Louis Abel-Truchetartist • painterVersailles (Frankrijk) 1857-1918 Auxerre (Frankrijk)

The French painter Louis Abel-Truchet painted historical pieces, genre scenes, portraits, still lifes, city scenes (especially of Paris), landscapes and gardens, in an impressionistic style. After completing his studies at the Académie Julian in Paris, he quickly established a name for himself as an independent artist and stood out with his colourful and lively work. From 1891 onwards, he regularly participated in the Parisian Salons such as the Salon d’Automne and the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. An important part of his work are the scenes in impressionistic style that the painter captured in his beloved Montmartre. He also made various study trips to France and Italy. Abel-Truchet was also a watercolourist and engraver and an avid cartoonist for satirical newspapers, including Le Petit Journal. At the start of the First World War, he voluntarily joined the French army and was deployed in the Camouflage Division. There, his experience as a painter was gratefully used. In addition, he continued to work as a cartoonist known for his anti-militarist stance. Shortly before the end of the war, he was wounded and died, at the age of 60, in a military hospital in Auxerre. After his death, some of his works were included in an exhibition at the Salon d'Automne in 1919, in honour of artists who had died in the war. His wife, the portrait painter Julia Abel-Truchet, continued to work in her husband's studio in Montmartre after his death.