The forgotten ones: Gustave-Henri Colin

In the series of forgotten painters from the first exhibition of the Société Anonyme Coopérative des Peintres, Sculpteurs et Graveurs in 1874, this second article evokes Gustave-Henri Colin (1828-1910) to whom Zola, Geoffroy and Castagnary will pay homage, Admired by Monet , Pissarro and Degas, the work of Colin forms a true link between the school of 1830 and the proponents of the Impressionist movement.

Gustave Henri Colin. Le Castillo et le Goulet de Pasajès. Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille (?)

A pupil of Constant Dutilleux in Arras, Gustave-Henri Colin decided to devote himself entirely to painting after having started studying law in Paris. He painted in Barbizon and on the Breton coast and exhibited at the Salon des Refusés in 1863, encouraged in his early days by Eugène Delacroix and, later, Jean-Baptiste Corot.

Gustave Henri Colin. Partie de pelote sous les remparts. 1863. Musée Basque de Bayonne

Based in Ciboure, Gustave-Henri Colin moved to Saint-Jean-de-Luz in 1862. He produced a large number of landscapes and genre scenes in the Basque country and participated with 6 paintings in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.

Gustave Henri Colin. La plage des bains à Fontarrabie. Collection particulière.

The critic Jules-Antoine Castagnary will write about the artist who exhibited at the Salon of 1876: "Colin has become a master in the art of rendering the effects of the sun". Gustave-Henri Colin was also highly appreciated by Emile Zola who praised his "light stroke of splendid intensity".

In his art history lectures, Fabrice Roy combines the past with the present, in a poetic and playful evocation of the French 19th century...