Fernand Lantoine (1876-1949)

This French born artist settled himself in Brussels in 1903. He practiced a pointillist technique, which he later abandoned after 1919. He painted, nudes, interiors and landscapes. Shortly before 1927 he made a trip to Belgian Congo, He also painted in the South of France, Venice and the Belgian coast.  Together with Floris Jespers, Fernand Allard l’Olivier, Clément Serneels, and Auguste Mambour he is considered as one of the best Africanist painters.

He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, where he met Paul Signac, whose pointillism marked his early work. When in Belgium, he joins the avant-garde group ‘le Sillon’. He exhibited in 1903 with the Brussels avant-garde Salon de la Libre Esthétique and, in 1903, at the Salon triennial des Beaux-Arts. From 1907, he also exhibited in Paris, at the Salon des Indépendants. Travels to the Côte d’Azur and the Balearic Islands opened his eyes to the light of the Mediterranean, and led him to adopt a pointillist style, which he later modified with an increase of structure.
His painting reoriented itself to a more clearly and colourful interpretation of reality, with fragmented touches. An evolution at the verge of the First World War, which the critics qualified as both pointillist and luminist

From 1922, Lantoine sailed with the French fleet, as a ‘peintre de la Marine’, during their missions in the Mediterranean and to North Africa he discovered the Belgian Congo, where he found himself in the company of Belgian artistes like Auguste Mambour, Pierre de Vaucleroy et Fernand Allard l’Olivier. His paintings acquired a striking simplicity far from the mannerism of his colleagues. The success of these paintings – exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1927 – led to his receipt of a commission from the Compagnie Maritime Belge to decorate the ships, Léopoldville and Albertville. He was made a chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur et de l’Ordre belge de la Couronne.

In 1934, Lantoine turned his attention to the north, participating in an exploration of the Arctic and painting the fjords in Norway. The results were exhibited at the Salon in the following year. However, he remained drawn to the south and, in 1936, won the Prix de l’Afrique Occidentale Française. His painting tours were halted during the Second World War, when he lived in Nice, but afterwards resumed, and he explored French West Africa, Somalia, Madagascar and Oceania. Lantoine died in Maretz, his native village, in 1955.