Charles Camoin (French, 1879-1965)

Charles Camoin began his artistic career associated with Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet and the group known as the Fauves. Not only was Camoin’s work included in the famed Salon d’Automne in 1905 where the term ‘Fauves’ was coined, but he also studied under Gustave Moreau, the professor at the École Des Beaux-Arts in Paris who served as tutor and inspiration to the group. By 1913, Camoin’s career could already be termed a success as the year saw him garner three retrospective exhibitions, as well as inclusion in the historic Armory Show in New York.  While Camoin used lively, expressive colors, he did maintain a sympathy for pattern and light variations, thus exhibiting a style that synthesized both Impressionist and Fauvist tendencies. The present work, Nature Morte, was likely painted in the artist’s studio in Montmarte, which he dedicated to the painting of still lifes, portraits and nudes.