About the artist
Louis Anquetin (January 26, 1861 – August 19, 1932) was a French painter.
Anquetin was born in Étrépagny, France, and studied at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen.
In 1882 he came to Paris and began to study art in the studio of Léon Bonnat, where he met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The two artists later moved to Fernand Cormon's studio, where they became friends with Émile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh.
Around 1887, Anquetin and Bernard developed a painting style that made use of flat areas of color and thick, black contours. Called cloisonnism by critic Édouard Dujardin, this style was inspired by both stained glass and Japanese ukiyo-e. An example of this can be seen in Avenue de Clichy: Five O'Clock in the Evening, by Dr. Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov as the source of inspiration for Van Gogh's famous Cafe Terrace at Night.
He eventually fell out of the public eye after abandoning the modern movements and instead opting for the methods of the old masters. For example, Anquetin's works after the mid-1890s, such as Rinaldo and Armida, were mainly Rubensian and allegorical in nature. In 1907 he met Jacques Maroger, a young artist who shared his interest, with whom he collaborated.
Later in life, Anquetin wrote a book about Rubens, which was published in 1924. He died in Paris.
