Rene' Thomsen Biography
René Thomsen (1897 – 1976), French painter and printmaker of the School of Paris, born in Paris in 1897, died in Versailles in 1976. Son of a sculptor friend of Dr. Paul Gachet, patron of Vincent van Gogh. He was a student of Louis Anquetin and Fernand Cormon at the National School of Fine Arts. Mobilized during the First World War, he never stopped drawing and painting scenes of soldiers. A series of these drawings was part of the collection of the painter and sculptor Fernand Belmonte who donated it to the town hall of Méry-sur-Marne where it is kept today. Another theme that Thomsen addresses at the same time is that of the Daughters of Joy. In 1919, a period of great material insecurity, when he met Maurice Loutreuil, Manuel Ortiz de Zarate, Jules Pascin and Amedeo Modigliani, he discovered the Académie Colarossi with Chaïm Soutine and Isaac Dobrinsky. Member of the Salon d'Automne in 1921, he received the encouragement of Louis Vauxcelles, Élie Faure and Joachim Gasquet. François Fosca, in 1927, considered his painting "Le repos" to be the best work of the Salon des Indépendants. In 1931-1932, René Thomsen stayed at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid as a winner of the Velasquez Prize and a fellow of the city of Paris. Based in Paris, he crossed France from Cayeux-sur-Mer to Avignon, visiting Spain and Morocco.
