Louis Mathieu Verdilhan

Louis Mathieu Verdilhan, born on November 24, 1875, in Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, was a French painter whose work influenced art in the early 20th century.

Coming from a modest family, he moved with his family to Marseille in 1877, where he began an artistic journey that would propel him among the prominent figures of the modern Provençal school.

At the age of fifteen, Louis-Mathieu started an apprenticeship and with the support of the artist Eugène Giraud, he acquired the basics of painting. Five years later, he opened his own studio at 12, Rue Fort-Notre-Dame.

In 1898, he collaborated in Paris with the decorator Adrien Karbowsky for the Exposition Universelle of 1900. In 1902, he lost his left eye, but this did not dampen his enthusiasm for art. That same year, he participated for the first time in an exhibition in Marseille.

Over the years, Verdilhan exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne, where his striking works such as “Fields of Poppies” (1906) and “The Jug with Flowers” (1914) captured the public’s attention. He also distinguished himself in Versailles, where he abandoned the illusions of Impressionism in favor to a modernist approach, characterized by fluid forms and vibrant colors.