CASTAING Henri Joseph (1860-1918)

CASTAING Henri Joseph (1860-1918) Young girl at the source Oil on canvas signed low left Frame gilded with gold leaves Dim canvas : 100 X 66 cm Dim frame : 121 X 86 cm CASTAING Henri Joseph (1860-1918) French painter 19th-20th Born 1 August 1860 in Pau. Died 25 January 1918 in Pau Painter, draughtman, pastellist, décorative artist. Portraits, genre scènes, religious subjects. Henry Castaing studied from 1881 to 1883 under Victor Venat in Pau, then spent two years in Italy where he studied composition at the Academia San Luca in Rome under Brushi and Sciuti. He enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, where he worked under William Laparra, Léon Bonnat and Benjamin Constant. Following his return to the french capital in 1892, Castaing divided his time between teaching drawing and composition and turning out a continuous stream of canvases with subject matter ranging from the religious to the profane. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1898 to 1908, then again in 1914. Castaing’s strong religious conviction and his excellent knowledge of religious iconography are immediately évident from the compositions he painted in twenty-odd churches and chapels. A series painted in 1895 for the chapelle Notre Dame in Oloron Sainte Marie merits spécial mention to the extend that it attracted unstinting praise from Eugene Carriere and Maurice Denis and was subsequently (1980) listed in the général Inventory of monuments and artistic Héritage of France. Other notable examples of his Works are to be found in the Pau churches of Notre Dame, St Martin and St Jacques. Henri Castaing was also a portraitist of talent, and as such, Pau’s favorite Belle Epoque artist was equally at home working in oils, pastels and red chalk. Retrospective « Joseph Castaing, un peintre béarnais » in Oloron for celebrate 150 years from the birth of the artist (october 2011). The Maison carrée (july 2011) exhibited about 60 works of Joseph Castaing and son René-Marie (1896-1943). Museums : Pau (MBA) Lourdes (Musée des Sanctuaires) Bibliography : Dictionary of Artists E.Benezit Vol III / 546