Louis Bouché
American
(New York, New York, 1896 - 1969)
Louis Bouche's father, Henry Bouche, immigrated to the U.S. at sixteen. Henry was the son of a minor Barbizon School painter, Ernest Bouche, and Louis was raised with an emphasis on an artistic education. When Louis' father died when Louis was only twelve years old, his mother began taking the boy on routine trips to France and while there acquired an art tutor for him. The tutor took him on trips to Britanny, where the two of them sketched and painted. Later in his youth, Louis attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and the Academie Colarossi in Paris.
Bouche completed his art education upon his return to the United States in 1915 at the Art Students League, but attended only briefly before he set up a studio with his friend, Alexander Brook. He went on to work as a gallery manager for Wanamaker's, a New York department store, and as an interior decorator, stylist and muralist. He became known as a proponent of the realist style of painting during the heyday of American abstraction, and along with other artists practicing in that style published several issues of "Reality" magazine. (1)
(1) For further information on the artist, see the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art's Oral History of Louis Bouche at http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/bouche59.htm (retrieved June 2, 2010)
Image credit: Carl Van Vechten, Portrait of Louis Bouché, 1947, photographic print, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection, [LC-2004662611]
American
(New York, New York, 1896 - 1969)
Louis Bouche's father, Henry Bouche, immigrated to the U.S. at sixteen. Henry was the son of a minor Barbizon School painter, Ernest Bouche, and Louis was raised with an emphasis on an artistic education. When Louis' father died when Louis was only twelve years old, his mother began taking the boy on routine trips to France and while there acquired an art tutor for him. The tutor took him on trips to Britanny, where the two of them sketched and painted. Later in his youth, Louis attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and the Academie Colarossi in Paris.
Bouche completed his art education upon his return to the United States in 1915 at the Art Students League, but attended only briefly before he set up a studio with his friend, Alexander Brook. He went on to work as a gallery manager for Wanamaker's, a New York department store, and as an interior decorator, stylist and muralist. He became known as a proponent of the realist style of painting during the heyday of American abstraction, and along with other artists practicing in that style published several issues of "Reality" magazine. (1)
(1) For further information on the artist, see the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art's Oral History of Louis Bouche at http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/bouche59.htm (retrieved June 2, 2010)
Image credit: Carl Van Vechten, Portrait of Louis Bouché, 1947, photographic print, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection, [LC-2004662611]
Artist Objects
