Charles Fromuth (1858 - 1937)

"Movement is the main idea of my work" wrote Charles Fromuth. Trained at the Philadelphia School of Fine Arts under Thomas Eakins, he arrived in Paris in 1890. Eight months later, he was in Concarneau, which he never left. There he found, under exceptional light, the living spectacle of the sardine port of the time. During the International Exhibition of 1900, he discovered Hokusaï and Japanese art. The perspective vision and gestural expression of this art had a definitive impact on his own style. Until 1910 Fromuth exhibited in Europe and obtained various medals and titles in Paris, Munich, London, the USA and St Louis. Like a hermit at the end of the world, solitary and proud, he devoted himself to his art of pastel, to his boats fleeing under sail. His friends and buyers were painters and artists, such as Rodin in 1901 who made the special trip with Fritz Taulow, then a famous painter. Here was an artist who devoted his entire life, almost anonymously, to painting the sea and boats, almost the sole subject of his preoccupations, but with what fervour and sincerity!