Notable Toulousains

There are several renowned people associated with Toulouse. If you live here for some time, chances are that you'll find out on your own about 2 of them: Paul Sabatier and Pierre de Fermat, as 1 of the main faculties of the city and one of the most important Lycees (High Schools) are named after them. Another one, Jean Jaures, was also an affiliate of the city, but his presence extends over the whole country (and the Sud in particular): streets, sculptures and all sort of references. I'd never heard of him before coming here, but he seems like a really interesting man, a social-democrat (way before Social Democracy had turned into the bad joke it's now) with profound anti-militarist feelings that caused him his death in the aftermath of the WWI that so much he tried to avoid (by the way, the story of how his assassin found death in hands of Spanish Republicans is really interesting, sometimes Justice just happens).

If you ever pay a visit to the interior of Le Capitole or to the Musee des Augustins, and I would urge to do so, as both are very pleasant visits (and free each Sunday for the former and each first Sunday of the month for the latter), 2 painters will become quite well known to you: Henri Martin, and Paul Gervais. Bearing in mind that Gervais lacks of an English entry in Wikipedia, and that the one for Henri Martin is very basic (the French one is much more complete), it seems like they didn't gain much international recognition, but I find them both pretty interesting.

As for Henri Martin and his neo-impressionism, while I really like the room bearing his name in le Capitole, with different images of the Garonne (with Jean Jaures in one of them) and the year seasons (I particularly like the Autumn and Winter ones), the work that really caught my attention since the first moment is Beauté, displayed in Musee des Augustins, a really outstanding representation of female beauty.

For Paul Gervais, I mainly know his works in Le Capitole, both in his eponymous room an in La Salle des Ilustres. I've also admired his work in the Palais Consulaire (last week, during the "Journees du Patrimoine" there was free access to many buildings usually closed to the public), and I know he has some paintings in "les Augustines", but I've overlooked them in previous visits, so I have some homework for the next one. All his works known to me revolve around the same noble goal, the careful and delicate portrait of female nudity.

This is done in a very interesting way, a nude beauty that aims to be enjoyed and admired, and it achieves this by doing such contemplation a part of the scene. In all these works, these nude women are not alone, but accompanied by dressed men turned into permanent worshipers of these goddesses. In this sense, "la bain de la Padilla" is probably his most shocking work:

If this man had lived in our times, he well could have become a painter of strippers :-D