Paul Blanvillain 1891-1965

Paul BLANVILLAIN Barfleur 1891- 1965 The entrance to the village of Gatteville le Phare Oil on canvas signed lower right and dated 1943 54 x 73 cm Son and grandson of a sea captain, Paul Blanvillain studied at the high school in Cherbourg. It was there that “Father Deguerne”, a drawing teacher and old eccentric, gave him his first lessons. After his baccalaureate, he was destined for the honorable profession of Tax Collector, an unexpected orientation and a curious choice for those who knew him a little... The war decided otherwise. Mobilized at the end of his military service, prisoner in Maubeuge in 1914, he was transferred to Germany where he was to remain for more than four years. By chance, the Franco-Belgian painter Fernand Lantoine, whose international reputation continues to grow, shared his captivity. This talented painter created a studio there that was at the origin of the Divisionist period of Paul Blanvillain's work. After a period of occupation in Alsace, he returned to Barfleur, which he would not leave again until his death in 1965, surrounded by the affection of his family and his many friends. In 1935, he met Paul Signac in Barfleur, who invited him to exhibit at the Salon des Indépendants. Dividing his time between hunting, fishing, and painting, he would host the Salon des Peintres de Barfleur every year. A philosopher and enemy of fashion, his work is the reflection of a lover of Barfleur and the Val de Saire, whose subdued light and poetic reality he so skillfully captured. An exhibition of around a hundred works will take place next August in Barfleur.