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Born in Floirac, in the Gironde, and long based in Bordeaux, Charles Lacoste remained profoundly attached to his native region throughout his career. Largely self-taught, he developed his artistic language working primarily en plein air before reworking his compositions in the studio. In the 1890s, he moved within Parisian and provincial intellectual circles and formed lasting friendships with figures such as Arthur Fontaine and the Rouart brothers. A monographic exhibition at the Salon des Cent in 1898 marked a decisive moment in his career, followed by regular participation in the Salon des Indépendants and, starting in 1903, in the Salon d’Automne, which he co-founded. He later exhibited at the Salon de la Libre Esthétique in Brussels (1907) and at the Salon de la Toison d’Or in Moscow (1908).
The 1890s represent the most accomplished and innovative phase of Lacoste’s career. During this decade, his work shows clear affinities with the aesthetic principles of the Nabis, particularly in its synthetic approach to composition, its emphasis on flat areas of colour, and its reduction of forms to their essential structures. Like Félix Vallotton, Lacoste privileged a geometric organisation of space and a restrained, deliberate handling of pictorial means that emphasise order, balance, and clarity. His paintings seem to seek simplicity and purity to convey a vision governed by measure and restraint. After 1898, his style gradually evolved toward a more descriptive and atmospheric mode of expression.
Executed around 1895, our oil on paper dates from Lacoste’s most accomplished artistic period. It depicts a Street in Orthez, where he stayed while visiting his close friend, the poet Francis Jammes, who had settled there with his family in 1888. Executed during the artist’s most successful years, the work exemplifies his synthetic approach to landscape and urban views. Lacoste constructs the composition through simplified geometric forms and flat planes of colour, using a restricted palette of blue, brown, and slate-grey tones. These warm, opaque nuances, combined with the absence of anecdotal detail, bestow upon our work the calm, contemplative stillness that characterises his finest works.
Our Street in Orthez belonged to André Barbier, a painter and longtime associate of Lacoste. Barbier was part of the same artistic milieu and shared his interest in synthesis and structural clarity. Their friendship formed within a circle of artists and writers that engaged in redefining pictorial language at the turn of the century.