Pont de L’Arche

Biography of Alexandre Nozal ( 1852 - 1929, French )

Alexandre Nozal, a landscape painter and pupil of Evariste-Vital Luminais (as well as an informal student of Henri-Joseph Harpignies), first exhibited at the Salon in 1876 and continued to showcase his work there regularly throughout his career. He earned medals in 1882 and 1883, as well as at the Expositions Universelles of 1889 and 1900. Nozal traveled extensively across France, capturing the diverse scenery of Normandy, Brittany, Provence, the Pyrenees, Corsica, and beyond. He also ventured to Switzerland and Algeria, though much of his artistic focus remained on the landscapes along the banks of the Seine River.

Influenced by English watercolorists, particularly J.M.W. Turner, Nozal specialized in depicting rivers, lakes, and coastal scenes, often rendered in the ethereal light of twilight or morning mist. A masterful draughtsman, he worked extensively in pastel and watercolor, creating luminous, plein-air studies that drew comparisons to the Barbizon School and the Impressionists. His sensitive approach to nature and his nuanced use of color and light positioned him as a realist landscape painter on the fringes of Impressionism.

In 1974, the Musée départemental de l’Oise in Beauvais hosted an exhibition of approximately sixty of Nozal’s works, including paintings, drawings, pastels, and watercolors. The museum holds a significant collection of his art, donated by his heirs. The exhibition catalog aptly described Nozal as “this subtle artist, this nuanced pastellist, this brilliant draughtsman for whom nature was the great source of inspiration…for its powerful effect, its wealth of color, a very sensitive manner of drawing seen in the beautiful studies of trees on dark paper.”

Nozal’s works are also held in prestigious institutions such as the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée du Petit Palais in Paris, as well as museums in Bourges, Dieppe, Gray, Lille, Limoux, Montpellier, Pontoise, and Rouen. In May 1978, an auction featuring around 150 of his paintings and works on paper was held at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris, further cementing his legacy as a celebrated interpreter of the natural world.

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