Lucien Ott 1870-1927

Lucien Ott was born in Paris in 1872 into a family of Alsatian artisans who had relocated to the capital after their region was annexed by Prussia. Encouraged by his father, a shoemaker, he showed early talent for drawing and enrolled at the Germain Pilon School, then at the Bernard Palissy School, where he trained as a decorator. He developed an early fascination with Brittany, visiting Pont-Aven for the first time in 1889, at a time when Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard were renewing modern art there.

After completing his military service in 1892, Ott was employed by the Krieger Manufacture as a furniture designer. He eventually became head of the workshop, where he met the engraver Loys Delteil, who offered guidance and gradually became a friend. Aspiring to dedicate himself fully to painting, Ott returned to Brittany, staying in Loguivy-de-la-Mer between 1898 and 1901. There, he met Henri Rivière, with whom he shared a passion for landscape and an appreciation for the synthesis of Japanese prints.

Back in Paris, Ott exhibited from 1901 at the Salon des Indépendants and, from 1903, at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. His paintings, pastels, and watercolors met with some success by combining typically Parisian landscapes with “Breton” motifs that were then fashionable. He also painted still lifes and portraits, gradually adopting a darker palette and a more synthetic brushwork reminiscent of Bonnard and Vuillard, whose influence he openly acknowledged.

Mobilized in August 1914 at the age of 42, Ott was initially assigned to guard duties at Essonnes before joining the 79th Infantry Regiment on the Belgian front in 1916. Throughout, he filled his sketchbooks with on-the-spot drawings of ruined landscapes and soldiers in shelters under bombardment. Recalled to Paris in 1917, he contributed his painting skills to the camouflage atelier at the Buttes-Chaumont. After the war, deeply marked by the conflict, he increasingly focused on his work as a decorator, creating modern furniture for the Paul Malhou workshops.

Dated 1898, this oil on canvas corresponds precisely to Ott’s stay in Brittany and offers a vivid pictorial record of his early artistic ambitions. Using a vertical composition directly inspired by Hiroshige’s prints, he carefully depicts a wooded landscape, likely observed between Loguivy and Paimpol before being reworked in his studio. Drawing on lessons from Impressionism, he employs broad strokes of bright color, a fragmented touch, and particular attention to light effects. The earthy ground, partially covered with moss, is punctuated by rays of sunlight filtering through the branches, while the stone wall and haystacks in the background are bathed more fully in light. The prominently rendered tree trunks serve both as compositional elements and as a study of different wood species, reflecting Ott’s early training as a designer.