Georges d'Espagnat

Georges d'Espagnat was a French Post-Impressionist painter known for his depictions of nudes, still lifes, and landscapes. Made in the tradition of his mentor Pierre-Auguste Renoir, d’Espagnat believed that paintings should adhere to the formal concerns of artists like Tintoretto, while also taking cues from nature.

Born on August 14, 1870 in Melun, France, he moved with his family to Paris in the 1880s, where he studied the work of Old Masters in the Louvre Museum. He would go on to exhibit in the Salon des Refusés and in the company of Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard in the years that followed.

During his career, the artist also illustrated books by the authors Alphonse Daudet and Remy de Gourmont. D’Espagnat died on April 17, 1950 in Paris, France. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.