own home.