Artists

Louis Charlot
French, 1878-1951

Louis Carlot grew up in Autun where there lived a atpestry maker named Alexander Huet.  Huet was also a fairly accomplished self taught painter who was rather like a Parisian artist in the midst of the French provinces.  He taught Charlot the rudiments of painting.  At the age of 20 Charlot moved to Paris.  Leon Bonnat took an interest in him and helped him prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole des Beaux Arts where he was admitted in 1898. At the Exposition Universelle of 1900 he discovered the impressionists and was influenced by Pissarro and Cezanne who made a lasting impact upon his work. In 1905 he went to Uchon for the first time and later began a family and settled there.

Charlot’s works included many landscapes of his native country as well as numerous portraits of its inhabitants.  He painted murals in the church of Digoin and also had the opportunity to paint in Britanny and Provence.  His technique varied over the course of different periods, perhaps also in relation to the rehgions he visited.  Overall the impressionist influence is consistently visible particularly in his early works. Furthermore just like Pissarro he had a vibrant sense of nature that built up his forms even more vividly.

Charlot first exhibited in Paris at the Salon des Artistes Francais in 1901.  He began exhibiting at the Salon d’Automne in 1906 and was accepted as a member.  He also exhibited at the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts from 1911-1920. He later exhibited at the Salon des Tuileries from 1927-1943.  He was awarded and honored with the Legion d’Honneur. In 1951 the Dijon Museum organised a retospective in homage to Charlot. Then in 1976 the Rolin Museum held a retrospective exhibition of his works. 

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