Paysage Provencal

Pierre Eugene MONTEZIN
(French, 1874 - 1946)

Paysage Provencal
oil on canvas
23 3/4 x 28 3/4 inches
60 x 73 cm.
signed

Provenance:
Private collection, Morristown, NJ

Pierre Eugène Montézin (French, 1874–1946) was a Post-Impressionist painter of landscapes. He spent most of his life in Paris, born on a narrow street in the French capital. However, he loved the open air and the country areas of the Ile-de-France.

He was introduced into the arts at a very young age, entering a decorative atelier where he learned the art of executing decorative murals. Soon he became influenced by the theories and techniques of the first Impressionists, prompting him to take up a career as an independent painter-artist.

In 1893 Montezin made up his mind to gain acceptance in the Salon. For ten years he painted ceaselessly and sent his work to the Salon, and was regularly turned down. At last, he was accepted in 1903. He was still a young painter, but now he was esteemed and appreciated by the great public.

When war broke out in 1914, Montezin enlisted and fought at the front, receiving the Medaille Militaire after the battles of the Meuse. At the end of the war, he returned to Paris and resumed painting. Montezin spent very little time in his studio; he could really work only from nature.

Honors began to come to Montezin as early as 1920 when he received the Rosa Bonheur Prize. In 1923 he was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Art. In 1932 he obtained the Medal of Honor at the Salon des Artistes Francais. Critical reaction to this nomination was explosive. For thirty years no landscape had received the Medal of Honor which, since 1897, had been awarded only to figure painters and painters of compositions. For three decades landscapes had been considered a minor form of painting, a fact which made Montezin's triumph all the more real.

In 1932 the painters of the Salon unanimously elected Montezin president of the Salon jury. The same year he had a great exhibition in Paris to which the public flocked. 237 canvases were shown, all landscapes full of poetry. All the charms of the lle-de-France were displayed before the eyes of an admiring urban population.

Similar successful exhibitions in Paris followed in 1936, 1938 and 1943. Montezin painted to the end of his long life, dying suddenly in 1946 while he was painting during a trip to Brittany.