Self-taught French painter, born in 1873 in Château-Renault (Indre-et-Loire), died on 12 August 1958 in Montoire-sur-le-Loir (Loir-et-Cher).
Life
André Bauchant left school at fourteen to work on the family farm, then became a livestock breeder, fruit grower and nurseryman, hence his nickname of “the gardener painter”. Called up during the First World War, he was sent to the Dardanelles, Greece and Turkey. Having passed an examination as a rangefinder operator, he made topographical surveys and panoramic sketches that revealed a talent he had not suspected.
Demobilised in 1919, at the age of forty-six, he found his farm ruined and his wife, Alphonsine, seriously ill. He withdrew to Auzouer-en-Touraine and began to paint. In 1921 he exhibited at the Salon d’automne; Le Corbusier bought a first canvas from him in 1922. Amédée Ozenfant, Jacques Lipchitz, Jean Lurçat and Serge Diaghilev were among his Parisian supporters.
Jeanne Bucher gave him his first solo exhibitions in 1927 and 1928; Wilhelm Uhde discovered him there and counted him among the “modern primitives”. In 1928 Diaghilev commissioned him to design the sets for Apollon musagète, to music by Stravinsky, for the Ballets Russes. Now able to live from his painting, he had a house built at Les Tourneboeufs. In 1949 the Galerie Charpentier presented a retrospective of 215 canvases. Weakened by a stroke in December 1956, he painted until September 1957.
The work
History paintings, mythological and religious scenes, festivities, portraits, Loire landscapes and still lifes make up his work, with assertive foregrounds, imperfect perspectives and successive planes. From around 1950 he painted mainly flowers and fruit, turning the still life (nature morte) into a “living nature” (nature vive) by showing flowers still planted in the earth. He also designed, on a State commission, a tapestry cartoon for the Gobelins.
Dina Vierny, who at his request acquired the contents of his studio, organised many exhibitions of his work and in 1997 published his catalogue raisonné.
Exhibitions and collections
- Salon d’automne, Paris, 1921
- Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris, 1927 and 1928
- Les Maîtres populaires de la réalité, Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1937
- Retrospective, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 1949
- Musée d’art et d’archéologie de Senlis: Paysage fleuri, 1955, oil on canvas
- Favourites: Art Brut, Naive Art, Art Singulier, Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, Paris, 15 March to 13 April 2024