Joseph Delattre
( 1858 - 1912 )

The Delattre family is of Flemish origin. Jean Patrice Delattre was born in Gand on December 21, 1816, in the province of east Flanders, and in Flemish the name is written De Laetre.

He left the country, and working as a glazier, he came to Rouen. It was there in the Saint-Maclou quarter that he met Helvize Touzé, born in Déville-lès-Rouen, on April 21, 1821. They were married on April 7, 1843. The young couple lived in Déville-lès-Rouen. The middle of the twelve children, Alfred was born on June 21, 1850, and Joseph was born on August 20, 1858.

Joseph was a dissipated child, but Alfred, who was very studious, entered into religious orders and was a brilliant student.

The young Joseph, drawn to the arts, painted his first canvas, a view of Déville, in 1870. In addition to helping his father, he studied painting and drawing at the Academy around 1878-1879, but only stayed one week. He quickly got to know Lemaître, Frechon, Angrand. His first attempts were somber paintings, but he liked painting in the open air, and was hostile to official instruction. He was admitted to the “Municipal Salon of Rouen” with a ‘Landscape’ and a ‘Still Life’, and benefited from favorable reviews from art critic A. Darcel; whereas Angrand was attacked with vehemence.

With Frechon, he visited the Paris Salon and tried it, but without success. In the face of difficulties trying to sell his work, Delattre sought success in Paris where he met Angrand at the Cabaret du Chat Noir, and stayed with cousins in the rue des Jeûneurs.

However, these living conditions were not satisfactory, and the first signs of pneumopathy, which eventually killed him, forced him to return to Déville. Desperate and suffering, he stayed in his room, where he painted pastels and a portrait of his mother. As soon as his health improved, he went back to rue Frigori, where he shared an atelier with Frechon. When his sister entered religious orders at the Convent of Rouen, Joseph Delattre prepared for 1886, collaborating in the collective work “Rouen in 1886” and participating in the “Municipal Salon of Rouen”.

The presence of Angrand’s canvases at this XXXth Salon unleashed again the critics and Delattre vehemently came to his defense, which certainly did not win him any friends.

Like his friend, Frechon, Delattre sent to the Salon of 1887, his painting “Flemishman”, which was accepted, but in the exchange of correspondence with Angrand, Delattre displays his despair, his lack of confidence and his difficulties. “...Since I decided to take the bull by the horns, I feel more than ever the need not to preoccupy myself with the salon. What do works of art matter? Nature is always the master and my weakness is crushing me... To return to the ‘Indépendents’ if I did not send them any, it was because I thought that my canvases would not have been stressed enough, and would have drowned in the sea of banalities...”.

At the beginning of 1888, Delattre published on January 24, thanks to E. Brieux, in “The Short Story Writer of Rouen”, an important open letter, where he took up, not only the case for Monet’s impressionism, but also for neo-impressionism and the division of shade, to which Angrand rallied. “...Angrand, himself, belongs to the new group of Seurat, Signac, Dubois-Pillet, etc.... which is linked by its origins to Monet, but which is already transformed by a new evolution in the execution, which is the juxtaposition of colors...”.

Encouraged by Angrand, he decided to exhibit at the “Salon of Independent Artists” of 1888, where he sent seven canvases. This event was noticed and even the local critic was favorable. But the important event of the summer was the exhibition of works of Angrand, Frechon and Delattre at the Galerie Legrip in Rouen in August. Dubosc, always faithful, exposed to the public the new contribution which is divisionism and praised also the merits of Delattre: “...The artistic temperament of Delattre, sensitive and more nervous could hardly adapt itself to a work of such a methodical and patient technique. In the small canvas which showed a ‘view under a gray sky of the Rouen quays’, you feel a rapid and fine vision, skillfully translated with a dexterity sometimes too clever...”.

Shortly after this friendly exhibition of these three artists, the 31st Municipal Exhibition of Rouen took place, and the criticism was softened, but once again Delattre defended Angrand’s work and his distinct opinions were not the public’s taste.

Thanks to the friendly insistence of Angrand, Delattre appeared at the 5th Exhibition of ‘Artistes Indépendants’, but he exhibited only two canvases and this would be last time he exhibited there. Once again, E. Brieux would come to the aide of his artist friends: he published in “The Short Story Writer” in Rouen on April 26, 1889, a very long article: “The Impressionists in Rouen”, where he vigorously took up the cause of the courageous artists and examined the Delattre case: “...Delattre is the last one to come. You know him best for the very beautiful portrait that he exhibited last year and for his landscapes, delicate and elegant in their tonality. He paints with a poetic finesses, which does not exclude strength...What is missing, is that which is missing in a lot of artists - self confidence...” For these reasons, perfectly enounced by E. Brieux, Delattre would give up divisionism, explaining to Angrand on July 11, “Anyhow I will try pointillism - but do you see, I am not tough enough to use this procedure which, when all is said and done, I am convinced of now, is the only way of giving really fresh gray tones...”.

To replace the absent Rouen Salon, the “Society of Friends of Rouen Art” organized an important exhibition from November 15 to December 15: Angrand sent four very important divisionist canvases, as well as Delattre.

In 1890, he gave to his friend E. Noel a drawing for his book “The Countryside”. His father died on March 25, 1891, and he had to face up to his workshop obligations and could not send anything to the “Indépendants”. However, he did send two canvases to the 32nd Municipal Salon of Rouen, 2 views of Rouen, which belong to collectors. Over a period of months his troubles and difficulties increased, and in the beginning of 1892, he confided to the faithful Angrand: “I am scared of going completely mad, I am so worn out with this impossibility of painting, because I have to make a living. Since my journey to Paris, I have fallen back into this sickly state: everything I do, I do badly; I start a pile of work, that I abandon as soon as I get started. I have become so taciturn and so spiteful that I am making my family unhappy, my family to whom I owe everything, and whom I love so much, in spite of my rages and my savage behavior...”

It was in a café going toward Déville, where Delattre spent many hours, that he hung many drawings and an edition of “L’Art Français”, with a reproduction of one of Angrand’s drawings, exhibited at Le Barc de Boutteville. Another place beloved by the painter is the Hotel d’Espagne et du Dauphin, whose owner was Eugène Murer. It was there that he would meet his future wife.

In 1892 and 1893, Delattre sent two paintings to the Galerie Legrip. But when the jury of the Municipal Salon of Rouen turned down his friend Angrand, Delattre chose not to exhibit either. Moreover, in an open letter in “Le Petit Rouennais” he attacked “...the spirit of favoritism which is rife in all the administrative institutions....”

With the departure of his two sisters, Delattre also left Déville, and in June 1894 moved to 58 Quai de Paris in Rouen. He still had no money and faced with mounting bills, felt “forced to produce, to keep on producing...” Very fortunately for him, Jérôme Doucet, as well as his buyer Depeaux, who already owned about twenty of his canvases, certainly the best of his work, helped his as well “...This friend gives me three francs a day....”

Camille Pissarro met Delattre and Frechon during his visit to Rouen from January 20 to March 28, 1896, and Delattre wrote to Angrand: “...Father Pissarro came and spent some time chatting. Naturally, painting was the main topic of conversation...”

In order to tackle his problems, Delattre thought that as the “National and Colonial Exhibition” was going to open on the Champs de Mars, he would organize open air lessons with “...the hope that it would bring me perhaps 80 francs a month...” It was his friend Dubosc who announced this is the “Journal de Rouen” on April 3: “The landscape lessons in the open air given by Mr. Delattre start on Monday, instead of Sunday because of Easter. Meet at 1 pm at the atelier, rue des Charrettes, or at the Champ de courses roundabout at 2 pm...in the event of inclement weather, the open air lessons will be replaced by a visit to the museum of painting, and a talk on the works of Corot...” The idea was launched and the Academy would see many talents blossom.

During the Colonial Exhibition in the Beaux-Arts section, Delattre hung an oil and a pastel: Jérôme Doucet, friend of the painter, noticed the indifference of the town: “ ...Here are some beautiful paintings, and Rouen seems to ignore the fact that she gave birth to them, and that she counts among her own a painter of such latent as Delattre, and it has to be Paris newspapers, Paris merchants, except some clairvoyants like Depeaux, who is one of the most subtle buyers of unknowns who exist, who have discovered Delattre in Rouen, too modest, too simple...”.

No one is a prophet in their own country and Pissarro, during his second visit that same year, confirmed to his son Lucien, “...Yes, it is Delattre whom he names the Rouen painter, I will say hello to him from you, he is an enthusiast, and they seem to trifle with him here, and who, to put it bluntly is the only one with an eye” and adds on September 30, “...You have no idea of the activity here since the visits of Monet and myself, etc. and the Murer collection...there is a movement among all the young people, I’ll tell you about it another time...”.

In 1897, Delattre was absent, like his friend Angrand from the Municipal Salon, and on February 15, 1898, the artist got married. During the year, he published some drawings in “Normandy Excursions” and exhibited at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris.

The first child of the marriage was born in August 1899. Delattre listened to Depeaux’s advice and exhibited in Paris. The patron collector organized it at Durand-Ruel from April 23 to May 5, 1900. This exhibition was made up of 40 numbers of which 18 were lent by Depeaux. In May 1900, a daughter was born. On April 25, 1901, Depeaux was forced to sell 65 paintings at Hotel Drouot. Among these 65 canvases, there were 15 Sisley, 2 Pissarro, 3 Frechon, 5 Guillaumin, 5 Monet and 9 Delattre. The highest bid was for Sisley - 12,300 Fr.; Delattre reached 1,100 Fr.

Faced with a growing family, Delattre had to leave the picturesque neighborhood of rue des Charrettes and his wife was pregnant with their third child. In March 1902 he went to Petit-Couronne for the first time and decided during the summer to stay there.

In December 1902, the second and last Parisian exhibition took place at Durand-Ruel. This was, for the most part, entirely mounted by Depeaux. There were only 24 works, of which a third were taken from his collection. The amount of works in circulation at Durand-Ruel and the mediocre interest of the Parisians for the Provinces was not satisfying to Depeaux and even less so to Delattre, always helpless in the faced of this kind of public demonstration, and overwhelmed by his everyday financial worries, “...It is so hard to be forever chasing after 100 francs...”.

Delattre spent the summer of 1904 studying 5 or 6 themes on the hills of Biessard and planted his easel near “Café du Passage”, where he used to refresh himself with his companions Bradberry and de Bergevin. In these work sessions on the banks of the Seine, he declared with great humility that “he didn’t get much out of them...” but recognized that “the gray effects are those in which, I think, I respect the values the most”. In fact, the most beautiful canvases of the Couronne period, are the canvases where a gray harmony holds sway between the water of the Seine and the soft undulation of the wooded hills.

In December 1904, his friend Frechon inaugurated his new exhibition hall at the faithful Galerie Legrip “To the Friend of Art” at Place St. Amand. Two months later, the other pillar of the School of Rouen, Delattre, hung some of his paintings there from February 10 to 25. This exhibition, organized with care and involving a catalogue, surely had more repercussions than the exhibitions at Durand-Ruel. The critics were unanimous and Dubosc warmly congratulated his friend, Delattre, in a long article in “Journal de Rouen”.

In 1906, the “Society of Rouen Artists” was founded and Delattre would exhibit there on a regular basis. A part of Depeaux’s collection was sold on May 31 and June 1, and the canvases of Delattre got low bids. The artist saw his worries increase with the birth of a son on March 13, 1907.

In 1909, Delattre appeared in the “Society of Rouen Artists” exhibiting among other paintings a “Garden”, ie. his garden at Petit-Couronne, a subject of excellent canvases. Then, with the bequest of Depeaux, he put 5 canvases in the Museum of Beaux-Arts. In September 1910, Delattre was praised in a long article in the “Rouen Gazette”, and was on the cover, thanks to a drawing by C. Lieucy.

In 1911, Depeaux offered two canvases to the Museum of Swansea. At the end of the year, the health of the artist declined. He exhibited for the last time at the “Salon of Rouen Artists” in 1912. On August 6, 1912 at 5 am, Delattre died.

Translated from “L’Ecole de Rouen”
written by François Lespinasse