Frederic Montenard 1849 1926 On The High Plateaux In Provence

Frederic Montenard 1849 1926 Naturalist painter Provence was an inexhaustible source of inspiration for Frederic Montenard such as this landscape bathed in timeless light Frédéric Montenard, born in Paris on May 21, 1849, and died in Besse-sur-Issole (Var) on February 11, 1926, is a French painter. Coming from an old Provençal family, Frédéric Montenard is the great-nephew of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Giraud (1752-1830). He was admitted to the Paris School of Fine Arts in the studio of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. In 1890, he was named a knight of the Legion of Honor in a military capacity. He began at the Salon in 1872 and regularly exhibited landscapes and seascapes there. In 1873, Frédéric Montenard founded the Toulon fine arts workshop with the painters Eugène-Baptiste Emile Dauphin, Gustave Garaud and Octave Gallian. He achieved great success in 1883 with A Cemetery in Provence and La Corrèze, war transport leaving Toulon, two paintings acquired by the French state. He won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1889. With Puvis de Chavannes, in 1890 he participated in the creation of the National Society of Fine Arts, met the Italian-Brazilian painter Giovanni Battista Castagneto, (1851 -1900) to whom he advised to follow the courses of François Nardi (1861-1936). He was appointed official painter of the Navy in 1921. After 1892, Montenard abandoned the Channel and Atlantic coasts and painted mainly in Provence. He teaches at the Toulon School of Fine Arts. He draws from the landscapes and scenes of Provençal life the themes of his large decorative compositions, commissions intended for several buildings, notably for the Palais des Arts (Marseille)Palais des arts de Marseille around 18941. In 1900, he produced two paintings for the large room of the Le Train bleu restaurant at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. A great admirer of Frédéric Mistral, in 1922 he illustrated an edition of Mireille. Frédéric Montenard settled permanently after the First World War at the Château de la Croix de Bontar in Besse-sur-Issole. A room is dedicated to him on the first floor of the Brignolais country museum, in the palace of the Counts of Provence in Brignoles. A street in Besse-sur-Issole bears his name, as does the new college dating from 2005.