Amand Désiré GAUTIER (Lille, June 19th 1825 – January 29th 1894, Paris).

Painter and lithographer, he was nicknamed the « painter of nuns ». In Auvers-sur-Oise, he painted Doctor Gachet, of whom he was a friend. Monet considered him as his master. Courbet, another great friend, painted his portrait. There are several letters written by Gautier from Écouen to Jules Troubat, the secretary of Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869). In one of them, in 1880, he wrote: « I have been living a bit like a wolf in Ecouen for the past year ».
Between September 1879 and 1880, he returned to Écouen, where he had painted two canvases sold at Drouot on March 2, 1872: « Interior of a Farm in Écouen » and « a House in Écouen ».

In a difficult family situation, ruined and in debt, he lived in a hotel on rue d’Ézanville. It was also at this time that he began to work in ceramics, for which he had a sponsor in Écouen, Philippe Burty, father-in-law of the famous Haviland. Perhaps he made his first attempts at the Manufacture de Sèvres, whose director was his friend Champfleury (1821-1889).
Moreover, we owe him the frescoes of children painted at the Fournaise house, where Renoir painted « The Boaters’ Lunch ».

Amand Gautier by Courbet
 St Vincent of Paul nun
Three nuns

For further information, please read the book “L’Ecole d’Ecouen, une colonie de peintres au XIXe siècle” (bilingual French-English).

Dr Gachet at ambulances
Preparing work for the painting "The skate"
Meditating nun