Edmond-Édouard Lapeyre

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Edmond-Édouard Lapeyre (17 November 1880 – 4 February 1960) was a French painter and illustrator. He was born in Reims and later moved to Paris to study art.

He joined Fernand Cormon’s studio to learn painting. When Cormon moved to the École des Beaux-Arts, Lapeyre kept studying with Paul-Émile Boutigny and Albert-François Larteau. He lived in the Montmartre area before 1907. At the Salon des Artistes Français, he showed a wide range of works, from Belle Époque scenes to history paintings. His pieces included Avant le bal, and in 1912 Les femmes de Sparte à Aeglia. He also painted portraits and scenes of Parisian high society, such as Portrait d’Anna de Noailles aux courses.

Lapeyre also painted landscapes. He sent En patrouille in 1909 and La rentrée des gerbes in 1914 to the Salon. His landscapes have a sunny, social realism and a warmth that some compare with the Italian Macchiaioli, rather than the bleaker Naturalism of some contemporaries.

He traveled a lot for his art, visiting the Ardennes, Biarritz, Auvergne, and especially Saint-Georges-de-Didonne on the coast, where he first painted beach scenes in 1909. From 1921 to 1935 he often painted at Royan and Vallières, capturing beaches, boats, and fashionable women posed by milliners for posters in a bold graphic style. His portraits of elegant women recall John Singer Sargent and Joaquín Sorolla, and his work reflects a society of leisure on the beaches of France.

In the 1920s–1930s, Lapeyre continued to travel and paint, spending time in Péréyrol, La Bourboule, Argentan, Orne, the Nièvre, and Vic-sur-Cère in Cantal. He painted there with his wife, Madeleine Charlot, and produced views like Vue depuis notre chambre, showing a peaceful glimpse of countryside life at the end of his career.

Edmond-Édouard Lapeyre died in Paris on 4 February 1960.