Louis Monziès
Louis Monziès in his workshop
Born	(1849-05-28)28 May 1849 Montauban, France
Died	13 March 1930(1930-03-13) (aged 80) Le Mans, France
Nationality	French
Known for	Painting, Etching
Movement	Academic art

Louis Monziès (28 May 1849 – 13 March 1930) was a French painter and etcher. He was the curator of the three Museums of Le Mans for 10 years until his death.

Lecture chez Diderot, etching after Meissonier.

Villeneuve Lez Avignon, watercolor.

Career

Louis Monziès began to learn painting and etching in Paris in 1871 from the painters Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier and Isidore Pils, and from the etcher Léon Gaucherel. He got second-class and third-class medals in 1876, 1880 and 1881 at the annual Salon in Paris.

He married Eugénie Alphonsine Courtignon in 1882 at Cherbourg and three children were born : Jean in 1889, Pierre in 1891 and Jacques in 1895. He lived then in Paris but he owned also a small house in Normandy near Gréville-Hague.

Louis Monziès carried out etchings for illustrated books and for Art publications, among them, those after Meissonier and Henri Pille. He became a member of the Société des artistes français in 1884 and also a member of the Société des Peintres-Graveurs français in 1891. He was quite popular in Parisian art salons with the Hédouins and in the literary gathering of the editor Lemerre who published famous living writers and poets with Louis' etchings.

Louis Monziès visited London and was named to the Royal Society of Painters-Etchers in 1894 when he received orders for illustrations for English books and publications. His etchings are included in major collections such as The British Library or the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

But with photo-etching and other new publication processes, etchers were less and less able to make a good living from their skills. Louis Monziès move to Le Mans and became a painting teacher and a painting restoration specialist. He began to paint landscapes and urban environments in Normandy and in other towns like Venise or Avignon. He sold a lot of watercolors and oil paintings before the First World War. A few of these paintings were sent to the US by American officers housed by the painter at the end of the war.

He became the curator of the Museums of Le Mans in March 1920 and stayed so until his death in 1930.

Illustrated books and Art publications

References

External links

• Louis Monziès : Biography and works (in French, an English version should be published soon)