Abel LAUVRAY : Child of the country and student of MONET

"It is precisely because I don't do everyone's job that my paintings don't look the same as everyone else's and have a certain originality and that's what it takes.

Abel LAUVRAY came from a rich family of Norman notaries. His family owned a house in Vétheuil, thirty meters from Monet's, and little Abel met Claude Monet for the first time when he was ten. He was destined for the family career as a notary until he was caught by the painting bug by becoming a student of MONET. During MONET's dark years in Vétheuil, Abel Lauvray's family was not indifferent to his plight, lending him money and commissioning him to paint the portraits of his children. Monet was always very grateful to the family of his friends.

MONET gave his boat-studio to LAUVRAY and the latter traveled the Seine painting tirelessly (more than 1500 paintings in 60 years of career). He never copied his master but had a style described as post-impressionist. He also inherited, through his wife, a sumptuous property in Mantes where he installed his studio. Unfortunately, this studio was bombed during the Second World War and Abel LAUVRAY lost a third of his works. Another hypothesis evokes the requisition of LAUVRAY's house by General Rohmel's staff and the burning of the studio and 500 paintings.

Abel Lauvray's father had an important contribution to Monet's work. Indeed, at the time when Monet wanted to acquire a piece of land next to his house in Giverny to create a pond (the now famous water lilies pond), the authorization was refused by the authorities. And it is thanks to the intervention of Mr. Lauvray with the prefect that this authorization could be given.

Abel Lauvray's fame is far from Claude Monet's, but his descendants can be proud to know that, without their ancestor, Monet's masterpieces of water lilies might never have been painted!

The Lauvray's house at the foot of the church of Vétheuil

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