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Forest, Pierre (1881-1971)
Pierre Forest was a French landscape and marine painter born to the light of Nice, who carried the plein-air manner of the Impressionist inheritance through the first half of the twentieth century, and who ended his life known above all for something quite unlike the Mediterranean, the heavy clouded skies of Paris.
| 1881 | 1923 | 1931 | 1938 | 1971 |
| Born at Niceon the Bay of Angels | First Paris galleryGalerie Terrise | Salon des Indépendantssociétaire to 1943 | Settles in Paristhe skies of Paris | Dies in Parisaged ninety |
Galerie Reitlinger, rue La Boétie, 1924 to 1929 · Nice retrospective in 1981
Recorded at the RKD, The Hague / Salon des Indépendants
A listed artist
Forest built his reputation through the Paris gallery system between the wars. He showed at the Galerie Terrise on the boulevard Haussmann in 1923, then from 1924 to 1929 at the Galerie Reitlinger on the rue La Boétie, which was at that moment the centre of the Parisian art trade.
From 1931 to 1943 he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, of which he was a sociétaire. His work travelled well beyond France, to South America, Switzerland and Morocco, and the city of Nice gave its native painter a retrospective ten years after his death.
Born to the Light of Nice
He was born in Nice on 21 November 1881, and the Mediterranean never left his painting, the coasts and harbours of the South, the ports of Provence, the lagoon of Venice, flowers and still lifes. Art ran in the family, his uncle being the Lyon engraver Forest-Fleury.
He should not be confused with Eugène Hippolyte Forest (1808-1891), the caricaturist and landscape painter. The two are unrelated, and canvases signed simply "Forest" have to be told apart by period and manner.
Paris, 1938
Until then he had come to the capital as a visitor, staying in the studio of his friend the painter Gabriel Hervé at the Villa des Arts in Montmartre, the building where Cézanne had painted his portrait de Vollard. In 1938, at fifty-seven, he settled in Paris for good.
A man raised under the light of the Bay of Angels now walked a grey city, sketchbook in hand, and made its weather his subject, Paris as a nature transformed by man, under heavy clouded skies. The vision was wonder-struck, almost naive at first, and grew more complex over the years. It is what the standard French dictionaries remember him for, not the blue of the Midi, but a phrase, pastelliste des ciels de Paris. He died in Paris on 17 December 1971, aged ninety.
Recognising a Pierre Forest
The subjects to look for are harbours and sailing ships, the ports of Provence, Venice, flowers and still lifes, and Paris under cloud. The handling is free and spontaneous, descended from Impressionism, quick panels and boards, broad confident strokes, a palette that moves from the blues and ochres of the Mediterranean to the leaden greys of the capital. Works are signed "Forest" or "P. Forest", most often in a lower corner. The homonym to watch is Eugène Hippolyte Forest, a full generation earlier and a wholly different manner.
Forest belongs to the generation of French painters who kept plein-air landscape alive between the wars. Two of them are in our directory, Léon Printemps and Eugène Forest.
Where to See His Work
Pierre Forest is documented in the standard French artist references and recorded at the RKD in The Hague. The city of Nice presented a retrospective of his work in 1981.
Biographical information compiled from published artist reference sources, including the standard French dictionaries and the RKD, The Hague. Photographs of the painting by GalerieClub Fine Art.
