Charles Angrand

Charles Angrand, a French painter born in Criquetot-sur-Ouville in 1854, was an important figure in the Parisian avant-garde art scene. He studied at the Académie de Peinture et de Dessin in Rouen during his formative years, but it wasn’t until 1875 that he visited Paris for the first time. He attempted to enter the École des Beaux-Arts, but was rejected. Despite these setbacks, Angrand moved to Paris in 1882, where he taught mathematics at Collège Chaptal and began immersing himself in the city’s artistic circles, meeting key figures like Georges Seurat, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Signac, Maximilien Luce, and Henri Edmond Cross. In 1884, Angrand co-founded the Société des Artistes Indépendants alongside Seurat, Signac, and others, a group that advocated for a new, independent approach to art, free from academic conventions. Angrand embraced neo-impressionism, a variant of impressionism that emphasized the use of pure colors and the technique of pointillism, developed by Seurat and Signac. However, his works were also influenced by other styles. After meeting Van Gogh, Angrand explored quadridivisionism, a technique that divided color into four tones, and painted works like *L’incident* (1887), which was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants. Over the years, Angrand experimented with various techniques, including plein air painting and a hint of pointillism, as seen in his piece *Couple in the Street*. His works were known for their gentle brushwork, subdued color palette, and perfect balance of light and shadow, traits that earned him praise from Signac. Angrand exhibited his paintings in Paris and Rouen, in prestigious galleries like Indépendants Les, Galerie Druet, Galerie Durand-Ruel, and Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. In 1890, after achieving a degree of recognition as a painter, Angrand turned to drawing, stepping away from painting. He moved to Saint-Laurent-en-Caux in 1896, where, ten years later, he returned to painting, focusing on divisionism. He passed away in 1926 in Rouen, where he is buried. Though his career was marked by periods of reflection and change, Angrand’s work left a lasting impact on both the neo-impressionist and divisionist movements.