Henri Dreyfus-Lemaître
was born in Amiens in 1859. Related to the postimpressionist movement,
he was the friend of Schuffenecker and Emile Bernard. He painted
in Auvers-sur-Oise and Creuse. Member of the "Salon d'Automne",
he took part in the "Salon des Indépendants".
*1
With his painting of a view of Lagny kept in
the collections of the museum Gatien-Bonnet of Lagny-sur-Marne,
Dreyfus-Lemaître affirms his membership to the neoimpressionist
movement.
Close to the divisionnists painters of the Group
of Lagny (Léo Gausson, Cavallo-Péduzzi, Maximilien
Luce and Lucien Pissarro), he makes a very particular use of the
pointillist theory founded by Seurat and reveals an astonishing
control in the juxtaposition of the complementary colors.
His fidelity to naturalist subjects (see " Le
Semeur", major piece of the artist) as his arrangements betrays
his admiration for Pissarro. Dynamic and frankly posed on the
canvas, his stroke takes part in the vibration of his compositions.
Dreyfus-Lemaître transcends the reality, which he breaks
up according to laws of optical painting.
Incontestably, his sparkling palette classifies
him among the colorists of the postimpressionism.
*1 Lydia Harambourg,
" Dictionnaire des Paysagistes Français au XIXe siècle",
Editions Ides et Calendes, 1985. (back)
