Pierre Courthion Biography by Amy Cubicciotti Pierre ... - The Getty

Pierre Courthion Biography by Amy Cubicciotti
Pierre Courthion Papers, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 890007
Pierre Courthion was born in Geneva on January 14, 1902 to Louis and Elisa Courthion. His father was a
writer and editor of the local newspaper, the Journal de Gèneve. Courthion attended secondary school
in Schwyz, Switzerland. He then attended the Université de Gèneve and received a scholarship to study
painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he became acquainted with and developed
friendships with artists such as Alberto Giacometti and Kurt Seligmann. While in Paris, Courthion spent
time in Montmartre and encountered many of the artists living and working there, some of whom would
be the focus of his later publications. At the age of 19, Courthion was traveled to Italy. He would later
marry Pierrette, a woman of Swiss descent, and welcome the birth of his daughter, Sabine. Courthion
was a student at the Louvre and did his doctoral work on the painter, Jean-Étienne Liotard. During
World War II, Pierre and his wife fled to Geneva and participated in the resistance and later in his life,
Courthion visited Auschwitz. In 1950, Pierre Courthion became a citizen of France. He lived and worked
in France for most of his life. He died in 1988 at the age of 86.
Other seminal activities in Courthion’s life include his service as a functionary of the Society of Nations.
In 1934, Courthion was named archaéologue cantonal of Valais and director of the Musée
Archéologique de Valère. He served as the director of the Swiss Foundation at the Cité Universitaire of
Paris from 1933-1939. He was also vice-president of the Syndicat de la presse artistique française,
founding member of the Association internationale des critiques d’art (AICA), and member of the
Société des ecrivans suisses. Courthion received several prestigious awards.
Over the course of his career, Courthion traveled widely. He performed research, participated in
professional activities and gave conferences and lectures around the world from Europe and the U.S. to
Brazil and Venezuela and Japan and Korea. In the U.S., Courthion participated as a member of the jury
for the prestigious Guggenheim Prize of 1960.
Writing Career and Achievements:
Courthion began his professional career in Paris as an editor of the journal, L’Éclair. Surrounded by the
art of Paris and Montparnasse, Courthion got his start as a critique d’art. His monographs, contributions
and direction of reviews, catalogs, contributions and collaborations began appearing en masse after
1925 and received widespread international acclaim. Courthion not only associated with artists, but
also with well-known writers and poets such as Ramuz, Pierre-Jean Jouve, Marcel Raymond, Albert
Béguin, Maurice Chappaz, and Henri Michaux, many of whom contributed to one of the reviews he
directed, Lettres, which was published in Geneva between 1943-1947. He was also the director of the
collection, Le cri de la France (1943-1948) and the sixteen-volume collection, Les grands artistes
racontés (vus) par eux-mêmes et leurs amis (1945-1960). Courthion’s major projects focused on the
history of French and European art, the history and art of France, Paris and Montmartre, Romanticism
and Realism, and the history of the Impressionist movement, Swiss art, American art, and the
contemporary art of his time.
Courthion researched and wrote prodigiously. His writings on 19th and 20th century art attest especially
to the inspiration he drew from the artistic climate of Paris and his associations with notable artists,
1

Pierre Courthion Biography by Amy Cubicciotti
Pierre Courthion Papers, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 890007
writers and cultural figures of the time. In Courthion’s autobiography, he recounts some of his most
formative and memorable experiences, along with his acquaintance with artistic, literary and cultural
luminaries and political dignitaries such as Fernand Léger, André Lhote, Zadkine, Ramuz, Giorgio de
Chirico, Salvador Dali and Artaud, Jacques Villon, Marcel DuChamp, Pablo Gargallo, Hans Arp, Eugenio
D'Ors, and René Auberjonois. Later acquaintainces and interviews included Herman Hesse and Carl
Jung, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, Jean Lurçat, Alberto Giacometti, Nicolas de Staël,
Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy, Blaise Cendrars, Olivier Debré, Robert Lacoste, Georges Rouault, Léon Zack
and Maurice Estève. Courthion heavily researched many other artists of his time such as Gino Severini,
Elena Schiavi, Chaîm Soutine, Iberê Camargo and Llorens Artigas.
Publications:
Some of Courthion's major published works were Montmartre (1956), Paris d’autrefois : [de Fouquet à
Daumier] (1957), Paris des temps nouveaux : de l'impressionnisme à nos jours (1957), Le Romanticisme
(1961), Édouard Manet (1962), Georges Rouault (1962), Autour de l'impressionnisme: Bazille, Boudin,
Mary Cassatt, Fantin-Latour, Guigou, Lebourg, Guillaumin, Jongkind, Lépine, Berthe Morisot, Prins, Sisley
(1964), Georges Seurat (1968). Other of Courthion's publications, collaborations and catalogs covered
20th century artists such as Paul Klee, Olivier Debré, André Lhote, Gustav Bolin, Fernand Dubuis, Nicolas
de Stäel, Charles Rollier, Giorgio de Chirico, René Auberjonois, Elena Schiavi, Léon Zack, Kim Whanki,
Paul Franck, Bang Haï-Ja, Frank da Costa, Marc Janson, Afro, Etienne Hajdu, Berto Lardera, Henry Moore,
Arnold Fiedler, Llorens Artigas, Maurice Estève, Bella Karawaewa Prado, and Sergio Telles.
Audiovisual projects included films about Rouault (1967), Ingres (1967) and Soutine (1973), preparation
for a film project about Manet and the encyclopédie visuelle (a book accompanied by slides) - L'école de
Paris: de Picasso à nos jours (1973).
For a complete bibliography of Pierre Courthion’s works, consult his autobiography which was published
after his death: Courthion, Pierre, D’une palette à l’autre: mémoires d’un critique d’art (Gen ve a
aconni re /arts, 2004).
2