Henri Charles Mangen (1874-1949) was a French painter, considered one of the founders of Fauvism, who was called "the voluptuous painter" because he was very fond of depicting in his paintings the "nudity, luxury and pleasure". Mangen willingly painted cheerful Mediterranean landscapes, domestic scenes, exquisite and sensual nudes and still lifes. The main thing in his paintings - bright, carefully selected, surprisingly harmonious colors and simple forms, which together create a sense of belonging to the depicted. And this is exactly the case when you want to be in the place of the heroes of his paintings, imbued with their serenity and joy of being.
Siesta (Jeanne on a chaise longue).
At the age of 15, Mangen was determined to become an artist and enrolled in the School of Decorative Arts. He studied there for four years, and then went on to study at an institution of a higher order - the School of Fine Arts, analogous to our Academy of Fine Arts.
The Little Italian Girl
When his favorite teacher, the Symbolist Gustave Moreau, died in 1898, Mangen decided to leave the École des Beaux-Arts and moved with his wife Jeanne Caret to a house at 61 rue de Boursault. His parents were wealthy, and Mangen could spare no expense. He set up an entire studio where he invited female models at his own expense to pose for his former classmates at the École des Beaux-Arts.
Olive trees in Cavaliere
And it soon became clear that Mangen was a distinctive and talented artist, and few could match him in his mastery of color.
He soon began exhibiting regularly at all the French Salons: the Official, Independent and Autumn Salons.
And in 1904 he decided to go to Saint-Tropez, where he rented a large mansion. He was soon enchanted by the sunsets and sunrises, the riot of bright subtropical colors, which he captured in his landscapes.
Saint-Tropez, sunset
There was no botanical precision of Millet's forms or elegance of Shishkin's drawing, but his artwork was distinguished by the perfect harmony of bright saturated colors, reflecting the very essence of the generous southern nature and the artist's delight before it.
Cignac's House of Cicadas, Saint-Tropez
His artwork made a sensation at the Fall Salon, although some conservative critics and the press were very dissatisfied with them. "A wild smear of colors," they wrote. Particularly outraged critic Louis Vauxcelles, who called the hall where Mangen and his Fauvist friends exhibited "a cage of wild beasts." Hence the name of the new artistic movement: Fauvism - "wild".
But the audience and gallerists Eugène Druet and Ambroise Vollard thought otherwise and bought up all his paintings. And soon Mangen woke up a real celebrity.
Engravings
World War I was raging, and Mangen was painting bright, cheerful landscapes. His wife Jeanne repeatedly posed nude for him, and in this serenity artwork appeared as if from another, normal world, where there was no place for war and suffering, but joy, admiration for nature, peace and sensuality.
Nude in the garden
Perhaps it was the desire to experience the atmosphere of serenity and tenderness lost in ordinary life that contributed to the popularity of his paintings. When there is so much negativity around, Mangen's paintings allowed many people not to fall into despair, to feel that beauty and love have not yet disappeared in the world, and isn't this one of the main tasks of any good artist?
Painted pictures extolling the beauty and piety of nude ladies. John Collier's impressive artwork.
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