Léo Gausson French, 1860-1944

Overview

Having begun his artistic career as a wood sculptor, Gausson later studied graphics at the Atelier Eugène Froment and illustrated his friends’ poetry before moving on to painting as a medium. Gausson was a poet himself. At the Atelier, he befriended Luce and Cavallo-Peduzzzi, who would each have a significant influence on his style. Gausson also drew from the work of Pissarro, Signac, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Bernard in his paintings. Stylistically, he began as a Neo-Impressionist, and later moved toward Synthetism around 1890. He exhibited at the Paris Salon for the first time in 1886, and would exhibit at the Salon des Indépendants from 1887-1900. In 1892, along with Luce, Pissarro, and Toulouse-Lautrec, he exhibited at the Groupe des Vingt exhibition in Brussels. He has been included in important 20^th-century Post-Impressionist exhibitions, including one at the Guggenheim in 1968, one at the Musée Maximilien Luce in 1978, and one at the Musée Camille Pissarro in 1985.