Alphonse Quizet

(French, 1885-1955)

French modernist painter Alphonse Léon Quizet was born in Paris on March 13, 1885 to café owners Leontine and Joseph Quizet. He showed an early interest in art, often skipping school to visit the Louvre Museum. After completing his education, he took painting classes at the Académie des Beaux-Arts and then trained as a draftsman at an architecture firm. He married seamstress Jeanne Marie Frémy in 1910 and the couple had three daughters. He served in the military from 1914 to 1919.

As a member of the Montmartre school, Quizet relished in the camaraderie of his fellow bohemian artists. He was highly influenced by Vincent van Gogh, evident in his use of pure color and expressive brushwork. His artistic influence can be noted in the works of his close friend Maurice Utrillo, a notable cityscape artist also of the Montmartre school. Quizet and Utrillo often painted the same motif and sold their paintings together. Quizet also associated with Montmartre painter Marcel Leprin and renowned Fauve painter Louis Valtat.

A watercolorist and oil painter, Quizet’s style reflected a tendency toward sentimentality and simplified form, which can be noted even in the simple titles of his works: Rue à Montmarte (1920), Au canal (1930), Vue sur le canal (1930), Le bords de Marne (1930), and La retour des champs (1930). One work in particular, Le solitude dans le forêt africaine (1940) demonstrates Quizet's later interest in the exotic style of Henri Rousseau. He regularly exhibited his work in the Salons of Paris, including the Société des Beaux-Arts, the Salons des Indépendants, and the Salon d’Automne.

Since his death on March 7, 1955 at Pré-Saint-Gervais, many of his works have been sold and continue to sell at auction. Notably, his painting titled Le pont au canal de la Villette, Paris sold at Christie's South Kensington Impressionist & Modern Art auction in 2009 for $11,461.