"Georges Gaste In India" a photo exhibition at Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Francaise De Delhi, 72, Lodhi Estate > 11th to 23rd December 2014

Time : 
11th December : 7:00 pm Add to Calendar 11-12-2014 19:00:00 11-12-2014 20:30:00 68 "Georges Gaste In India" a photo exhibition Event Page : http://goo.gl/jnXZYH Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Francaise De Delhi, 72, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi - 110003 DD/MM/YYYY - Opening 
12th to 23rd December : 11:00 am - 7:00 pm Add to Calendar 12-12-2014 11:00:00 23-12-2014 19:00:00 68 "Georges Gaste In India" a photo exhibition Event Page : http://goo.gl/jnXZYH Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Francaise De Delhi, 72, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi - 110003 DD/MM/YYYY - Exhibition on View

Entry : Free

Venue : Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Francaise De Delhi, 72, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi - 110003
Landmark : Next to Annexe building of India International Centre
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Stations - 'Khan Market(Violet Line)' & 'Jor Bagh(Yellow Line)'
Area : Lodhi Road Area Events

Event Description : "Georges Gaste In India" a photo exhibition

Born in Paris on the 30th August 1869, Constant Georges Gasté was the son, grandson, and nephew of a painting trading family from Chablis. Fatherless at two years old and an only child, he had a lonely childhood. He took “Atelier Colarossi” classes and just after his 18th birthday went to the “Ecole des Beaux Arts” at the Alexandre Cabanel Studio.

During a trip to Morocco, Algeria and Palestine in 1892, he learnt about the southern light. 
It was a revelation for him and he decided to become an Orientalist. In 1893, he got noticed 
by the painter Etienne Dinet who welcomed him to Bou-Saâda, Algeria. Gasté went on 
many trips to the oasis at the desert’s gates while travelling across North Africa. From 1893 to 1898, he regularly sent his paintings to the French Artists’ Salon in Paris and received quite a few rewards. From 1898, he settled for 4 years in Cairo where he painted endlessly. Using both canvas and film (Gasté was also a brilliant photographer), he captured the daily life of the country full of dust and sand. From then on, he would only go back a few times to France.

In 1903, after travelling through Spain and again through Morocco, he started dreaming of 
far-away countries. In 1905, it was “the mystical land of the Indies”, settling first in Agra on 
the riverside along the Taj Mahal. He was seduced by the Muslim India, which inspired his 
paintings full of humanity. In 1906, numerous works of art, both landscape and portraits, 
were displayed in the Orientalist Exhibition and people started to pay attention to the artist. In 1908, after travelling to Venice and Constantinople, the artist returned this time to south India to Madurai, capital of the Tamil land and a major place of Hinduism, where he trained several students at his workshop. From then on, his palette was enlivened by warm shades and enamelled glow, which reminded of Gustave Moreau (Une Dewa-dassy, prêtres seet servante des dieux, Orsay Museum).The same year in Paris, it was the consecration of his notoriety at the Orientalist exhibition. Most of his paintings were purchased and many articles mentioned the sensitive atmosphere of his paintings and the pictorial quality of his portraits.

In 1909, he got permission (unusual for a European) to spend six months inside the great 
temple of Madurai to create several paintings: among them, Le Bain des brahmines, placed 
today at the Orsay Museum, critically-acclaimed at the Paris Salon in 1910.

Despite an ever-increasing notoriety, Gasté died alone in his Indian workshop on the 12th of September during that same year at 41 years.His emotional life mixed with a depressive nature, got the better of the one who used to claim: “we cannot thwart one’s own destiny, it is the only thing that drives us”. 

A retrospective of his work was organized at the Orientalist Painters Salon in 1911. Gasté 
was honoured as THE Indies Painter. In 1913 another retrospective was planned at the 
Grand Palais, showing in particular his Indian work.

After spending several years in Algeria and in Egypt, Constant-Georges Gasté (1869 – 
1910), a French Orientalist painter, moved to India for five years. They were five of the 
most productive years of his life, painting and taking pictures of the daily life of the local 
population. Poetic, mysterious and a travel enthusiast, his work tells about the real India in 
the early 1900’s, an East so far from mirages. He is unanimously celebrated as THE Indian 
Painter for each Orientalist exhibition at the Grand Palais.

Events in 2013 and 2014 focused on gaste artwork
To celebrate the centenary of Gasté retrospective at the “Grand Palais” in Paris in 1913, an 
exhibition for his pictorial and photographic work took place at the Montparnasse museum 
in Paris from the 21stMarch to the 31stMay 2013. Fifty paintings and eighty photos taken by 
the artist in Algeria and India between 1894 and 1910 were exhibited.

Another exhibition showing his Algerian artwork was organized at the Algerian cultural Centre, Paris, during June and July 2013. In 2014: a project of exhibition in Alger and 
BouSaâda.

Aude De Tocqueville
Georges Gasté, traquer le soleil dans l’ombre, foreword by Yasmina Khadra, Arthaud, 2013 is a book by Aude de Tocqueville, an expert on the architectural and artistic heritage of the 
different French regions.

Related Links : Exhibitions