Antoine Jossé, 1970 | Surrealist sculptor

Antoine Josse is a French artist, born in 1970.

His paintings and sculptures express an irrepressible desire for lightness, escapism and to be able to dream the impossible.

The use of captivating and revealing motifs, along with the presence of human beings immersed in a dream-like landscape, convey a unique charm to his work.

His paintings are alluring for their atmosphere, evocative colours, and tumultuous skies.

The minuscule beings are settled in a desolated and dangerous world where the vegetation rapidly spreads, bringing to life dramatic reds, blues and greens, creating spectacular yet enigmatic feelings.

Love Letter from Auguste Rodin to Camille Claudel, 1886

"My ferocious friend".... "Mia feroce amica"...

Thus begins Rodin’s desperate cry of love to Camille Claudel in the early years of their relationship.

Rodin was soon captivated by this pupil who became his assistant, mistress and muse, while Claudel outwardly remained in complete control of her feelings.

Consumed and tormented by an obsessive love, he implores her - “on his knees” - to ease his suffering from beginning to end of this letter, written in a muddled style, with erroneous syntax and imperfect spelling.

Rainer Maria Rilke / Rodin | Love Song, 1907

How shall I hold my soul and yet not touch

It with your own? How shall I ever place

It clear of you on anything beyond?

Oh gladly I would stow it next to such

Things in the darkness as are never found

Down in an alien and silent space

That does not resonate when you resound.

Auguste Rodin - Fugit Amor, 1881

Agnès Boulloche | Fantastic Surrealism painter

Agnès Boulloche (1951-2019) was a prominent French Surrealist painter and sculptor renowned for creating fantastical, dreamlike universes.

Heavily inspired by her childhood in Morocco and the works of Old Masters like Hieronymus Bosch, her art blends human and animal forms into surreal, allegorical creatures.

Born in Paris, she was the daughter of André Boulloche, a prominent French resistance fighter and Minister of Education.

She spent her early childhood in Morocco.

Didier Delamonica, 1950 | Surrealits painter

Didier Delamonica is a contemporary French painter born in Lille, France.

He is widely recognized for his unique mystical fantasy and surrealist painting style, which blends vibrant color palettes with complex, dream-like narratives.

His studies include "Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Industries Textiles", commencing with two careers working adjacent during several years, comprising publicite/advertising and painting.

Now, he presents his work in numerous galleries all over France.

The works of Delamonica are including a number of private collections in USA and Canada and in Europe.

Anne-Christine Roda, 1974 | Portrait painter

Anne-Christine Roda defines a highly original interpretation of the portrait: in her work the painting is entirely subjugated to the portrayal of man’s fragility.

Her paintings, in terms of the choice of pose for her models and the neutral treatment of their backgrounds are as rooted in tradition, as her subjects are sourced unequivocally from our contemporary era.

Her choice of subject speaks directly to our everyday lives.

Hers ‘sitters’ - very diverse in age and social status are striking in their individuality.

Christophe Jacrot, 1960 | Paris under the Rain

French photographer Christophe Jacrot lives and works in Paris.

He started off in the film industry, before moving on to photography, his first passion.

Christophe started photographing the rain by accident.

- “I had an order for a travel book about Paris, and sun was a pre-requisite for all the photos!

But the weather was desperately rotten, and that is how I had the idea of starting the Paris in the rain series. It was a sort of contradiction…”

Paul Signac | Neo-impressionist painter

French painter Paul Signac (1863-1935) was born in Paris.

He followed a course of training in architecture before deciding at the age of 18 to pursue a career as a painter.

He sailed around the coasts of Europe, painting the landscapes he encountered.

He also painted scenes of cities in France in his later years.

Marcos Rodrigo, 1957 | Expressionist Figurative painter

Marcos Rodrigo is a contemporary Spanish-born figurative expressionist painter whose work prominently features the female form, sensuality and portraiture.

Born in Old Castile, Spain, his family moved to the Lot region of France when he was four years old.

Heavily influenced by his father, who was a sculptor and craftsman, Rodrigo developed an early appreciation for physical materials, texture, and structural form.

Claude Monet | The Path through the Irises, 1914-1917

Irises, among Monet's favorite flowers, lined the pathways leading up to the house and Japanese bridge on the artist's property at Giverny.

This bird's-eye view of a garden path belongs to a series of monumental works painted during the First World War that capture the vital essence of these flowers with intensity and breadth of vision.

Late in life, as his eyesight faltered, he dispensed with subtlety and "took in the motif in large masses", waiting "until the idea took shape, until the arrangement and composition inscribed themselves on the brain". | Source: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Claude Monet | The Path through the Irises, 1914-1917 | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alan Douar, 1963 | Quando ti chiedi cos'è l'amore... / When you ask what love is

Quando ti chiedi cos'è l'amore,

immagina due mani ardenti

che si incontrano,

due sguardi perduti l'uno nell'altro,

due cuori che tremano

di fronte all'immensità di un sentimento,

e poche parole

per rendere eterno un istante.

Dorina Costras

Albert Lynch | Belle Époque painter

Born in Lima, Peru, Albert Lynch (1860-1950) settled in Paris, where he studied at l'École des Beaux-Arts.

Lynch worked under the guidance of painters Jules Achille Noël, Gabriel Ferrier and Henri Lehmann.

He showed his artwork in the Salon of French artists which he won in 1890 and 1892 and in the World's Fair of 1900 during which he received a gold medal.

Alda Merini / Marc Chagall | I do not need money / Io non ho bisogno di denaro..

I do not need money.

I have need of feelings

of words, words chosen wisely

of flowers called thoughts,

of roses called presences

of dreams inhabiting the trees,

of songs that make statues dance,

of stars that murmur to the ear of lovers.

Eva Gonzalès | Impressionist painter

Eva Gonzalès (1849-1883) was a French Impressionist painter.

She was one of the four most notable female Impressionists in the nineteenth century, along with Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Berthe Morisot (1841-95) and Marie Bracquemond (1840-1916).

Gonzalès began her professional training and took lessons in drawing in 1865, from the society portraitist Charles Chaplin, who was also Mary Cassatt's teacher.

Bruno Catalano, 1960 | Lo scultore dei viaggiatori

Bruno Catalano è uno scultore Franco-Italiano di fama internazionale, celebre per la serie di sculture in bronzo intitolata "Les Voyageurs" (I Viaggiatori).

Catalano è nato a Khouribga, Marocco.

La sua vita è stata segnata da un profondo senso di sradicamento: all'età di 15 anni fu costretto all'esilio dal Marocco insieme alla sua famiglia, sbarcando a Marsiglia con la speranza di una nuova vita.

Prima di dedicarsi interamente all'arte a 30 anni, ha lavorato come marinaio ed elettricista.

Influenzato da maestri come Rodin, Giacometti e César, ha sviluppato una tecnica unica che gli permette di creare figure umane con ampie porzioni del corpo mancanti, sfidando apparentemente le leggi della fisica.

Claude Monet | The Rue Montorgueil, 1878

The Rue Montorgueil, Paris was painted by Claude Monet (1840-1926) on 30 June 1878 for a festival declared that year by the government celebrating "peace and work".

This was one of the events organised for the third Universal Exhibition in Paris a few weeks after it opened, and intended to be a symbol of France’s recovery after the defeat of 1870.

French Art History and Sitemap

French art consists of the visual and plastic arts (including French architecture, woodwork, textiles, and ceramics) originating from the geographical area of France.

Modern France was the main centre for the European art of the Upper Paleolithic, then left many megalithic monuments, and in the Iron Age many of the most impressive finds of early Celtic art.

The Gallo-Roman period left a distinctive provincial style of sculpture, and the region around the modern Franco-German border led the empire in the mass production of finely decorated Ancient Roman pottery, which was exported to Italy and elsewhere on a large scale.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Jeune fille en rose dans un paysage, 1903

Henri Martin | Neo-Impressionist / Symbolist painter

Henri Martin was born in Toulouse on 5 August 1860; his father was a cabinetmaker and his mother of Italian origin.

In 1877, after convincing his father with great difficulty, he enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, and studied with Jules Garipuy.

Two years later he was awarded a prize and a scholarship that enabled him to join Jean-Paul Laurens's workshop at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Marcel Dyf | Impressionist painter

Marcel Dyf (1899-1985) was a celebrated French painter often considered one of the last true Impressionists.

He is best known for his light-filled landscapes of Provence and Brittany, as well as intimate portraits of his wife, Claudine.

In his youth he showed a marked ability for painting.

At the age of twenty-three he took the step of becoming a professional artist and devoted himself entirely to painting.

Marcel Dyf and his muse, Claudine

French painter Marcel Dyf (1899-1985) painted still-life scenes of flowers, gardens and pastoral scenes, but his true passion lay in portraiture.

Noted for his portraits, his inspiration for many compositions often came from his wife Claudine who posed for him and allowed him to immortalize the spirit of womanhood.

His wife, Claudine, became a frequent subject of his work.