Louis Neillot (1898-1973) Creuzier-le-neuf (allier) 1929

Louis NEILLOT (1898-1973) Creuzier-le-Neuf (Allier) Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower left July 1929 73 x 92 cm (old relining and traces of cracking) Louis Neillot is the son of a gardener-florist, Jean Neillot, and Louise Barghon. He was mobilized at the end of the First World War; after being gassed, he was discharged. He settled in Paris and began to frequent the artistic and literary circles of the capital. He returned in the summer to Bourbonnais, where he was inspired by the landscapes; he first stayed near Cusset, then from 1946 to 1958 in Creuzier-le-Neuf; finally, from 1958, he came to spend several months a year at Le Verger, a house he owned in Saulcet. But the landscapes of the Paris region are also present in his work: the heights of Clamart and Meudon, the Chevreuse valley, the Petit Morin valley. He was one of the occupants of La Ruche (1928-1934). He then moved to 65, boulevard Arago, in the Cité fleurie, where he remained almost until the end of his life. He was a friend of Jean Dreyfus-Stern. He was vice-president of the Salon des indépendants (where he exhibited regularly). He also exhibited at the Salon d'automne and the Salon des Tuileries. When he died in 1973, he was considered the "last representative of Fauvism". A room in the municipal museum of Vichy is dedicated to him (the Neillot room).