LÉO GAUSSON (1860-1944)

Gausson painted this picturesque view of Triel-sur-Seine, a small town in the Île-de-France, in 1888. Composed with myriad strokes of color, the quiet, sun dappled scene encapsulates Gausson’s form of Neo-Impressionism, the style for which he is best known. Born in Lagny-sur-Marne, a town about eighteen miles from Paris, Gausson’s artistic career began when he studied engraving with Théophile Chauvel, before working in the studio of Eugene Froment who specialized in woodcuts for illustrations. It was here that he met fellow artist, Maxilmilien Luce. With the rise of the zincograph process, in 1883, Gausson and Luce were no longer needed and so turned to painting. By the mid-1880s, they became involved with Neo-Impressionism, with both adopting the Pointillist technique that Georges Seurat and Paul Signac were pioneering.
Together with Luce and Émile-Gustave Cavallo-Peduzzi, this trio of artists formed what has become known as the “Lagny group,” based between rural Lagny and Paris. From 1887, Gausson began showing his work at the Salon des Indépendants. From 1890, the artist moved towards a Symbolist style, embracing flattened colors and arabesque lines in his work. As such Triel-sur-Seine stands at an important moment of Gausson’s career, demonstrating his deft ability at rendering quintessential scenes of pastoral France, its soft light, rolling fields, meandering river, and gentle colors, with an avant-garde style.