Claude-Emile Schuffenecker

Schuffenecker trained further in a series of Paris studios, including the Suisse, the Colarossi and that of Carolus-Duran, and for a short time took private lessons from the academic painter Paul Baudry (who dropped him without hesitation when he learned that his pupil was taking advice from the Impressionists). In 1882 Schuffenecker began teaching at an art school, but carried on painting undaunted: portraits, interiors, forests, Normandy coastal views and rural Breton scenes. In 1886 he exhibited with the Impressionists at their last joint show. If Schuffenecker’s style is hard to define, it is perhaps because throughout his career he continually absorbed new influences. Thanks to his keen eye and an inheritance from the early 1880s, he amassed one of the most spectacular art collections of his time. By the turn of the century the collection comprised 120 works, including canvases by Bernard, Cézanne, Delacroix, Gauguin, Redon and Van Gogh (an estimated 60 Van Gogh paintings passed through the hands of Emile and his brother Amédée). Unfortunately, the divorce of Louise and Emile Schuffenecker, pronounced in 1904, led to this remarkable collection being sold at low prices and dispersed, so Emile was forced to keep his modest teaching post until 1914.

From the page of Pink Tree