Biographie

1870–1950

Born in the South East­ern Parisian sub­urb of Melun, Georges d’Espagnat enrolled aged eigh­teen at the ‘École des Arts Déco­rat­ifs’ and at the ‘École des Beaux-Arts’ in the French cap­i­tal. His work remained more tra­di­tion­al than that of his con­tem­po­raries. d’Espagnat did not real­ly join his friend Louis Val­tat in his pro­to-Fau­vist exper­i­ments, nor his friend Pierre Bon­nard in his Nabis Symbolism.

As of 1892 d’Espagnat exhib­it­ed at the ‘Salon des Indépen­dants’. His can­vass­es bal­anced the audac­i­ty of his avant-garde con­tem­po­raries, notably Fau­vism expressed in his colour palette and his spon­ta­neous lines with the more sub­tle han­dling of the paint inher­it­ed from Impres­sion­ism. d’Espagnat was a close friend of Auguste Renoir, who intro­duced him at the turn of the cen­tu­ry to Louis Val­tat. Hav­ing trav­elled around exten­sive­ly d’Espagnat set­tled in the hill­top vil­lage of Quer­cy in South West France in 1921. Here he ded­i­cat­ed him­self to the inti­mate sub­ject mat­ter of plein-air fam­i­ly scenes, and portraits.
d’Espagnat died in Paris in 1950.