Quimper, The Odet River At The Foot Of Mont Frugy

Emile Simon was born in Rennes in 1890, studying at the Beaux-Arts in Rennes, he then joined Fernand Cormon's studio at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. After the First World War he obtained a professorship at the Beaux-Arts in Nantes where he met Madeleine Fiè-Fieux who was to be his pupil and later his patron. He was very early inspired by Brittany and particularly by Finistère. Appointed director of the Fine Arts School of Nantes Emile Simon will cease his teaching activity and will join Madeleine Fié-Fieux and her husband at the manor of Squividan, in Clohars-Fouesnant. They go on on excursion together exploring the Breton motif, in search of inspiring landscapes and lively scenes in a post-Impressionist treatment. They occasionally exhibit their work in Quimper and Concarneau. When Émile Simon died in 1976, hundreds of his paintings remained at the Squividan mansion. When Madeleine Fié-Fieux died in 1995, all the canvases of the two accomplices were offered to the Finistère Departmental Council. As well as the famous manor… Since then, Émile Simon's studio has been reconstructed identically in the manor's showroom open to the public.