Auguste Chabaud Biography

Auguste Chabaud (1882-1955) was a French painter and sculptor.

Chabaud was born in Nimes on 3rd October 1882. At the age of fourteen, he joined the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Avignon. In 1899, he went to Paris to continue his artistic training at the Academie Julian and the Ecole des Beaux Arts. There he met Henri Matisse and André Derain. In 1900, he returned to his parents' vineyard in southern France because the business was affected by a crisis there.

In 1901, he was forced to leave Paris again to secure his livelihood. He worked on a ship and got to know the West African coast. In the following years, he became acquainted with the Parisian nightlife. In the Paris neighbourhood of Montmartre, where he had his studio, he painted various scenes of Parisian life.

Chabaud's Cubist phase began in 1911, when he also began sculpting. In the following years, he had many exhibitions, including 1913 in New York, where his works were exhibited alongside those of artists such as Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck and Picasso.

After his return from the First World War, Chabaud settled down in Graveson. From 1920, he had his "blue period". He used Prussian Blue as the only colour in his works. From then on, he focused exclusively on the south of France. He painted scenes of rural life, the farmers, and the hills and trails of the Alpilles. He died in 1955 in Graveson.

In 1992, the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur opened the Musée Auguste Chabaud in his honour.