Achille-Émile Othon Friesz

Emile Othon Friesz – Early encouragement from his parents; move to Paris

Emile Othon Friesz was born in Le Havre on 6 February 1879. His artistic tendency emerged early on, and receiving extensive encouragement from his parents, he began an apprenticeship at the art academy in Le Havre in 1892. There he received the basic tuition from the painter Charles-Marie Lhullier and met the artists Georges Braque and Raoul Dufy. This was the beginning of a lifelong friendship with the Cubist Braque and the Fauvist Dufy, and all three painters undertook many study trips together. In 1897, Friesz moved to Paris where a scholarship allowed him to attend the Parisian art academy. However, Friesz soon rebelled against his teacher, the famous portrait painter Léon Bonnat and his academic rigour. Despite these tensions, Friesz found Paris to be the place of his destiny and the cosmopolitan and artistic city became his home and location of self-realisation. 

Artistic success in the Fauvist style

Emile Othon Friesz made many fruitful acquaintances in his adopted home of Paris and soon included reputable artists such as Charles Camoin, Albert Marquet and Henri Matisse in his circle. However, no other influenced Friesz and his artistic development as much as the diligent Impressionist Camille Pissarro. The start of the new century also marked the start of Emile Othon Friesz’s artistic career: From 1900, he was able to exhibit his pictures in diverse Parisian salons for the first time, including the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Indépendants. In these early years, the artist oriented himself to Fauvism and created several noteworthy examples of this painting style. With growing recognition, he exhibited in Germany with the painters of the Berlin Secession and was also one of the participants of the Armory Show. In 1912, he was appointed professor at the Académie Modern in Paris, transferring to the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in 1926. The First World War, however, interrupted his career when he served as a soldier.

Departure from Fauvism; enduring posthumous fame

Emile Othon Friesz used the shortened name Othon Friesz and signed his paintings this way also. Through his former teacher Lhullier, he had learnt to appreciate the art of Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Nicolas Poussin, and in his later years, he revisited these adolescent lessons and rejected the ideas of Fauvism in favour of a more traditional mode of representation. He also referred to the ideas of logical composition proclaimed by Pal Cézanne with his painting style. With his friend Raoul Dufy, Emile Othon Friesz designed the French Palais at the 1937 Paris World’s Fair.

Emile Othon Friesz died in Paris on 10 January 1949. Ten years after his death, several of his pictures were posthumously displayed in Kassel at the second Doumenta fair. The painter Marthe Rakine was one of his most famous pupils.