Montézin Pierre-Eugène

Biography of Montézin Pierre-Eugène ( 1874-1946 )

Pierre Eugène Montézin was born in 1874 in Paris. As many postimpressionist landscape painter, he has been deeply influenced by the work of Claude Monet in the heart of nature. But for him, nature is the key of his art and also a way of life. When he was a child, he used to visit the countryside with his father, a lace drawer in love with the environment. These long walks outside Paris created a real connection with nature in the heart of the young boy, emotion he will use as a painter.

He first began his apprenticeship as a mural painter when he joined the studio of Ernest Quost. Here, he learned to realize panels with flowers and panoramas that little by little turnt him to easel painting and oil painting. When he was 17, he left the studio and began to paint by himself some landscapes, as a self-taught artist. Without any help, he tried to exhibit at the Salon from 1893, but his style was too modern at this time and didn’t match with Salon’s expectations.

For ten years, he continued to try his luck at the Salon and finally succeed in 1903. Four years after, he gained his first prize, a third-class medal, and in 1910 he has been awarded with a 2nd class gold medal.

Enlisted in WWI, Pierre Eugène Montézin contributed to war and received the military medal for his action during the “Bataille de la Meuse”. At the end of the war, he continued to work and exhibit his paintings that obtained more and more success and recognition. He settled a year between Dreux and Moret-sur-Loing where he painted beautifully creafted landscapes in the heart of nature, in a free and spirited style.

He gained numerous rewards along the 20’s and 30’s and especially in solo show exhibitions in Parisian galleries in 1936, 1938 and 1943 where he exhibited only landscapes.

In 1932, Montézin gained the Honor Medal at the Salon, a prize that no landscape painter gained since Harpignies in 1897, because landscape was still considered by the jury to be less important than other subjects in painting at the end of the 19^th century.

In 1941, he has been unanimously elected member at the Institute of France at the Fine Arts academy. Montézin continued to paint all his life, and abruptly died in Britanny during a work trip in 1946, wearing on his back his canvases, brushes and colors, as a tireless artist.