This biography from the Archives of AskART:
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 MAURICE CHABAS (1862-1947)
Maurice Chabas and his brother, Paul Chabas trained in the studios of William Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) and Tony Robert-Fleury (1837-1911) at the Academie Julian.
He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais, the Salon National des Beaux-Arts and at the Salon de la Rose Croix.
Chabas was successful as a painter of historical subjects, as a portraitist, and he also created murals for the Mairie of the 14th Arrondissement in Paris, the Mairie of Vincennes, the Petit Palais and four large frescoes, The Art of Silk, for the Lyon-Perrache station in Lyon.
Influenced by the writings of Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Chabas searched for conscious awareness of the Ultimate Reality. In his art he sought a super sensory way of transcending mere descriptions of nature and found like minded company among the Symbolists.
His paintings, such as Return to Cythera (cca.1900), convey supernal peace and love through the discerning placement of female figure(s) and the elegant fecundity of the landscape.
Impelled by growing spiritual awareness, in the last two decades of his life he turned to the less codified ways of abstract painting.
He remained faithful to an exalted spiritualism that he revealed in a 1935 letter: "Humanity today needs a higher ideal. We can no longer live in the imbalance and disharmony that leads to destruction and death. It is Spirit that gives life to the material and imbues our works. "
Museums With Work by the Artist:
Museum of Fine Arts Nantes, France
Old Castle Museum of Laval/Mayenne, France
Museum of Fine Arts in Quimper/Cornwall, UK
Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Detroit Institute of Arts, US
Library of the University of Montreal, Canada
Submitted by Lui Antal Deak
Sources:
French Wikipedia, Art Experts, Inc.; and La Tribune de l'Art (online art news)
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