Henri Rachou (1856-1944) The Cloister Of The Augustinian Convent - Gallery View

Le cloître du Couvent des Augustins - Gallery view

After initial training at the École des Beaux-Arts de Toulouse, Henri Rachou joined the studio of Léon Bonnat in Paris in 1879. He was joined there by his friend Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, before they both left him for Fernand Cormon's studio in 1883. From 1900, he returned to his native city. He soon became director of the Musée des Augustins (1903) and director of the École des Beaux-Arts (1906). Passionate about the medieval period, he devoted his research to it, drawing on the museum's collection. He was also a collector. For a medievalist like him, the museum buildings are an extraordinary setting. Built at the beginning of the 14th century for the monks of Saint Augustine, they were assigned to the museum in 1793. The church, the cloister and the chapter houses, which are very quiet in the center of Toulouse, still exude a special atmosphere at the beginning of the 20th century, which Henri Rachou conveys with great sensitivity in his paintings. Whether it is the sculptures under the gallery of the cloister or the garden in the center of the cloister, the light and the silence call for contemplation and plunge us back into the monastic universe.