Description
Louis Abel-Truchet was an important French painter, printmaker, and lithographer of his day. He was born in Versailles in Paris and this city would remain close to his heart throughout his life.
He is well known for his paintings portraying turn-of-the-century life in Paris.
Working primarily in oil, his paintings include portraits of elegant young Parisians, city landscapes, and scenes depicting daily life in Paris.
He especially liked to paint the artists' quarter of Monmartre.
He was a student of the well-known Julian Academy in Paris and a student of Julian Lefebvre and Benjamin Constant. Paris wasn't the only city he painted, he just produced some magnificent works showing other cities like Venice, Siena and Marseille.
He was not happy that his role as an artist was limited to the "mere" representation of scenes and life and became involved in other areas, such as the annual exhibitions in Paris.
Louis was considered by many to be an "Impressionist" due to the style of work he created, however the richness and variety of work he created throughout his life makes it impossible to define his role as an artist through Impressionism alone.
His role as a satirist of the time was also an important part of his life and this motivated him to be one of the founding members of the Society of Humorists. He has been favorably compared to the great satirists of the day such as Forain.
At the age of fifty-seven he volunteered to fight in the First World War and this also became material for his art as he produced a series of lithographs depicting scenes from the First World War and his own experience of first hand of the war.
One particularly well-known lithograph is titled "Stalemate on the Western Front." Defeat at home”. It shows an officer being scolded by a woman, who appears to be his wife. It has been said that this is a self-portrait of Louis himself. Apparently, some said that he joined to escape his own domestic problems.
Louis Abel-Truchet's paintings are highly sought after. Paintings of Parisian life as he describes them are particularly in demand.