Joseph Coront 1859-1934

Joseph Coront Ducluzeau was born in Vanosc, in the hamlet of Le Cluzeau, where his family had been established since at least the 14th century. He was the fifth and penultimate child of Jean-Louis Coront and Anne-Lucie Ducluzeau. He was also the great-grandson of Pierre-François Ducluzeau, who played a certain political role at the start of the Revolution of 1789, first as the first mayor of Vanosc and later as vice-president of the departmental directory of Ardèche, alongside the Marquis de la Tourette.

The young Joseph received his early education from his mother, to whom he was deeply attached, before attending the communal school in Vanosc and then the college in Annonay, where Father Tony Monchovet encouraged him to cultivate his talent for the fine arts.

In 1879, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, studying under MM. Faure and Danguin. In 1882, at the Grand Competition of the Lyon School, he won the first prize in Figure Painting and the first mention in Studies after the Antique. Notably, the other laureates that year, at the ceremony presided over by Édouard Aynard on August 10, included François Guiguet (Prix de Paris) for painting and Tony Garnier for architecture.

Encouraged by his early successes, the young laureate from Vanosc moved to Paris to attend the École Nationale et Spéciale des Beaux-Arts, joining Alexandre Cabanel’s painting studio. Until 1921, he divided his time between Vanosc and the capital, spending three to four months each year in a Paris studio to maintain contact with the art world and the great national museums.

At the Louvre and Versailles, Joseph Coront studied diligently the masters of the Grand Siècle - Nicolas de Largillierre, François Boucher, Marc Nattier, Antoine Watteau - executing remarkable copies for the interior decoration of the Château de la Rivoire in Vanosc. He also frequently visited the Musée de Cluny, where he painted, after the tapestries La Dame à la licorne and La Légende de Saint Étienne, a series of watercolors that he used to reproduce life-size models on canvas for the decoration of his brother-in-law Victor Rey’s townhouse in Saint-Étienne. This painstaking work was largely done at Le Cluzeau. The tapestries depicting the life of Saint Étienne, in which the artist included local figures (the town’s priest Vaucance, abbés from Vanosc), were displayed in the choir of the Vanosc church at Christmas 1889. They were later moved, along with La Dame à la licorne, to the first floor of the Château de la Rivoire.

ARTISTIC CIRCLE AND CRITICAL RECEPTION

In Paris, Joseph Coront reunited with colleagues from the Lyon school, including François Guiguet, Joseph Brunier, and Louis Eymonnet. He also befriended painters such as Eugène Loup, Jean Denisse, and Alexandre Séon. His closest and most devoted friend, however, was Alphonse Germain, an artist and man of letters, who maintained a regular correspondence with Coront for over thirty years and contributed to his recognition.

In September 1897, in Jacques des Gachons’ journal L’Ermitage, Germain published a lengthy study of Coront, praising his provincial loyalty despite the centralizing pull of Paris. Germain wrote:

"The Paris school is a vast crucible where all elements sent from the provinces are melted together, producing results that are often lamentably uniform. Who could recognize, from competition drawings, the origins of the students trained here? Our provinces, once rich in artists, are now deserted by the most talented of their children. Anyone with success or money dreams of settling in Paris… It is no longer France that has an art, it is Paris, and unfortunately, snobbery reigns! We must therefore give thanks to artists who, despite prevailing prejudices, have the courage to remain faithful to their provinces. Such was Monticelli in Marseille, Ravier in Morestel; in Saint-Étienne, painter Faure; in Valence, painters Paul Audra, Louis Ollier, Louis Ageron; in Vanosc, painter Coront."

Germain further observed:

"Although Joseph Coront’s palette is almost sober, his vision and style have many affinities with the sumptuous Ravier. Like him, he seeks harmony in coloration and light through rigorous observation of tonal values; like him, he draws his smallest motifs, interpreting them through construction. One can hope he will be the chronicler of Ardèche, as Ravier was for Isère. May Ravier’s work, delight of rare connoisseurs, finally be revealed in Paris, and may the landscapes of the painter of Vanosc also be shown, which excessive modesty has until now prevented from reaching the public."

Thanks to Germain’s efforts, Coront established connections with literary circles, including the symbolist poet Jean Moréas. In February 1901, L’Hémicycle published a stanza by Moréas illustrated with a woman’s head by Coront. In 1902, the magazine’s director, Pierre de Querlon (pen name Pierre des Gachons), praised Coront and Louis Eymonnet, noting their mastery of drawing and detail while maintaining decorative harmony.

Parisian collector Charles Saunier, in correspondence with Germain, also praised Coront’s work:

"I visited Eymonnet the other day. I had the pleasure of meeting Joseph Coront. I was very interested in the works of both. Eymonnet truly seeks something beyond the ordinary without striving for singularity. As for Coront, some works I find absolutely perfect. What a fine decorator and what a sense of nature!"

Notable patrons also included Émile Mâle, member of the Académie Française, who commissioned Coront to paint a portrait of his wife.

EXHIBITIONS AND RECOGNITION

In 1903, the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts held its 13th salon at the Grand Palais (April 16–June 30), where Joseph Coront exhibited pastel portraits. Earlier provincial exhibitions included Nîmes, where he won a medal in 1894, and Saint-Étienne; he also showed at Lyon’s Galerie Lardanchet. In 1911, Alphonse Germain devoted a prominent section to Coront in his book Les Artistes Lyonnais, praising his decorative sense, mastery of portraiture, and sensitive interpretation of physiognomies, from family members to notable artists like Guiguet and Eymonnet.

JOSEPH CORONT : VIVARAIS LANDSCAPES

Deeply attached to his native Ardèche, Coront drew inspiration from the surroundings of Le Cluzeau for his landscape work. Germain wrote:

"His landscapes impress, both by what they reveal and by what they specify. Most are enveloped in serene atmospheres, often with a gentle, melancholic charm, conveying the golden symphonies, faded splendors, and twilight elegies of autumn, his favorite season… He produced a delightful series of views of the Vanosc region. The grandeur of these mountains remains human-scaled… Coront faithfully renders their majesty, power without harshness, and austere grace. Sensitive to nuances and sentiment, he ranks among the poetic painters who capture the tremor and contemplation of foliage, the joys and languors of skies. In his mountain sunsets, morning and evening mists, and woodland light effects, the eye retains more than a vision; the mind retains a verse."

PAROISSIALE DE VANOSC (PARISH CHURCH) DECORATION

Coront restored paintings from the old church, including The Annunciation (17th c.), Pentecost, and Saint John the Evangelist (18th c.). He painted the Assumption to complement The Annunciation in the choir. After WWI, he executed an ex-voto of the Virgin and Child, depicting Vanosc’s bell tower, the parish priest Breux, and generous donors. In 1924, at age 65, he undertook two daring projects: repainting the tympanum bas-relief, originally molded in 1896 after a Botticelli Virgin, and decorating the large pillars of the nave’s rear using tempera in the quattrocento style. A Parisian critic noted the originality of these egg-tempera works, praising their freshness, transparency, and richness.

FINAL YEARS AT LE CLUZEAU

"Old and somewhat melancholic, with almost no contemporaries remaining," Coront spent his final years at Le Cluzeau, passing away at age 75 in his room, overlooking the Vivarais countryside he loved.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

• Musée d’Annonay: Bord de rivière, Cour de ferme au soleil couchant, Portrait d’Antoine Grimaud, maire

• Hôtel de Ville d’Annonay: Vieux charmes sous la neige (drawing), Le Soir

• Mairie de Vanosc: gallery of portraits of former mayors

• Presbytery of Vanosc: portraits of past priests

• Musée de Besançon

• Musée de Nantes: Paysage and Tête de femme

• Musée Rolin, Autun: La Liseuse

• Musée de Dijon

• Musée de Nîmes: Portrait du sculpteur aveugle Louis Vidal

• Musée de Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse
  
  

EXHIBITIONS

• Organized by Amis d’Annonay, autumn 1920, under Marcel Béchetoille

• Retrospective at Hôtel de Ville d’Annonay, February 4–18, 1937, under César Filhol

• Retrospective at Galerie Valgelas d’Annonay, November 1981, by Amis du Fonds Vivarois