The Association

The non-profit Association « The School of Ecouen, a colony of painters in the nineteenth century » whose headquarters are located at the Town Hall of Ecouen, Place de la Mairie, 95400 Ecouen, was created in January 2014.
This creation follows the publication of a book with the same title, written, after several years of research, by A. Bertrand, D. Baduel, and C. Dauchel.
The main objective of the Association is to continue the research on these forgotten artists and to make them known and recognized, locally, nationally and internationally, through conferences, press articles, exhibitions, etc.

 The first major achievement of the Association was the exhibition held in Ecouen from March 29 to April 23, 2017. It was a huge success since it attracted more than 1500 visitors. It was intended, thanks to the loan of valuable works from private collections, to reposition in the History of Art this school reputed to have been one of the centers of genre painting in the second half of the 19th century. At that time, it attracted a large number of French, American, English and Russian artists to Ecouen.

Other exhibitions took place in Gonesse, Domont (all in the Ecouen‘s neighborhood), the Fournaise Museum in Chatoux (Paris area), the Daubigny Museum in Auvers-sur-Oise, etc.

 The original book has been republished, in French and English, with important updates and additions. A second book, a biography of Pierre Édouard Frère has been published in 2021, a third one, a biography of Léonide Bourges, in 2022 and more to come.

The efforts of the members, passionate about the subject, aim at rediscovering the richness of these works, many of which are worthy of being in the most prestigious museums. Some of them are already there.

 We invite all art lovers to inform us of their own discoveries concerning the painters of Ecouen.
We also invite all those interested in the subject to join the Association.

 Christian Dauchel

President