Edouard Marsal (1845-1929)

Edouard Marsal is established as a central character of Montpellier’s history. Throughout his existence, the painter never ceases to depict places, people, and anecdotes that punctuate the everyday life of the city. Far from limiting himself to the role of a simple spectator, Marsal is also actively participating to the functioning of its institutions. The artist’s numerous engagements, then feed his production with a remarkable immersive quality. This characteristic is enforced by the proximity that the painter is sustaining with the social background he comes from. By integrating to his art the lower social layers of Montpellier’s population, and offering them an access to his creations, Marsal proposes a holistic approach of his native city’s lifestyle.The painter’s pieces are then becoming unmatched sources concerning folklore and popular traditions, allowing them not to fall in oblivion. Trought this statement, is appearing a major axis of Marsal’s professional and personal engagements: the defence of local particularisms. In a context of intense centralisation and fascination towards ideas of progress and modernity, the aesthetic of Marsal, filled with traditionalistic impulses, brings a confrontation to light. Yet, the artist is succeeding to impose himself as a central character of the cultural regional life of his time. Our study is exploring the way with which he establishes an effective career’s strategy, allowing him to develop an aesthetic in line with the ideology he is defending. The present thesis is studying how, far from rejecting the tools of modernity, the painter knows how to use them to his advantage to extend his professional possibilities.Basing itself largely on the consultation of the local press, as well as the artist’s correspondences, the thesis is leading us to understand the then regional cultural network, and the differentiation of its expectations with the rest of the country. Eventually, it allows us to understand how, at its outcome, Marsal’s career is offering itself as a window on this Montpellier of the “Belle Epoque” that, came the consequences of world war I, adorns itself with some airs of a lost paradise.