Francis TATTEGRAIN (1852-1915)

Conversation in the Park Oil on canvas signed lower right Dimensions: 37 x 45 cm Provenance : Succession Fulchiron, Monte-Carlo. French painter of the Naturalist School born in Péronne, he graduated in law to please his father before devoting himself definitively to his passion. Francis Tattegrain discovered Berck in the company of his parents in 1865, a holiday spot which was to become the main setting for his pictorial work. At the urging of Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic and encouraged by his brother, the sculptor Georges Tattegrain, he continued his artistic training in Paris at the same time as his doctorate in law. He entered the Académie Julian in 1877 where he studied under Jules Lefebvre and Gustave Boulanger. In 1879, two of his paintings were admitted to the Salon des artistes français where he was present, without interruption, until 1914. A history painter, aquafortist and portraitist, Tattegrain is above all a master of naturalism in the marine field. His compositions are often of a bold realism, but always harmonious. His frank painting, his accurate colouring, underline these dramas usually staged in large compositions. His virtuosity in the treatment of dramatic, tragic and even sinister subjects, treated with a simplicity that does not exclude emotion, should not make us forget the profusion of subjects dealing with the daily life of the fishermen of Berck. On January 1st 1915, the illustrious painter Francis Tattegrain died at the age of 63, on the field of honour, while he was reconstituting, under the shells, the sketch of the belfry of Arras.