Charles Filiger
1863–1928 · France · Pont-Aven School, Synthetism, Symbolism
The story
At Le Pouldu, a hamlet on the south coast of Brittany, Charles Filiger lodged at the same seaside inn as Paul Gauguin and his circle at the end of the 1880s. He had been born in Thann in Alsace in 1863, trained at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, and reached Brittany in 1888. His pictures are small, often gouaches on paper, with saints, Madonnas and Breton landscapes in flat, bright colour.
From 1892 to 1901 Count Antoine de La Rochefoucauld, a wealthy collector, paid him 100 francs a month and took his pick of the work, while the rest was shown in Paris, including at the Salon de la Rose+Croix. When the allowance ended, Filiger slid into poverty. He spent years moving from place to place around Brittany until the Le Guellec family took him in, and he lived with them, almost forgotten, until his death in Brest in 1928.
