Maurice Courant 

Biography of Maurice Courant  ( 1847-1926 )

Maurice Courant was a painter of landscapes and seascapes who begin his apprenticeship with Ernest Meissonnier, known in his time as the best master of classical painting. But soon the young artist detached himself from the influence and the academic style of his teacher and realised some seascapes arround Le Havre and the Breton coast. His landscapes are created with small free touches in colors harmonies where, most of the time, blue, grey and brown were dominant.

Courant took part in the Salon of French Artists in Paris from 1868 and gained there his first medal on the next year. He also exhibited in the Salon of the Fine Art Society. During the Universal Exhibiton, he has been rewarded with a silver medal in 1889’s and gained an other one in 1900’s.

From 1906 to 1913, he travelled a lot in England, in the Netherlands and in Belgium too.

His paintings, quite almost realised by the water, present large areas. His seascapes bring together the exactness of the detail with a strict simplification of the plastic means : horizontality of the lines, large spaces for beach and sky. Against the current of the impressionnist revolution and with his classical language, the painter captured with virtuosity the bright elegance of Norman beach.