Gaston La Touche

Gaston La Touche, or de La Touche (24 October 1854 – 12 July 1913), was a French painter, illustrator, engraver and sculptor.

Biography alt=La Touche in his Saint-Cloud studio, published in The Studio, March 1899. 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.

Later, he received commissions to provide decorations for the Hôtel de Ville in Saint-Cloud and the reception hall at the Ministry of Justice , 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.

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.

Prizes, medals 1884 - Medal (Third-class) at the Salon for A Wish and Another 1888 - Medal (Second-class) at the Salon for The New Mother 1889 - Silver Medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris 1900 - Gold medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris

Salons

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

Exhibitions 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

Other selected paintings