Rouen School

also: École de Rouen · L'École de Rouen

school c. 1877-1945 France Normandy

The Rouen School (L'École de Rouen) is the name given to the artists born or working in Rouen and its region who carried Normandy from Impressionism into modern art. The critic Arsène Alexandre coined the term in 1902 for Joseph Delattre, Léon-Jules Lemaître, Charles Angrand, and Charles Fréchon - Post-Impressionists drawn toward Seurat's pointillism in the late 1880s - and later extended it to a second generation, including Robert Antoine Pinchon and Pierre Dumont, who moved through Fauvism toward Cubism. Delattre's free academy, founded in 1895 on the rue des Charrettes, was the school's rallying point; the Groupe des XXX (1907) and the Société Normande de Peinture Moderne (1909) tied Rouen to Matisse, Braque, and the Duchamp family, and through them the region bridged Impressionism and Cubism.

Salon des Artistes Rouennais, c.1930, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen
Salon des Artistes Rouennais, c.1930, Musée des Beaux-Arts de RouenPublic domain (credit: Anonymous Unknown author) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Broken brushwork and divided color derived from Neo-Impressionist pointillism
  • Luminous, atmospheric Normandy landscapes: the Seine, its bridges, quays, and harbors
  • Muted, poetic tonality in Angrand set against thick impasto and pure color in Pinchon
  • En plein air painting of local sites, seasons, and river light
  • Delicate conté-crayon drawings and pastels with dramatic light and shadow
  • Second-generation fragmentation as Fauvist color turns toward Cubist structure

Key figures

  • Joseph Delattre (1858-1912) — Painter and teacher whose free academy (1895) gathered the school's young generation
  • Charles Angrand (1854-1926) — Neo-Impressionist painter and conté-crayon draughtsman, co-founder of the Société des Artistes Indépendants
  • Robert Antoine Pinchon (1886-1943) — Post-Impressionist landscapist of the Seine, praised by Monet for his touch and eye
  • Pierre Dumont (1884-1936) — Founder of the Groupe des XXX and Société Normande, later an organizer of the Salon de la Section d'Or

Example works

  • La Seine à Croisset — Robert Antoine Pinchon (1903)
  • Le Pont de Boieldieu, à Rouen — Robert Antoine Pinchon (1905)
  • L'Accident — Charles Angrand (1887)

Sources

← Back to the catalog