Latouche, Louis

 

 

Impressionism: partaker of the first ‘impressionist’ exposition in 1874

Louis Latouche

(1829-1883)

Dealer, collector and landscapist

Louis Latouche at the Salon and  the 1st ‘impressionist’ exposition:
Louis Latouche only joined the 1st ‘impressionist’ exposition in 1874, where he showed 4 landscapes (catalogue numbers 67-70) (R2,p121). Three art-critics reviewed his works. They called them exquisite, truthfull and sincere (R90I).
Latouche exhibited regularly at the Salon and it’s successor of the Société des Artistes Français from 1866-82. In total he exhibited 21 works at the Salon (iR1). So Louis Latouche exhibited at least 25 works. All works are oil paintings (maybe SdAF-1880-2142 was an etching).
Most of his works are landscapes and marines. 8 of the 25 exhibited titles indicate an atmospherique influence. No less than 19 works have an indication of place: 12x of Berck (Pas-de-Calais; about 150km north of le Havre; 1874 onwards), 4x of Asnières (Île de la Grande-Jatte; in 1870, 72, 73; north-west of Paris), 1x of Saint-Ouen (1868; north of Paris), 1x of Paris (1874) and 1x of Cayeux (1876; south of Berck). 7x Latouche gives an indication of time, season or weather. He never exhibited a study. None of the works were a loan. See link for an account.

 

Louis Latouche, dealer of art-supplies:
Louis Latouche was born 1829/09/29 in La Ferté-sous-Jouarre (Seine-et-Marne) (R3;R88;R9;R87;iR4;iR1;R259), which is about 56km east of Paris (iR9).
Louis Latouche (together with his wife Lucia Joséphine Elisa Bompart) had an art-supply shop in Paris, called ‘Couleurs fines et tableaux modernes’, where they sold colours and paint and where they framed pictures; or more commercial ’top quality paints and modern paintings’ (R181,p576;R166,p264). They sold supplies to Pissarro, Monet, Gauguin, Barbizon-painters and others. Theyo would also exhibit their paintings and sell them to Dr. Gachet, Armand Gautier and others (R3,p673;R88;R181,p576;R17,p331+337;R1,p151/2;R166,p264;iR4;iR35). There were also gatherings in his shop and he was named ‘père Latouche’ (iR4; R17,p331).
The location of his shops are not quite clear. One source states he started in 1864 in Rue Pigalle, moved in 1865 to Rue Saint-Augustin and in 1868 to Rue Lafayette (iR35). Wildenstein indicates he already exhibited Monet’s ‘women in the garden’ in the spring of 1867 at the Rue Lafayette, 34 (R22I,p66/7+CR67;R166,p264; see map). This same adres is in the Salon catalogue of 1868-1872 (iR1;R259). Other sources specify his shop being at the corner of Rue Lafayette and Rue Lafitte (R3,p673;R88;R1,p152;iR4; see map), which is a little back to the west (but the numbering can be changed).
Wildenstein indicates Latouche bought 1 work of Monet in 1867 (R22I,p66/7,CR83), and 5 in 1872 (R22I,p99+77+92,CR69+190+210). Maybe CR69 was already exhibited in 1869 as ‘a view of Sainte-Adresse’ (R1,p193+214). In 1875 at the Drouot auction Latouche bought Monet’s  ‘paysage d’hiver’ and ‘Jardin de la Princesse (R87;iR4). In 1869 he also exhibited a study of Sainte-Adresse and a view of Paris made by Monet (R22I,p77; R17,p337). Latouche bought 3 works of Pissarro: CCP186+205+244 (R116III,p945). In 1872 Louis Latouche sold a work of Sisley called ‘snow’ to the art-dealer Durand-Ruel (R166,p262).  Mme Latouche owned the work that Sisley exhibited as 2IE-1876-238. So you could say that Latouche and his wife were a small art-collectors and a small art-dealers. See also owning each others works.
Note that in the death certificate of 1883↓, Mme Latouche is told to be without profession and Louis is only mentioned as a painter (aR4). Had they quit the shop by then? One source mentioned that P. Contet had taken over the ‘magasin de colours Latouche’ in 1886 (R207,p23), which doesn’t correspond the earlier mentioned facts.

Louis Latouche, as an artist:
Louis Latouche maked his debut at the Salon of 1866 (iR1; iR4; R3,p673). After that he exhibited almost every year (except in 1867 +73 +75) at the Salon and it’s successor the Salon de la Société des Artistes Français, the last time in 1882 one year before his death (iR1). Only in the 1870 catalogue Latouche is called a pupil of Corot (iR1/n197560). Bazille and others first requested for a Salon des Refusés (which was rejected) and later tried to organize their own exhibition (which didn’t succeed because of lack of finances) (see). Several sources mention that the meeting when this was decided took place at Latouche (R3,p673;R88;iR4). It is not confirmed that he organised or joined this petition (iR35). In 1873 Latouche also was rejected at the Salon and joined the Salon des Refusés. Moffett doesn’t indicate him as one of the co-founders of the Société Anonyme des Artistes…, Schurr & Cabanne affirm that he was active in the organisation (R9), Belloli is not clear in this (R17,p331), according to his own letter he also did duty as a guardian (R1,p324). Anyway he joined the 1st ‘impressionist’ exposition in 1874. This was his first and last time. (This emphasizes again the importance of the Salon des Refusés of 1873 for the start of the ‘impressionist’ expositions.) Rewald indicates that after the exhibition, Latouche was member of the Control Committee, together with Renoir and Béliard and that he was present at the liquidation meeting 1874/12/10 (R1,p334+336).
In 1874 Latouche also was accepted again at the Salon. In 1875 he didn’t exhibit at the Salon and probably was rejected, but he didn’t exhibit at the Salon des Refusés (iR1). In August that year he joined ‘L’Union‘, an organization founded by Meyer and Pissarro to replace the ‘Société Anonyme des Artistes…’ (R5,p91;R1,p363;aR1). It’s not clear if he joined their exhibition in 1877 (R5,p100). Anyway he exhibited at the Salon again in 1876 and would do so every following year and for the last time in 1882, one year before his death (iR1). In this year Gauguin let Latouche re-paste on linnen (two) works he had bought from Cézanne for 120fr, which Mme Latouche considered madness (R181,p588;R88).
Louis Latouche mostly painted landscapes and marines. Most of the titles of his paintings render the painted location and several times he renders the time of day and weather conditions like a storm. This indicates an impressionist style of painting. Venturi (1939) affirms his style is similar to Sisley, Monet and Pissarro (R88;iR4;R9). Latouche often painted in Berck, a place where Lepic also often painted. Latouche lived at several adresses in Paris (see account).
Louis Latouche died 1883/08/24 in the hospital of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges (aR4; iR4; see map), which is about 330km east of Paris. The French Wikipedia page refers to a municipal archive, which I render here below. I assume this information is more reliable than most other sources who render he died in 1884 (in Paris) (R88;R9;R3;R87;R2,p507;iR24;iR35). In December 1884 there were posthumously 3 works of him exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants; the catalogue indicated (wrongly) that he had died in 1884 in Paris (R285,p1015).

 

Sources about the unknown Louis Latouche:
Most of the sources don’t mention Louis Latouche at all (R4;R5;R6;R8;R19;R86;R94;R95). Spiess wrongly mentions that a Gaston de Latouche (1854-1913) joined the first ‘impressionist’ exposition in 1874 (R16,p170;cpR166,p298/282). The sources that mention him, are limited in their information. None of the books I used, renders a picture of Latouche. On the internet, the most extended source is a French Wikipedia page (iR4). But most other internet sources leave him unmentioned (iR19;iR23;iR26). Auction sites just render a single picture.
My main sources are Rewald (1973=R1), Moffett (R2,p121+507), Walther (R3,p673), Schurr & Cabanne (2008=R9,p443), Belloli (1990=R17), Wildenstein (R22), Adhémar / Dayez (1974=R87,p239), Monneret (1978-81=R88I,p418), Pissarro & Durand-Ruel (2005=R116), Stevens (1992=R166), Crussard (2002=R181) and Wikipedia (iR4 ) and an article of the eclecticlight (aR1=iR35). For other general references (=R) see. My main sources (for the pictures) from the internet are the following auction sites: invaluable.com (iR17), artprice.com (iR16), Google images (iR10). For other references to internet sites (=iR) see. For other additional references (=aR) see below. See links for practical hints and abbreviations and for the subscription of the paintings.

Additional references:

  1. Vanished French Impressionists 7 (=iR35)
  2. gallica.bnf.fr//louis_latouche (overview of hits on “Louis Latouche”; they refer to several different persons; in some books Latouche is shortly mentioned =iR40)
  3. gallica.bnf.fr//bpt6k5527454v (a small review by A. Pothey (1868/08/16) on an exhibited work of Louis Latouche at the Salon of 1868; =iR40; see account)
  4. archives.paris.fr/arkotheque (death certificate of Latouche).

 

Recommanded citation: “Partaker of the first ‘impressionist’ exposition: Louis Latouche; dealer, collector and landscapist. Last modified 2023/12/23.  https://www.impressionism.nl/latouche-louis/.”

Note: additional info and pictures will follow.