Clément Gontier 1876–1918 Still Life With Flowers

Clément GONTIER (1876–1918)
Oil on canvas, signed lower right
60 × 50 cm (without frame)
Carved and gilded wooden frame

The son of a wheelwright, Clément Gontier was born in Lavaur in the Tarn region. He studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, then in Paris at the Académie Julian, where he took classes with Jean-Paul Laurens. In 1900, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under the guidance of the painter Benjamin-Constant.

As early as 1895, Clément Gontier began exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français. He achieved his first major success by winning the second Grand Prix de Rome in 1901.

Clément Gontier’s work is known for its historical subjects. His paintings reflect the influence of his teacher Jean-Paul Laurens as well as the Symbolist style borrowed from Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. Clément Gontier turned to more fashionable subjects, such as genre scenes and still lifes. He also painted portraits, a discipline he reserved primarily for family and close friends.

In 1910, he was chosen to illustrate the Iliad with 24 color plates for Éditions Henri Laurens^.

During World War I, Clément Gontier served in the Dragoons Company of the Castres Regiment. Upon his return from the front, severely weakened, he contracted the Spanish flu and died at the military hospital in Castres.
He won a second Prix de Rome and the Prix de l’Académie Julian.

Museum: Pays de Cocagne