Lucie Cousturier. An artist among the Neo-Impressionists

Many exhibitions have featured her in recent years — a secondary figure in major Neo-Impressionist monographs or in surveys of female artists around the turn of the 20th century — from Félix Fénéon at the Musée du Quai Branly (see the article) and Signac collectionneur at Orsay (see the article), to the Pionnières at the Musée du Luxembourg (see the article) and Artistes voyageuses in Evian and Pont-Aven. Yet Lucie Cousturier remains largely unknown, and the exhibition devoted to her by the Musée de l’Annonciade, marking the centenary of her death — seven years after the artist’s first monographic show at the Musée de Vernon — sensibly furthers her rediscovery. Art historian and specialist of the artist, Adèle de Lanfranchi — author of the definitive 2008 monograph and currently compiling the catalogue raisonné — is once again in charge of the scientific curatorship, this time alongside Séverine Berger, director of the Saint-Tropez museum.

The exhibition, let us say it outright, does not unveil anything that was not already known. A Neo-Impressionist painter whose talent was universally recognised during her lifetime, pupil and later close friend of Paul Signac and the main Divisionists, Lucie Cousturier was also an art critic — author of reference biographies on Seurat, Signac, Cross, Ker Xavier Roussel, Bonnard and Maurice Denis —, a collector — fortunate owner of Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, a wedding gift from her father — and an essayist with anarchist and anti-colonial convictions. Alongside some sixty paintings and works on paper by the artist — most of them on private loan —, the exhibition also presents a small group of works by her friends Théo Van Rysselberghe, Maximilien Luce, Henri-Edmond Cross and Paul Signac, mainly drawn from the permanent collection of the Annonciade. This museum also holds, as part of its historical core collection built through bequests, two works by Lucie Cousturier: a still life (ill. 1) and a large watercolour portrait (ill. 2). It is worth noting here that, until now forced to store away part of its permanent display during temporary exhibitions, the museum is about to close for two years for expansion and modernisation works. An additional 1,000 square metres are planned — gained from the garden and through annexation of a neighbouring warehouse — for a total cost of €9.27 million.

While many of the works on display were already shown at Vernon, several previously unseen pieces punctuate the exhibition, which is structured into five thematic sections reflecting the artist’s favourite subjects: portraits, Parisian views, Mediterranean landscapes, still lifes and her African corpus. Such is the case for a large number of views of the Bois de Boulogne — passionately explored between 1900 and 1906 — from private collections, as well as for rarer Provençal landscapes, such as the beautiful Pine by the Sea, exhibited at the 1912 Salon des Indépendants (ill. 3), rediscovered on the Paris art market in 2023 and offered for sale by Millon. The subject — clearly identified — is the only tree on the tip of the Fossette beach in Le Lavandou, a motif later taken up by Théo Van Rysselberghe in several versions between 1916 and 1919. Also resurfacing at Millon in 2024 was Composition in the Studio (ill. 4), shown in the next section. Listed in the 2008 monograph, and chosen for both the poster and the catalogue cover, the large Portrait of a Woman in Pink and Blue (ill. 5), from the Marseille museum Regards de Provence, is presented for the first time alongside its preparatory oil study (ill. 6), another fine private loan. These are shown with one of the few other public loans in the exhibition: Woman Crocheting from the Musée d’Orsay.

A broadly chronological thread emerges, from the small pencil studies made at Signac’s studio in late 1897–early 1898 to the watercolours that dominated the final years of the artist’s short life — including portraits of Senegalese riflemen from the First World War and views of West Africa painted during her 1921 mission for the Ministry of the Colonies. But since the works are rarely dated and their technique varies — from meticulously pointillist touches to broader applications — a linear approach remains difficult.

As already demonstrated by the exhibition Signac collectionneur, with the Still Life with Fruit and the Bouquet dedicated to Berthe Signac, the genre of still life — most often tackled on a large scale — shows the full extent of the artist’s talent. In addition to these two examples, we may also highlight the Still Life with Tomatoes and Cabbages formerly owned by Anna Boch, Roses and Gaillardias, which includes A Sunday on La Grande Jatte in the background, and the splendid Apples and Flowers (ill. 7). But perhaps it is the graphic corpus that will remain most vividly in memory: the African watercolours shown at the Musée du Quai Branly in 2019, especially the smaller, masterful studies — such as the youthful self-portraits in pencil (ill. 8), the ink wash of the Bois de Boulogne (ill. 9), the oil on paper of the Nude in motion (ill. 10) or the watercolour of the Pines by the Mediterranean (ill. 11), with a strong Japanese influence. All these works are poorly served by the reproductions in the catalogue, which one wishes had included more detailed entries.

The Mediterranean motif, which benefits from a dedicated essay in the catalogue by Adèle de Lanfranchi, represents only a minor part of the exhibition, as it does of the artist’s work. A little under a third of the thirty or so listed Provençal landscapes are presented here. There is no doubt that Saint-Tropez and the Côte d’Azur appealed to Lucie Cousturier following Signac’s example. She stayed on several occasions in his famous villa-studio — La Hune — before acquiring a second home in Fréjus — Les Parasols. Yet the region seems to have had little influence on her palette, unlike that of many of her Neo-Impressionist peers. Nevertheless, it remained a consistent subject, and every single participation in the Salon of the Société des Artistes Indépendants between 1901 and 1920 included a Provençal view. Probably painted from La Hune, the small canvas on cardboard of Saint-Tropez (ill. 12), in a private collection, is paired here with Signac’s Sunset in the Pine Wood, from the Musée de l’Annonciade. Both depict the same view from the citadel overlooking the village.

Curators: Adèle de Lanfranchi, Séverine Berger.

Collective, Lucie Cousturier. Une artiste chez les néo-impressionnistes, Coédition Gourcuff Gradenigo/Musée de l’Annonciade, 2025, 144 p., €24. ISBN: 9782353404193.

Practical information: Musée de l’Annonciade, 2 place Grammont 83990 Saint-Tropez. Tel. 04 94 17 84 10. July to September: open Monday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., late opening Mondays until 9 p.m. October: open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. November: open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission: €6 (concession €3.5).