Alfred Latour

Who was Alfred Latour?

Alfred Latour was a French painter and engraver who also worked extensively as a graphic designer and as an advertiser. He was notoriously against the opposition between so-called major and minor arts; he was a man of many talents, passionate about all the expressive possibilities of visual arts, crafts, and modes of expression.

His vast and multifarious work includes hundreds of oils, watercolours, drawings, illustrated books, advertisement posters, vignettes and printed fabrics, some of which are still produced by the Abbaye de Fontenay. All his works express both his sense of freedom and his rigorous seriousness. His Fauve palette is combined with essential lightness and simplicity of form. His works can be seen in museums in France, in Great Britain, and in National Library of the Netherlands. They are also part of many private art collections around the world.

Latour was always highly independent and reserved, and had no inclination to draw attention on himself. As a result, he became a recognized painter and a successful graphic designer, but he never acquired the public recognition his work should have bestowed on him.