Paysage

Victor Charreton (1864-1936) was born on 2 March 1864 in Bourgoin-Jallieu. He grew up in a wealthy family. Very early on, he became interested in painting and poetry. With great sensitivity and curiosity, his painting companions were Armand Boulouzet, Louis Japy and Ernest Hareux.

He studied law and became a solicitor at the Lyon Court of Appeal. In 1893, he married Elmy Chatin, the daughter of a contractor from La Sauvetat in the Puy-de-Dôme. In 1894, Victor Charreton exhibited for the first time at the Salon de la Société lyonnaise des beaux-arts, where he presented a view of the village of Montpeyroux. At the same time, he bought a house in the Auvergne, in Saint-Ammand-Tallende.

In 1902, Victor Charreton sold his study to devote himself fully to painting. The painter used both canvas and cardboard as a support. He also used the knife and the brush to paint. In 1903, together with Pierre Bonnard and Frantz Jourdain, he founded the Salon d'Automne in the Grand Palais in Paris. Victor Charreton was noticed and his reputation quickly spread beyond the circle of the salons.

In 1914, he was awarded the Legion of Honour for his work as a painter. Victor Charreton was also president of numerous exhibition juries and wrote articles and theories on art and colour. In addition, Victor Charreton studied the techniques of conservation of works of art. Thanks to his research, he discovered painting on "finette", a fluffy fabric that allowed him to reinforce the vaporous effect in his paintings.

During the First World War, the painter lived mainly in the Auvergne, where he could concentrate on snowy landscapes in the winter and green landscapes in the summer. Victor Charreton is a great landscape painter, he belongs to the generation of artists entirely dedicated to landscape painting following the Impressionist painters. The painter paints from the motif, choosing the places that inspire him according to the light, the colours and the seasons. In addition to landscapes in Auvergne, Victor Charreton had the opportunity to paint landscapes in Provence, Brittany, Southern Europe and Morocco.

Victor Charreton founded the Murol School with the painter Léon Boudal, who was also the priest of Murol. This movement attracted many artists from different backgrounds, they were charmed by this neo-impressionism which expresses the simplicity and light of the Auvergne landscapes. Charreton's work is marked by the intimist treatment of the landscape, in fact, he preferred to paint details than vast spaces.

The painter belonged to the Group of Ten, the ten artists who regularly exhibited at the Dujardin Gallery in Roubaix: Pierre Eugène Montézin and Jules Adler. Victor Charreton was a regular visitor to the Georges Petit Gallery in Paris and the Chappe Glazerie in Toulouse. The art critics Camille Mauclair and Gustave Kahn particularly defended him.

Victor Charreton was a leading artist whose success is still evident today. He died on 26 November 1936 in Clermont-Ferrand.

Some of Victor Charreton's paintings are kept in several French museums. The Bourgoin-Jallieu museum holds the most important public collection of the artist. Victor Charreton is also presented in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Carcassonne, the Musée d'art Roger-Quilliot in Clermont Ferrand, the Musée de Grenoble, the Musée des Peintres de l'École de Murol, the Musée Mandet in Riom, the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon.