Émilie Charmy facts for kids

Émilie Charmy (pronounced "shar-mee") (April 2, 1878 – June 7, 1974) was an important artist in France. She was part of the early "avant-garde," which means she created new and experimental art. Émilie worked with artists from the Fauve movement, like Henri Matisse. She showed her paintings often in Paris, especially with an art dealer named Berthe Weill.

Émilie became a respected artist even though it was unusual for women to have such careers back then. She painted many different things, including still lifes (pictures of objects), landscapes, portraits, and people. Her early paintings were in the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles. Later, her art was influenced by Fauvism and the School of Paris art movements.

Early Life and Family

Émilie Espérance Barret was born on April 2, 1878, in Saint-Etienne, France.

She grew up in a well-off family. Her grandfather was a Bishop, and her father owned a factory that made iron. Émilie had two older brothers. When she was 15, her parents passed away. She and her older brother, Jean Barret, then went to live with relatives in Lyon. From a young age, Émilie was talented in both art and music.

Education and Training

Émilie went to a Catholic private school and was trained to become a teacher. At that time, teaching was one of the few jobs available for women.

However, when she lived in Lyon, she chose not to become a teacher. Instead, in the late 1890s, she began studying and working in the art studio of Jacques Martin. This was a very important step for her art career. Martin knew many other artists in Lyon who helped Émilie develop her own artistic style. These included Louis Carrand and François Vernay, who were known for their unique flower paintings.

During this time, she started using the name Émilie Charmy as her artist name.

Her Art Career

How Émilie Charmy Painted

During Émilie Charmy's time, many women saw painting as just a hobby. But Émilie was completely dedicated to her art and earned her living from it. For her, painting was a strong passion that guided her life.

Charmy often painted women in everyday settings, as well as flowers and still-life pictures. Her flower and still-life paintings were popular because they were seen as decorative. People from the middle class often wanted to buy them.

A French writer named Roland Dorgelès described Charmy as "a great free painter." He said she created her own special art world where her feelings guided her work. Her paintings often had a strong sense of abstraction, meaning they didn't always look exactly like real life. Art critics had different ideas about her work. Her bold use of color and strong brushstrokes were sometimes seen as using a "masculine" way of painting, which was unusual for women artists then.

Émilie Charmy was different because she didn't follow the usual expectations for women in her time.

She also preferred not to sign long-term contracts with art dealers or gallery owners. She only signed one contract, which was not very successful, in the early 1930s.

Starting Her Career

Around 1902 or 1903, Charmy and her brother moved from Lyon to Saint-Cloud, a town near Paris. Émilie showed her paintings in several galleries. However, her works were not shown alongside paintings by male artists of her time. This meant her art was not judged in the same way as theirs. Her first known exhibition was at the "Salon des Indépendants" in 1904. It was probably there that she became friends with other Fauve artists like Henri Matisse, Charles Camoin, and Albert Marquet.

In 1905, she showed two still-life paintings, Dahlias and Fruit, at the Salon d'Automne. Berthe Weill saw and liked these paintings. From then on, Berthe Weill helped promote Émilie's work and became a good friend. In 1906, Émilie showed five flower paintings and a still life called Prunes at the same Salon d'Automne.

Fauvism Influence

Émilie Charmy was influenced by artists like Matisse. She started using Fauvism techniques in her paintings, as you can see in Woman in a Japanese Dressing Gown (1907). She experimented with bright colors, thick paint, and bold brushstrokes. This led to a series of strong and new paintings.

In Woman in a Japanese Dressing Gown, Charmy painted a woman wearing a Japanese robe. Other artists like Matisse also painted this theme. Their paintings often showed women in a perfect, traditional way. But Charmy's painting was different. Her subject looks like a modern woman, without fancy hair or decorations. She stands tall in the middle of the painting and looks directly at the viewer. Her strong posture and the bright colors with dark outlines make her stand out.

Other paintings from this time include landscapes like Piana, Corsica (1906), L'Estaque c. 1910, and Corsican Landscape c. 1910. She made these when she traveled to the French Mediterranean coast and Corsica with Matisse and his friends. A unique part of her style was leaving some areas of the canvas unpainted in these landscapes, a technique also used by male Fauve artists.

In 1908, Charmy set up an art studio in Paris at 54 Rue de Bourgogne. She moved there permanently in 1910 and lived there for the rest of her life.

Her paintings of Corsica and the French Mediterranean were shown at Eugène Druet's gallery in Paris in 1911. In 1912, she had her first big solo exhibition at the Galerie Clovis Sagot. This show included at least forty oil paintings and twenty-five watercolors. Charmy is also remembered in the United States because she showed four works at the 1913 Armory Show. These were Roses, Paysage, Soir, and Ajaccio. At this exhibition, Arthur Jerome Eddy bought L'Estaque. He praised the painting for its bright, abstract colors and bold design in his 1914 book, Cubists and Post Impressionism.

Her partner, George Bouche, who was also an artist, had a home in Marnat. This place is thought to be the subject of her paintings The Path toward the House and Landscape, made between 1913 and 1915. These works showed a change to more personal pictures, painted with strong brushstrokes and a mix of light and dark colors.

School of Paris Style

Jeune femme tête renversée (Young woman with her head thrown back). 1920, Oil on canvas board.

In the 1910s, Berthe Weill continued to show Émilie's work. Émilie's style changed again during this time, moving towards the School of Paris style. Art critics began to respect her work more and more. For example, in 1921, Louis Vauxcelle called her "one of the most remarkable woman [artists] of our time." Another writer, Roland Dorgelès, noted that she "sees like a woman and paints like a man," recognizing how different her art was from typical "feminine" art.

A solo exhibition of her work was held in 1919 at the Galerie André Pesson. Also in 1919, Charmy met Count Etienne de Jouvencel, who became a supporter of her art. Another exhibition of Charmy's work took place at the Galerie Œuvres d’Art in 1921.

Painting Women

At that time, Women artists were often not allowed in art studios to draw from live models. So, many women artists painted scenes of everyday life. Émilie Charmy, however, often painted women in ways that were not common for female artists. For example, she painted women who were not always shown in an idealized way. Most women artists preferred to paint sweet pictures of mothers and children. But Charmy chose not to paint this popular theme, even though artists like Mary Cassatt were doing so.

In 1922, Charmy met the famous writer Colette, and they became friends. Colette, who was very popular then, wrote the introduction for the catalog of a big exhibition of twenty of Charmy's paintings in 1922.

Later Years

In 1926, another large solo exhibition of Charmy's work was held at the Galerie Barbazanges.

She showed her works less often in the 1920s and 1930s. However, she had many supporters and collectors who bought her art. Charmy painted when she was at her villa in Ablon-sur-Seine. Two paintings made between 1926 and 1930, View of the Seine at Ablon and Banks of the Seine at Ablon, are examples from this period. In the 1930s, Charmy was a member of and exhibited her works with the group Femmes Artistes Modernes (Modern Women Artists).

After World War II, Charmy exhibited less frequently than she had during her most active years. However, she continued to paint well into her 90s.

Awards and Recognition

Émilie Charmy was first noticed for the French Legion of Honour awards through Eli-Joseph Bois, a newspaper director. He introduced her to important political figures like Édouard Daladier, Aristide Briand, and Louise Weiss.

On January 13, 1926, Charmy was given the Legion of Honour Knighthood. This award was later upgraded to the rank of Officer on August 5, 1938.

Personal Life

In 1912, Émilie met the painter George Bouche. They had a son named Edmond in 1915. Charmy and Bouche got married in 1935.

Like Émilie herself, Edmond was cared for by nurses and caregivers until he was fourteen. While this was common when Émilie was a child, it was becoming less common as traditional ideas about motherhood became more popular. In one book, Edmond mentioned that Émilie kept his birth a secret from many people. Her art dealer, Berthe Weill, even thought Émilie's relationship with her son Edmond seemed distant.

After World War I, Charmy and Bouche had a villa in Ablon-sur-Seine, as well as their studio-apartment in Paris. Her husband, George Bouche, passed away in 1941. During World War II, Émilie and her son Edmond lived in Marnat in a quiet, isolated way. After the war, she returned to Paris. However, many of the people she knew in the art world were no longer there.

Émilie Charmy passed away in Paris in 1974.

See also

In Spanish: Émilie Charmy para niños