Robert Antoine Pinchon (, 1 July 1886 in Rouen – 9 January 1943 in Bois-Guillaume) was a French Post-Impressionist landscape painter of the Rouen School (l'École de Rouen) who was born and spent most of his life in France. He was consistent throughout his career in his dedication to painting landscapes en plein air (i.e., outdoors). From the age of nineteen (1905 to 1907) he worked in a Fauve style but never deviated into Cubism, and, unlike others, never found that Post-Impressionism did not fulfill his artistic needs. Claude Monet referred to him as "a surprising touch in the service of a surprising eye".
Among his important works are a series of paintings of the River Seine, mostly around Rouen, and landscapes depicting places in or near Upper Normandy.
Early life
Robert Antoine Pinchon was born into an artistic and literary environment. His father, Robert Pinchon, a librarian, journalist, playwright and drama critic,Une ville pour l'impressionnisme, Monet, Pissarro et Gauguin à Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, 2010 (pdf)latelierdutemps.com was an intimate friend of Guy de Maupassant and also became a close protégé of Gustave Flaubert. Maupassant and Robert Pinchon (La Tôque, as they called him) co-wrote in 1875 a script for a play entitled Á la Feuille de Rose, Maison Turque, on the subject of eroticism and prostitution. The piece was presented officially on 15 May 1877 at the studio of Maurice Leloir, in front of Gustave Flaubert, Émile Zola, Ivan Turgenev and eight elegantly dressed masked women.Guy de Maupassant and Robert Pinchon, 1875, A la Feuille de Rose - Maison Turque
Since his son showed early signs of interest and aptitude in the arts, Robert Antoine's father purchased a box of oil paints and accompanied him on long Sunday painting walks. An 1898 photograph shows him painting at the age of twelve. He exhibited some of his first paintings in 1900 at fourteen years of age.François Lespinasse, Robert Antoine Pinchon: 1886–1943, 1990, repr. Rouen: Association les amis de l'École de Rouen, 2007,
In 1900 Robert Antoine exhibited a painting in the storefront of a camera supply store owned by Dejonghe and Dumont in the rue de la République, one of the principal arteries of central Rouen. Though not a typical showspace, it was nonetheless visible to the public and located only a few meters from l'Hôtel du Dauphin et d'Espagne, known for its exhibitions of artists such as Gauguin, Monet, Pissarro, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Guillaumin and Sisley.Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Association des Habitants du Quartier Jouvenet The art critic Georges Dubosc wrote an article about Pinchon's painting in Le Journal de Rouen (16 March 1900).
Education
Robert Antoine Pinchon studied at Lycée Pierre-Corneille in Rouen at the turn of the century. Two other students in his class also became well-known artists and lasting friends: Marcel Duchamp and Pierre Dumont.Guy Pessiot, Histoire de Rouen volume 2 1900–1939 en 800 photographies, repr. Rouen: PTC, 2004, , p. 271 Drawing classes at the Lycée were given by the stern and rigorous (1849–1915), who became assistant professor of the school in 1874. In 1879, Zacharie was named professor at the Académie de Peinture et de Dessin, which would later become the .
In addition to the academic training of the Beaux-Arts, Pinchon frequented the Académie libre that had been founded in 1895-96 by Joseph Delattre (1858-1912) in the rue des Charrettes, a rallying point for independent artists of the new generation of l'École de Rouen.Les Peintres Impressionnistes et Post-Impressionnistes de l'École de Rouen, Atelier Grognard, Rueil-Malmaison, du 21 janvier au 18 avril 2011 , press release (pdf)
Career
1903–1914
In February 1903 Marcel Duchamps painted a portrait of his friend Robert Antoine Pinchon (reproduced in François Lespinasse, 2007, p. 18). From 15 June to 31 July, at the Salon Municipal des Beaux-arts de Rouen, Pinchon exhibited two paintings: La Lande à Petit-Couronne and La Seine à Croisset. The art critic Charles Hilbert Dufour wrote an article in which he makes favourable mention of the entries by Pinchon, who was still only 17.
At the 1903 Exposition des Beaux Arts held in Rouen from 14 May to 15 July, Robert Antoine Pinchon exhibited with Charles Frechon, Blanche Hoschedé-Monet and Claude Monet, who presented La Cathédrale de Rouen. Pinchon's work was noticed by Impressionist art collector François Depeaux (1853–1920), at whose home he had the opportunity to converse many times with Albert Lebourg, Camille Pissarro and Claude Monet; Monet characterized him as "a surprising touch in the service of a surprising eye" (étonnante patte au service d'un oeil surprenant).Lucien Félicianne, Sandrine Boulay, Emmanuel Caron, Le jardin maraîcher—Robert-Antoine Pinchon , Fiche pédagogique, CRDP de Haute-Normandie (pdf)
Encouraged by Monet's praise, François Depeaux decided to take charge of the young artist's career; at first by purchasing several of Pinchon's works. This was the beginning of a relationship that would last until 1920.B. du Chatenet, intro., Rétrospective 1886-1943: Robert-A. Pinchon, Numéro 1, B, catalogue, Paris: Galerie Hervé, 1971, p. 1891 Alain Garric, Robert Antoine Pinchon, geneanet.org List of Artists in the François Depeaux collection, francois-depeaux.fr
In 1904 Pinchon designed the cover of a program for the Theatre Normand. The occasion was for a play by Guy de Maupassant. From 18 July to 18 September Pinchon exhibited, this time alongside Luce, Lebourg and Camoin, at the Casino de Dieppe. At the age of nineteen, while still a student at l'École des Beaux-Arts, he had his first major exhibition; at the Galerie Legrip, Rouen, 27 April–13 May 1905, with twenty-four paintings on display. Two articles in the press followed (La Dépêche de Rouen, 16 April, and Journal de Rouen, 28 April).
The same year Robert Antoine Pinchon showed in Paris for the first time. The occasion was the 1905 Salon d'Automne (18 October to 25 November), an exhibition that witnessed the birth of Fauvism. "A pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public," wrote the critic Camille Mauclair. Louis Vauxcelles coined the phrase les fauves ('the wild beasts') to describe a circle of painters exhibiting in the same room as a classical sculpture. He stated his criticism of their works by describing the sculpture as "a Donatello amongst wild beasts" (Donatello chez les fauves).Louis Vauxcelles, Le Salon d'Automne, Gil Blas, 17 October 1905. Screen 5 and 6. Gallica, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Another art critic responding to the Salon d'Automne, Marcel Nicolle, wrote in the Journal de Rouen on 20 November that these works have "no relation to painting" and compared them to "the barbaric and naïve games of a child who plays with a box of colors".Gill Perry, "Primitivism and the Modern", in Charles Harrison, Francis Frascina, and Gill Perry, Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century, New Haven/London: Yale University, 1993, , pp. 46–61 ("The decorative and the 'culte de vie': Matisse and Fauvism", pdf extract) Of Pinchon's three paintings (Le Pont Transbordeur à Rouen, Le Pont de Boieldieu, à Rouen, Vieilles Cabanes dans l'Île Lacroix, à Rouen)Salon d'automne; Société du Salon d'automne Catalogue des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, dessin, gravure, architecture et art décoratif. Exposés au Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées, 1905 he wrote: "Showing for his first time in Paris... the technique is a bit heavy, but we shouldn't be too severe toward a beginner, especially after what we saw elsewhere in the Salon".Lespinasse 2007, p. 28. Though Pinchon had not exhibited in room VII with the fauves, his palette was already pure and his impasto thick.
On 31 September 1906 Pinchon joined the 39th Infantry Regiment. Marcel Duchamp had just finished his military service with the same regiment.
In 1906 Pinchon showed again in Paris, at the 4th Salon d'Automne: Prairies inondées (Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, près de Rouen), (no. 1367 of the catalogue) Musée de Louviers, Eure1906 Salon d'automne; Société du Salon d'automne, Catalogue des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, dessin, gravure, architecture et art décoratif. Exposés au Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées, 1906 His paintings of this period are closely related to the Post-Impressionist and Fauvist styles, with golden yellows, incandescent blues, a thick impasto and larger brushstrokes.
At the instigation of Pierre Dumont and inspired by Othon Friesz's group called Le Cercle de l'Art Moderne, in Le Havre, the group XXX (thirty) was formed as a collective of independent writers, painters and sculptors from the vicinity of Rouen,Edition du Groupe des XXX (trente), Paris, Rouen, December 1907 including Matisse, Derain, Dufy and Vlaminck contributing to the endeavor. Pinchon joined XXX that year. The group published a "manifesto" called "Almanach pour 1908" and included artists typically associated with the new generation of l'École de Rouen.
Robert Antoine Pinchon's first solo exhibition in Paris took place on 15–25 March 1909 at the Galerie des Artistes Modernes run by Chaine and Simonson, with thirty works listed in the catalogue. The show resulted in both sales and press coverage. This was followed by another show at the Galerie Legrip in Rouen on 30 June. A few months later, on 13 November, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen opened a show with fifty-two paintings: three by Monet, nine by Sisley, three by Guillaumin, one by Renoir, thirteen by Lebourg, five by Delattre, two by Fréchon and four by Robert Antoine Pinchon.
In 1909 Pinchon, Dumont, Hodé and Tirvert founded the "Société Normande de Peinture Moderne," which attracted the participation of Braque, Matisse, Dufy, Vlaminck, Derain, Marquet, Friesz, Picabia, and La Fresnaye. The same year, when he was still only 23 years old, four paintings by Pinchon entered the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen.
1910 was a prolific year for Pinchon. A succession of shows followed: Galerie Legrip in Rouen (May), Galerie de Mme Le Bas, in Le Havre (July), and the 3rd exposition of the Société Normande de la Peinture Moderne (15 June–15 July): Here Pinchon showed twelve works alongside Dufy, Lhote, Léger, Gleizes, Gris, Picabia and Duchamp. Pinchon's next show on record was at the 8th Salon des artistes rouennais, 1913, followed by the 4th exposition of the Société Normande de la Peinture, the same year. Amongst the members of the selection committee were Jacques Villon, Duchamp-Villon and Francis Picabia. The organizational committee included Marcel Duchamp and Robert Antoine Pinchon.
Pinchon would participate in two more exhibitions during the first half of 1914. A catalogue was printed for one of these shows, entitled L'École de Rouen, ses peintres et ses ferronniers.Georges Dubosc, L'École de Rouen: ses peintres et ses ferronniers, Rouen: Lecerf, 1914, In parallel was the 5th and last exhibition of the Société Normande de la Peinture Moderne, which included works by Utrillo, Friesz, Guillaumin, Luce, Vlaminck and Pinchon.
World War I
The declaration of war in 1914 signaled a major break in European cultural history, and a major break in the life and career of Robert Antoine Pinchon, who was mobilised on 5 August 1914 at Bernay. Pinchon was wounded in his right leg by a German mortar discharge during the First Battle of the Marne and was repatriated to a hospital in Saint-Céré. Once recovered, he was sent back to the front lines, but during fierce fighting in the village of Tahure on 6 October Pinchon was wounded, this time by shrapnel to the right arm.