Discover: Forgotten French Naturalist Painters

Painters of Nature

Chester Collections is a unique organisation that specialises in the tailored management of private art collections. As well as helping to curate exhibitions and offer expert opinions on pieces of art, they focus on exploring and bringing to light forgotten or over-looked artists from the first half of the 20th Century.

In particular, we are excited to highlight this collection of naturalist painters who were responsible of a renewal and extension of landscape painting style.

Inspired by Impressionism

The artists featured in the Chester Collections are a group of French Naturalist painters, born after the 1870s - the era in which Impressionism flourished. Paul Deltombe, René Fontayne, Edmond-Édouard Lapeyre, Victor-Ferdinand Bourgeois, Henri-Alexandre Sollier, Lucien Vogt, Gaston Balande, André-Leon Vivrel, and Emile Colinus continued Impressionist principles.

By painting en plein-air and focusing on the beauty of nature, they developed their work in keeping with the contemporary movements of their day.

The images, mainly painted between the two world wars, form a body of work which highlights the beauty and harmony of nature in the 20th cenutry, while exploring new effects and innovations in landscape painting.

A Bright New Era

The vibrancy and colour of their landscapes brings a fresh look at French landscape painting and an insight into life and fashions of the time - in particular, Lapeyre's series of women on the beach or Vivrel's Breton women at work.

The painters explored the rivers, mountains, coastline, and cities of France to bring landscape painting into a bright new era. The Chester Collections are currently holding an exhibition of fifty works by this group of artists, including views of Switzerland and Lake Geneva by Gaston Balande and Victor-Ferdinand Bourgeois.

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