Gaston La Touche

The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is visual arts, painting and graphics. Places of work recorded in the authority are Enghien-les-Bains. Work by Gaston La Touche is recorded in the collections of Museo del Prado, Art Institute of Chicago, Musée d'Orsay, Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Legion of Honour.

• Name — Gaston La Touche • Born — 24 October 1854 • Birthplace — Saint-Cloud • Died — 12 July 1913 • Place of death — 7th arrondissement of Paris • Occupation — Artist

• Illustration — Gaston La Touche in his Saint-Cloud studio, published in The Studio, March 1899. His family originally came from Normandy. He was born in Saint-Cloud. His passion for art began at a very early age and he finally persuaded his parents to give him drawing lessons, which he took for ten years from a local instructor at the rate of three Francs per month. His lessons had to be cancelled at the start of the Franco-Prussian War, when his family returned to Normandy to ensure their safety. This would be all the formal art training he ever received. Nevertheless, in 1875 he was able to make his début at the Salon with a bas-relief portrait medallion of François Jules Edmond Got, an actor at the Comédie-Française, and several etchings. Between 1877 and 1879, he made the acquaintance of Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet, who he met with frequently at the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes. It was there that he was introduced to Émile Zola, some of whose works he would later illustrate. • Illustration — The Joyous Festival • Illustration — Dinner at the Casino, Dayton Art Institute Beginning in 1880, he produced dark toned works of social realism in the style of the Dutch Masters. His first painting was shown at the Salon the following year. Félix Bracquemond, a friend and associate, suggested that he might be more successful if he brightened his color palette and chose different subjects, recommending Antoine Watteau and François Boucher as models. He also painted landscapes and portraits in the style of Puvis de Chavannes, which brought him his first major successes at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 1891, he burned most of his earlier paintings. Later, he received commissions to provide decorations for the Hôtel de Ville in Saint-Cloud and the reception hall at the Ministry of Justice (Hôtel de Bourvallais), although the latter were never installed there and are now at the Palais du Luxembourg. In 1900, he was one of several artists who provided decorations for Le Train Bleu, a famous restaurant near the Gare de Lyon. • Illustration — The Arbor, a frequently reproduced painting from c. 1906 (Walters Museum) In his later years, he divided his time between his studio in Saint-Cloud and his family's properties in Champsecret. In 1909, he was named an Officer in the Legion d'Honneur. In 1912, he completed his last major decorative project at "Villa Arnaga", Edmond Rostand's home in Cambo-les-Bains, which is now a museum. He died in Paris while painting. Among the works he illustrated are L'Assommoir (The Dram Shop) by Zola, Aux flancs du Vase by Albert Samain, and Poèmes by Henri de Régnier.

• Illustration — Breakfast on the Grass, c. 1880 • 1875 - Société des Artistes Français, medallion portrait of Edmond Got • 1881 - Exhibition of French Artists, The Fifth Lady • 1882 - Paris Salon, The Burial of a Child in Normandy • 1890 - Exhibition of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Phlox • 1896 - Exhibition of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, decorative panel that includes portraits of his wife and son

• 1889 - Exposition Universelle in Paris • 1899 - Venice Biennale • 1900 - Exposition Universelle in Paris • 1908 - Galerie Georges Petit, a retrospective of more than three hundred works • 1909 - Galerie Boussod et Valadon in The Hague

Gaston La Touche worked in visual arts, painting, graphics, art of sculpture and illustration. His work is associated with Naturalism. He worked at Enghien-les-Bains.

Gaston La Touche is recorded as painter, sculptor, illustrator, photographer and artist.