Joseph Stany-Gauthier (1883 - 1969)

Born in Carcassonne. After a good secondary education, Joseph Stany-Gauthier entered the School of Fine Arts in Montpellier. In 1905, he continued his studies at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. As a young architect and decorator with a state diploma, he set up a small decoration workshop. In 1908, he became a teacher at the Regional School of Drawing and Fine Arts in Nantes. He was then appointed Curator of the Château de Nantes from 1922 to 1969 and of its two museums: the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions and the Museum of Decorative Arts.

But the professor had a second passion, painting. He left many paintings that a retrospective exhibition "Fifty years of painting" brought together in 1963. He painted Brittany, port scenes, boats, cathedrals and Breton landscapes. Some of his works are notably preserved in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Nantes. It was around 1930 that he took the artist name of Stany Gauthier.