Lecomte, Paul-Emile (1877-1950)

Paul-Emile Lecomte
(1877-1950)

Paul Emile Lecomte was born in Paris in 1877.
His father taught him the basics of painting, while his uncle Paul Lecomte (1842-1920), a famous painter for being the last representative of the School of Barbizon, gave him the right level to enter the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Paris in the Atelier of Fernand Cormon (1845-1924).

Paul Emile Lecomte excelled in portraying the natural settings of France’s diverse coastline and landscape. His subjects included French marketplaces and rural countrysides, but he favored marine and harbor scenes along the Normandy coast and further south.

In 1902 he became a member of the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris, winning a gold medal the same year. He became the official painter for the French Ministry of Marine department and was highly commissioned during his lifetime. His impressionistic artwork is very popular in Europe and is widely esteemed for his ability to capture the light of the French coastal harbors. While Lecomte’s work reflects his father’s teachings, it was the famous French artist Eugène Boudin (1824-1898), who exhibited the greatest influence on him. Their paths crossed many times during their painting sojourns along the harbors of the French coast.

Le Port de Joinville, Ile d’Yeu was painted on the
Island of Yeu off the central coast of France c1907.