Emile Dezaunay (1854 - 1938)

Painter of the Pont-Aven school, born in Nantes, it was Jules-Élie Delaunay who recommended him to enter the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he joined his studio in 1875. He was also a student of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes.

He took part in the Triennial Exhibition of Fine Arts in Nantes in 1886, an exhibition to which established painters who had participated in the Paris Salon were invited. It was on this occasion that Émile Dezaunay met Maxime Maufra and that a great friendship was born between the two men. It was Maufra who introduced him to Pont-Aven in 1890. He stayed at the Gloanec boarding house and met Gauguin, with whom he painted two summers in a row at Le Pouldu.

In 1892, he met Aristide Briand and the poet Victor-Émile Michelet in Maxime Maufra's Bateau-Lavoir studio in Montmartre. That same year, he exhibited at the Second Exhibition of Impressionist and Symbolist Painters with Émile Bernard, Maurice Denis, Charles Filiger, Maxime Maufra and Paul Sérusier.

Dezaunay never spoke of the teaching he had received, of the theories of light, for him, only the freedom of expression of the neo-impressionists mattered. A very personal technique with a choppy touch sets him apart from his colleagues. He is present in many museums.