Maurice Esmein exhibition, Paris – ‘a painter at the source of cubism’

Cubist Maurice Esmein’s works are exhibited in the Town Hall of the 6^th arrondissement of Paris from 8 December 2022 to 7 January 2023 with the support of the Committee for Festivals, Cultural and Social Action.

Maurice Esmein (1888-1918) was born in the 16th arrondissement of Paris and studied medicine. Inspired by his uncle, Julien Le Blant (1851-1936), who was a military painter, Maurice turned to painting. Hungarian artist Alfred Reth (1884-1966), who lived in Paris, introduced Maurice to the avant-garde art movement of cubism (between 1910-1917).

He commenced painting in 1913 at the age of 25, but at the start of the First World War (1914-1918) Maurice was assigned as an auxiliary doctor at the Chaptal High School Hospital in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.

In 1917, he volunteered to go the war front as a doctor. Talking to Maurice’s relative at the exhibition, the family was unsure why he volunteered to go to the front because he was not conscripted into the armed forces, and it was three years into the war.

He was assigned to a patrol station near Reims in the east of France. One night, there was a lack of volunteers for a reconnaissance mission, so his patrol volunteered. The patrol’s position was caught in the enemy’s searchlight and attacked. Maurice Esmein was killed on 4 February 1918 at Vaudesincourt. It was his 30th birthday.

Maurice Esmein left about 40 paintings, drawings, watercolours, and engravings, most of which are in private collections. The exhibition shows Esmein’s portraits and landscapes and their importance in the realm of cubist artists of the period.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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