Pierre-Eugène Clairin
1897-1980

Pierre-Eugène Clairin was born on March 14, 1897 in Cambrai, France. His father was French and his mother was American. He attended a Catholic college in Windsor, England. After returning to France he continued his religious education and received a bachelors degree.

He studied under Ferand Cormon at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1913. In 1915 he volunteered for service in World War I, became a pilot and was seriously wounded.

During World War I, Clairin befriended the painter Fernand Morin and on his demobilisation in 1919 he went to work at the Académie Ranson alongside Paul Sérusier. When Sérusier moved to Pont-Aven, Clairin joined him, meeting Jean-Edouard Vuillard and Maurice Denis. He remained in Pont-Aven for 10 years and, in consequence, his work was marked by the influence of the Nabis and the Pont-Aven School.

Beginning in 1920 Clairin exhibited in Paris at the Salon des Artistes Indépendants, Salon d’Automne (of which he was a member) and the Salon des Tuileries. In 1921 he had his first solo exhibition at Galerie Berthe Weill in Paris. In 1929 he lived and taught in Algeria and return to Paris in the early 1930s.

In 2003, examples of his work featured at the L’Ecole d’Alger exhibition held at the Bordeaux Musée des Beaux-Arts.

Pierre Eugène Clairin died July 7, 1980 in Thorigné-en-Charcy.

Museums that have collected his work include the Baltimore-Cambrai, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Philippeville, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Quimper and Saint-Étienne.